Peopleware
Webinar Series

Smooth Planning: In conversation with Ben Heslop

Three sessions. 20 years of real-world experience. Ben Heslop, Director of Resource Planning at ResQ and author of Smooth Planning: The Survival Guide for Workforce Planners, shares practical insights from his experience in workforce planning.

One registration. Three sessions. Choose the sessions you want to attend.

Register now

Live Sessions

14:00 - 15:00 London Time

Online
zaineb

Host

Zaineb

Ahmed

Ben Heslop Portrait

Guest

Ben

Heslop

maren

Guest

Marén

Römisch

thomas-5

Guest

Tom

De Luca

Webinars included in this series

Planning pitfalls: How to avoid the worst WFM mistakes

15th September, 2026

Ben Heslop has spent 20 years planning WFM operations across different industries, giving him a first-hand view of where planning goes wrong. In this session, he covers the recurring mistakes that even experienced planners can make and what to do instead.

Planning for outsourcers: BPO WFM best practices

15th October, 2026

Managing WFM across multiple client contracts is not the same problem as managing for one business. SLAs vary by client, contracts change scope mid-term, and multiple channels and sites add complexity to forecasting. Ben Heslop and Peopleware's Tom De Luca walk through how BPO planning teams handle this in practice and where standard WFM tools fall short.

Future-ready planning: Trends and skills for planners

10th November, 2026

This final session covers the trends that will shape planning in 2027. Ben Heslop and Marén Römisch discuss the pressure on leaders to prove that AI investments are paying off, and why skills-based and multi-skill scheduling will become essential as agent headcounts shrink.

 

What happens when you register

  • Submit the form once and choose the sessions you want to attend.

  • You'll receive a calendar invite for each selected session, so you can add them straight to your calendar.

  • We'll send you a reminder before each selected session.

  • We'll send you the recording after each selected event, even if you miss a session.

You will leave this series with a clear understanding of

  • The most common WFM planning mistakes: named, explained, and illustrated with real-world examples.
  • Scheduling and staffing principles you can apply immediately, whether you build the schedule or approve the budget behind it.
  • What separates planning that scales from planning that breaks under multiple clients, contracts, or locations.
  • The skills and technology decisions that will shape workforce planning in the future.

Our panelists

Ben Heslop Portrait
Ben Heslop

Ben Heslop is a resource planning leader with 20 years of experience in contact center planning and operations. Director of Resource Planning at ResQ and author of Smooth Planning: The Survival Guide for Workforce Planners. Throughout his career, he has helped organizations sharpen their planning strategy, align resources with demand, and strengthen operational delivery.

thomas-5
Tom De Luca

Tom De Luca works in customer success at Peopleware, supporting clients across sectors through the full lifecycle of workforce management. His focus areas include headcount planning, contact center operations, business transformation, and business process outsourcing (BPO).

maren
Marén Römisch

Marén brings the external research lens to the Future-ready planning session, drawing on industry studies, Peopleware's WFM benchmarks, and market data to frame where workforce planning is heading and what teams need to do to stay ahead.

zaineb
Zaineb Ahmed

Zaineb Ahmed is a marketing manager at Peopleware, where she focuses on content, campaigns, and helping the WFM community stay informed on what's shaping the WFM industry.