In a recent episode of The View From The Top, Renee Pisklak, a strategic workforce veteran with nearly three decades of experience at Accenture and Gainwell Technologies, sat down to demystify Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP).
The conversation moved beyond the buzzwords to address a critical reality: Business strategy often fails not because of a lack of vision, but because of a lack of people in the right place at the right time.
The "Four-Dimensional Chess" of Talent
Renee describes SWP as the ability for a business to anticipate workforce challenges before they become emergencies. It’s a game of "four-dimensional chess" that balances skill sets, geography, and cost.
During the discussion, Renee highlighted several key pillars of successful planning:
The Scenario Model: SWP isn't just a static plan; it’s about modeling scenarios 1 - 5 years out. If a company wants to move into a new market or launch a new product, SWP asks: Do we have the talent? If not, how do we build, buy, or move it?
The "Build vs. Buy" Dilemma: When expanding (for example, building a factory in Portugal), a leader faces a choice: hire locally from the external market or relocate internal talent. While local hiring might seem faster, relocating internal employees preserves institutional knowledge and culture, vital for long-term success.
The Cost of Silence: The most frustrating aspect of the job? When the "actions" don't follow the "plan." Without early collaboration between HR, Finance, and Mobility, strategic goals quickly devolve into expensive "fire drills."
The Missing Link: Why Mobility Must Be Proactive
A recurring theme in Renee’s insight was the need for Global Mobility to move up the food chain. Traditionally, Mobility is seen as the "delivery" arm, the team that physically gets the person to the seat.
However, Renee argues that Mobility leaders hold the keys to two critical data points that SWP needs: Speed and Risk."Mobility can give a lot of great strategic guidance on cultural challenges, timing, and visa barriers... but they have to be pulled into the conversation early."
At Benivo, we recognize that the "Excel and Whiteboard" era Renee mentioned is the biggest barrier to this strategic shift. We’ve redesigned relocation services to ensure that when your workforce plan calls for action, your mobility function is ready to lead.
Our Relocation Services deliver the strategic value Renee championed through:
Experienced, Consultant-Led Support: We provide Relocation Consultants with extensive mobility experience who focus on proactive issue management, policy advisory, and expectation setting. By using technology to handle 80 - 100% of the administrative "busy work," our experts are empowered to focus on the human side of relocation and complex family needs that automated systems alone cannot solve.
Single-Point Accountability and Global Reach: Benivo replaces fragmented vendor silos with a unified ecosystem, taking full responsibility for the move outcome to eliminate "finger-pointing". Our global supplier network covers over 100 countries, providing vetted providers for everything from household goods to destination services, all monitored in real-time to ensure vendor accountability.
Measurable Quality and Risk Mitigation: Our high-touch model is proven to reduce escalations by 90% through predictive visibility and real-time milestone tracking. This approach ensures superior service quality for critical talent, as demonstrated by our team supporting over 1,000 VIP and executive moves last year with zero consultant escalations and a 9.1/10 satisfaction score.
Strategic Workforce Planning is the "What" and the "Where," but Global Mobility is the "How." Understanding the intersection of these two functions is the key to elevating your role within the organization.