A Closer Look at the Chief Learning Officer Responsibilities

When it comes to executive roles that occupy a chair in the boardroom of a company, probably, it is the Chief Learning Officer that perplexes the employees the most. Does there really have to be a teacher in the office, governing the literature for career betterment? In many cases, and one might add the term unfortunate to it, the chief learning officer doesn’t have a clear idea of their responsibilities.

To simplify this let us begin by defining what a CLO ideally does – they facilitate and implement organizational wide learning mechanisms, formulated on a bespoke basis. The learning management systems, that employees are given access to for detailed knowledge, is the by-product of the CLO thought process. But in recent times with changes in the workplace, the C-suite has come to redefine the role played by this designation.

It would be astonishing to note that the employee engagement scorecard has been at a pale 30 per cent since the year 2000. Many have pointed to the lack of purposeful work and capability realization for the employees. As people in the higher echelons of a company aim to retain power and look at profitability single-mindedly, disengagement is gaining ground.

In order to better understand and deal with the situation, the CEOs and the COOs are stepping in, to bolster the chief learning officer in thinking in terms of engagement. The people in charge have taken it upon themselves in enlightening the incumbent to accept the fact that an organization’s culture is also the responsibility of the CLO. Now, a sensible question could arise from the discussion, what sort of a purpose are we speaking of. Employee purposes could be of various kinds, such as those listed below:

Personal purpose– finding out and working on what motivates people individually. Gaining an insight into their past experiences, their aspirations and future goals.

Organizational purpose– these are the sets of ethics, principles and culture that underline the purpose of existence for the enterprise.

Role purpose– these are all about describing the responsibilities that come forth as part of the job role itself.

Out of the above, the employees are bound to project one of the following:

Purpose mindset– they will be highly engrossed in giving their 100% to ensure peer inputs thrive amongst each other.

Career mindset– they will set their sight on establishing themselves to be better than others to gain further influence/power within the company.

Job mindset– they will be no more than such professionals who approach their daily KRAs as drudgery and only want monthly compensation as a reward for their time.

When chief learning officer responsibilities start creating a match between the above metrics the company culture starts to reform. Employees begin to have a sense of ownership and managers themselves relish a fruitful experience governing their respective teams. If your company lacks a cohesive environment that is adverse, to internal learning then it is the job of a CLO and not the HR-units to set things right for you.