The CLO role is not new in the business sector. It has developed importance in the past many years and now is known for leading the direction of a company’s learning. Though the position of the Chief Learning Officer was mainly associated with the adoption and integration of Learning Management Systems in the past, with changing times, it is expected to expand across disparate verticals.
As per a report by Deloitte, CLOs must become a part of the complete employee experience, provide learning solutions which inspire employees to revamp themselves, offer mentoring in developing profound skills along with contributing to a comprehensive learning process. There is a multitude of factors renovating the role of the CLO.
- The future is near
It is an obvious fact that a learning strategy must reflect the goals of the business. In earlier days, learning was not considered to be multi-sided and majorly focused on particular technical skills and knowledge, although, that’s no longer the case. The Chief Learning Officer is required to comprehend how the agenda of learning fits into the organization and the industry. Moreover, they got to keep track of what the competitors are planning to align the learning process with not just today’s business landscape, but the future as well.
Chief Learning Officers do not own crystal ball, nonetheless, they need to anticipate future trends in order to ensure that their company has the competencies and capability to adapt swiftly when needed. Disruption is something that any business can face anytime in this volatile atmosphere and that being a huge threat for all companies, a CLO must ensure that their firm is geared up to withstand any storm which might come their way.
- Embracing Evolution
In the past, it took weeks to build learning programs and several months or even years to be rolled out. And, this approach doesn’t work anymore because what you learn at this date can change or get updated in the coming months which has dramatic implications over the learning agenda.
Learning programs have to be adaptive and agile enough to incorporate continuous changes. This gives rise to challenges for both, those who construct learning programs and the persons who are acquiring the knowledge. The information must be flexible to alterations and addition along with being convenient to digest.
- Older generations are going and new ones are coming in
By the year 2025, seventy percent of the United States workforce shall be millennials, however, currently they share the workplaces with Generation X and Baby Boomers. Handling a multi-generational workforce has made the CLO’s role more challenging. Every generation has dissimilar learning preferences, for instance, millennials connect through their mobile phones while baby boomers usually prefer one on one communication.
At a point where a CHRO has to build learning strategies, the needs and preferences of every generation are required to be taken into consideration. If the employees are not or less engaged, some may lag behind when it comes to their growth and development.