Why today’s smart CEOs bring learning leaders to the table.
We all know the players in the traditional “C-suite”: CEO, CFO, CIO, CMO. But at today’s most evolved companies – those that recognize there is an impending wide gap in the human resource pipeline – there is a seat at the table for a “CLO,” or Chief Learning Officer – a valued, high-level employee who is able to recognize key performance gaps in the organization, trends in employment and succession, and whether or not your company is poised to compete in the coming years of this new century. Better yet, this is a person who knows how to do something about it.
Why is this important? Because if indeed “people are our greatest asset,” they individually, and as a collective line item on accounting spreadsheets, have to be valued and taken care of. They need to be trained, educated, and prepared to help the company meet its overarching strategic goals. They need to be part of the overall strategic equation of the organization. So gone are the days of traditional “training and development” programs. Today’s necessary emphasis must be on strategic corporate learning that is targeted, purposeful, and measurable. In order for this to happen, your learning officer must have a seat at the boardroom table.
Having a seat at the table is the only way for the CLO to get his or her head around mission critical areas that require the most human capital investment. This is the only way for this person to rally the support of all the other areas of the organization around learning, and to offer them support as well by providing them more capable, knowledgeable workers able to meet specific goals. The boardroom is where the learning officer will be able to report on measurement and the quantification of the return on investment (ROI) of learning so that the organization can wholly take advantage of the results and plan continued endeavors that impact the future of the organization.
Here are some examples of what a learning leader can do in your organization:
- Develop a “knowledge audit.” – This includes quantifying the knowledge demographics of the employee database. How many have degrees? Which degrees? What skills/knowledge/training does each employee have?
- Identify Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) – This includes surveying the critical areas of the organization to find out what – in human capital development – makes, or would make, the area most efficient, most productive, most profitable difference.
- Identify Gaps – This involves bouncing the KPIs against the knowledge and skill set data discovered in the audit, and identifying any “holes” in human capital on board.
- Developing Learning Programs – This involves working with internal and external subject matter experts (such as accredited universities) to bring to the employees the exact learning required to fill the KPI gaps.
- Measure and Quantify the Impact of Learning on your Organization – This involves putting measures into place to be able to report back to the C-suite, board of directors, investors, etc. how well your company’s investment in “training and development”/learning is performing.
If your company is on the leading edge of competing for the long haul in the 21st century, a Chief Learning Officer on board – and in the boardroom – is a must. CEOs who seek to recruit, retain and optimize human capital, need to consider reaching out to a Learning Leader as a partner who can guide the learning process and help create or maintain competitive advantage. Strategically planned learning initiatives are a must. Considering most company’s investment in learning today, it is wise to empower a strategic, C-level peer executive to steward that investment and imperative.