CLO – Chief Learning Officer - By: Sonu Parashar

CLO or Chief Learning Officer is a key employee in any good organization. He (or she) is the highest ranking official who guides an organization about talent management, trainings and learning management. The role of a CLO has become a critical with ever changing work environment. Today’s organizations are going through various kinds of talent challenges. Research in the field has shown that corporations are finding it difficult to manage a vast skill set and not able to manage technical, professional skill to manage their operations globally. With the dynamic nature of work force and constantly changing paradigms of work place, the role of a CLO is very important.

In the past, it was not easy to define the role of chief learning officer. But with the changing times, the role a CLO plays has become very important. According to a research, approximately 30% of large organizations have a post named CLO. However, the definition of what a CLO does is keep changing. A chief learning officer can be said as the business leader of corporate learning. In big corporate organizations like GE, WalMart, IBM, Caterpillar, EMC, Heidrick and Struggles Ingersoll-Rand, and many more, a chief learning officer is the topmost business executive who owns the corporations learning and development strategy, programs, and systems.

In 70 per cent of organizations, you won’t find any CLO. In these organizations, staff in the training department devises learning and leadership strategy for the organization. But in want of an effective and learned CLO, they find it hard to take the right direction. In these organizations, it is very critical to have a CLO.

Here are two key roles that a CLO plays:

A CLO is Business Manager of Learning:

A chief learning officer must understand the challenges an organization is facing. He should also be able to understand key business strategies. As a top manager for learning, A CLO should be able allocate resources and funds for key projects. He should also allocate budgets to outsource training, if the organization is not well equipped to handle the varied training needs.

A CLO is also the Chief Demographic Officer:

In many organizations attrition rate is quite high. Here, one of the important roles of CLO is to understand the demographics of the workforce. He should be able to figure out an optimal ratio of young and old; male and female; so that an organization can work in tandem like a well-oiled machine.

About the Author

The PennCLO provide Learning leadership masters program or Human Resources Management opportunity to develop their potential for leadership in public service.

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