Chief Learning Officers Link Training and Business Goals.

This post comes from Workforce Magazine. Earlier this year, the medical device company Guidant Corporation decided to promote a longtime employee to the title of vice president, employee development, the equivalent of a chief learning officer, or CLO. The Indianapolis company’s executive staff thought that the time was right to better organize training and developmental opportunities and match them more closely with the business goals of the organization, as well as offer employees a map for reaching their own career aspirations.

"We felt we could be better at telling employees, when they start here, how they can grow and develop professionally," says Barbara Reindl, vice president of the St. Paul-based Cardiac Rhythm Management Group, Guidant’s largest division.

"We get many employees who just got out of college and want to have an idea of what kind of career they can have at Guidant," she says. "We want to be able to say, ‘This is the curriculum if you want to be a manager.’ We’d really love to create a feeling among new hires that they’re joining a learning organization, but it’s not as well marketed here as it is at Motorola and other learning organizations."

Susan Norton, who became head of employee development in August, has begun talking to divisional vice presidents about their training and development needs and how they should be strategically organized to meet business challenges.

One of Norton’s discussions resulted in the creation of a three-day workshop where Guidant managers from around the world had an opportunity to hear senior executives address leadership issues, network among themselves, and spend their evenings informally talking with other managers from all levels of the company. Guidant has held the workshops in Brussels, St. Paul, and California, and has received positive comments from managers about the program. Click here to read the rest of this article.