Like technology, the role of the CIO is constantly changing. When I first started my marketing career 15 years ago, I met IT directors who were responsible for the performance of their company’s entire IT infrastructure. They’ve been named head of business transformation, head of process change, head of service delivery, and even head of supply chain. Then over time, my contacts finally achieved the title of CIO and a seat in the boardroom.
Now my CIO friends are facing a new challenge: a CEO’s mandate to deal with sophisticated technology while enabling operational simplification and cost-efficiency, cost reduction, personalized and intuitive interactions, and a lower carbon footprint.
Is it possible that CIOs need to add one more moniker to their long list of titles? Could it be Chief Technology Learning Officer? 68% of office workers worldwide think so.
The CIO takes center stage in the Future of Work
Every successful CIO knows that employee adoption can make and break any IT initiative. In other words, all employees – no matter their role and employment status – must be knowledgeable in using current technology while preparing for emerging ones. However, according to a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), companies are more likely to cut funding for professional development than for refreshments and snacks. Knowing how little value is placed on learning, it can be difficult to keep up with the warp-speed evolution of technology.
What’s a CIO to do?
Look no further than the person sitting across the table at the next executive meeting – the CHRO. But, this alliance doesn’t just serve the CIO’s needs – CHROs can benefit too.
4 reasons why both CIOs and CHROs should unite forces
In the Center for Business Insight inquiry “5 Ways to Make Corporate Training Delivery More ROI,” there are four key advantages of forming a CIO-CHRO alliance when preparing for the Future of Work:
- Make continuous learning a priority. The traditional approach to training – top-down, episodic, and formal instruction – just doesn’t cut it anymore. Instead, learning should include continuous on-the-job training, as well as coaching by mentors and managers. CHROs can make the strongest case for encouraging workers to learn what they need, when they need to learn it, with regular feedback along the way. By allowing CHROs become the CIO’s advocate, new learning opportunities can be quickly identified and encouraged to maintain a workforce with up-to-date skills and that’s ready to adapt as business and technology needs shift.
- Provide employees a better learning experience. CHROs can help CIOs deliver training that allows each individual employee to learn in a way that fits their personal style. By integrating traditional classroom and other formal training with new ways of delivering knowledge, CHROs can encourage the workforce to create and share their own learning materials using mobile and social technologies. Plus, they can leverage their partnerships with corporate learning consultants and universities to expand access to classes or create interactive courses of their own.
- Embrace mobile and social learning. Mobile and social technologies have proven to be a knowledge enhancer by extending the reach of internal experts beyond their workgroups and giving access to instruction when and where learners need it. As a result, these platforms are quickly becoming a de-facto way for asking questions, searching for experts, and sharing information. And as younger generations enter the workforce, the concept of mobile and social learning will become second nature to everyone. However, the approach cannot be taken for granted nor considered as an afterthought. By working with the CHRO, the CIO can help make sure social learning is firmly embedded into the overall learning strategy – especially the workforce strategy for technology education.
- Fill the data void. Mining data about employees and their performance can lead to critical insights for learning. However, many HR departments are simply not prepared to tackle this task. Which department has mastered the use of data? IT. The CIO and CHRO can collaborate together to develop best practices and analytics tools that can help deliver the insight and supporting evidence HR professionals need to develop the workforce better.
It’s time for CIOs and CHROs to realize they do have one goal in common: to maximize every employee’s potential and help the business reap a significant competitive advantage from it. It’s time to build a CIO-CHRO alliance – now.
Want to further explore why CIOs and CHROs should work together? Download the Center for Business Insight brief “The CIO’s Role in Corporate Training.”
This article was syndicated from Business 2 Community: Can’t Keep Up With The Future Of Work? 4 Reasons Why Your CIO and CHRO Should Form An Alliance
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