UNILEVER'S CHIEF LEARNING OFFICER ON THE KEY TO ADDRESSING THE SKILLS GAP

Tim Munden, Chief Learning Officer, Unilever, talks to People Matters about weaving learning and well-being in the flow of work, and the essentials to building a high-performing leadership and workforce that thrive through uncertainty

- Bhavna Sarin

With over three decades of illustrious experience in the HR domain, Tim Munden is presently the Chief Learning Officer at Unilever. Tim joined Unilever back in 1993 and has since then transitioned through a series of leadership roles across various business units and geographies including the UK, Ireland and USA.

In addition to his role as Chief Learning Officer, Tim is also leading wellness for Unilever, where he is focused on building leaders and teams needed for a purpose-driven business, developing the skills and capabilities for a digital and disrupted world, and enabling well-being for happiness and high performance.

In this exclusive interview with People Matters, Tim talks about the habit of underestimating change in the long term, enabling learning amid mounting burnout concerns, and the essentials to building a high-performing leadership and workforce that thrive through uncertainty.

Here are excerpts of the interview.

Can you give us an overview of how Learning & development has transformed amid the ongoing uncertainty globally?

The pandemic forced all learning and development activities to go online, and we had to find ways of using online learning to substitute for a lack of face-to-face contact. For skill-building, it was easier because we were already used to a lot of online or blended learning. It's in deep personal and leadership development that this was the hardest. This type of learning requires a space away from work and away from distractions to help people really reflect on their leadership.