What Is the Job Description for a Liaison Officer?
A liaison officer is a role where a person’s responsibility is to establish and nurture a working relationship between two separate organizations for their mutual benefit. Liaison officers can have numerous roles within this context.
Oftentimes, liaison officers act as mediators between two groups. In public education, liaison officers are tasked with facilitating communication between the community and the educators. In this case, the two separate bodies could be seen as the school, including its administrators and staff, and the community it serves, including the students and families they come from. Liaison officers may be tasked with promoting the acknowledgment of the student body’s cultural backgrounds. They can also help students gain access to the educational programs they are afforded, organizing and engaging in parent meetings and community forums. They can also be translators, especially in communities where students and families speak different languages.
In a governmental setting, the liaison officer will commonly have the responsibility of disseminating important information to communities. They often organize activities and arbitrate certain public functions. They can provide other services as well, like administering special duties for emergency situations such as floods, fires or power outages. They also can be used as objective overseers of important election functions, oftentimes administering oaths of office and other declarations.