The inevitable affect of a shrinking economy and the associated impact on businesses is to reduce the commitment to training and development.

When faced with the difficult decisions about what to slash and what to keep, consider the following:

1. The long term impact of reducing training and development investments.

2. The higher costs of mistakes, lost customers, labor issues and turnover associated with a lack of training.

3. What does a gap in training and development do to succession planning and the organization’s bench strength.

Although there are no easy answers in tough economic times, cutting training dollars is not the best answer.