Human Resource departments are often faced with slashes to their training budgets during tough times. Of course when the economy dips, all departmental budgets are under careful scrutiny and Human Resources would be no exception. Having said that, some time back (more than a few years) I was head of training and development in a large food manufacturing company. The economy went into a dive and the MD required that all departments, with the exception of training and development, resubmit their budgets with signifiant cuts. He correctly assessed that the nature of the training we were doing, was not so much an expense, as an investment. The bottom line is, rather than slashing training budgets, companies could be taking a closer look at what training is achieving for the company during the slump. Now is the time to carefully look at WHAT is being trained, focus on the MUST knows, require that behavior change is implemented and that results achieved are measured and reported. In a stormy sea, training may very well help the crew to focus on the critical issues and take advantage of new opportunities when the storm breaks.