Hi everyone,

I'm a technical training officer working for a bank. (Unfortunately, it's surely not a good time to work for any bank.) I mainly focus on CS training for our programmers and software developers.

As all of you know, training budgets are often the first line items slashed in a recession. This is also what I am encountering. I was informed in today's management meeting that our budget for next year would be cut off 50%. Meanwhile, most business unit managers are telling me that they will hire staff by projects next year to save cost, meaning very little technical training will be needed next year.

With very limited budget plus zero training needs, how could my department survive next year? What change should I make? What direction should I take? How am I supposed to save my people?

Thanks in advance for your answer.

This might be a great opportunity to implement two important parts of the training process. 1. Build a structured OJT process - this documents the on-the-job knowledge transfer and becomes a company asset once written. 2. Implement recurrency training so people maintain knowledge and receive refresher updates on material they initially were trained on.

In a previous recession we found companies training employees for multiple competencies. The idea was that a small group of cross-trained employees could do the work of a laid off person. It provided a lot of business for those of us who were and are external trainers.

In same industry- facing similar pressures.

1. Agree- OJT and cross training- first orders of business.
2. Elminate ANY wasteful maintenance or training for more manageable/cost-effective options.
3. I guarentee, with the economy being what it is, there is a top-level training need that needs to be addressed. Get this from your executive team, and deliver the solution (may be item 1- cross-training folks to take on more).

There's another side to this OJT thing. Even though it may provide work for trainers who switch gears and do OJT, some employees won't necessarily go along with it unless they have to. One of the first things people think when they see someone documenting how to do their jobs is that they might no longer be useful - and might not have a job too much longer. So if you're trying to get help from SMEs to do this, you will probably meet with resistance. On the other hand, they could already fear for their jobs enough that they will agree to do anything - just a thought.