When dollars are tight, training is one of the first items to be cut. Why? It's obvious to the finance people: Training can be deferred. Training is one of these squishy-soft expense items: hard to pin down what you're getting for the money.

Training budgets are slimming. Nationally, training expenditures have declined 11 percent in the past two years. And maybe they should be cut, at least the way we usually do training. Here are some facts that may surprise you:

n We train the wrong people. The majority of training and development opportunities are dispersed in the upper reaches of organizations. Conferences and seminars for high-level managers are common. But the critical needs are on the lower limbs. A recent study by Bersin & Associates found the most deficient "levels of readiness" were among front-line supervisors. Training needs were higher at the front-line supervisory level than at any other level of organizations, even the entry level.

n We use training as a reward instead of addressing business needs. Who gets to go to the annual convention in Vegas? Often, it's the top performers, who the firm lavishes with plane tickets, lodging and per diems. There's nothing wrong with training your top people (it's recommended), but only if the training will benefit the organization.

Training should be aimed at finding ways to increase their already high performance areas. It should be based on a solid assessment of your business needs and a logical plan to deploy specific employees to meet those needs. If the convention is simply a reward, then take it from your travel or compensation budget, not your training funds.

n We use training to correct for poor job fit. Several years ago, the Society of Human Resource Management found that 90 percent of the training money in the United States was used on behalf of below-average performers. Employers who place people in the wrong jobs try to fix it by throwing training at the problem. Inevitably, it fails, and the money flows down the drain.

Training should be used with low performers if and only if: 1) they display real enthusiasm about gaining the new skills, 2) they have the innate capacity to learn the skills and 3) management sincerely believes the employees can put the new skills to use within a reasonable time frame. Even then, managers should set clear performance goals with time frames.

n We do not know how to measure the effectiveness of training. Companies cutting their training budgets don't know what to cut, according to the Bersin study. That's because 40 percent of them have no way to measure the effectiveness of training. They do not assess their business needs, so they have no idea what change should occur. Take a simple example: Training in customer service should result in fewer complaints and higher customer retention. Duh.

But most of us still measure training with "smile sheets," those ubiquitous handouts that ask participants to rate the training session and the presenter. These are easy to create. They are quickly scored. They give tidy, numerical results. They are worthless in measuring whether training addresses the organization's real needs.

n Most training occurs outside of the formal learning environment. Most business learning happens informally. Acting on their own, employees seek out knowledge and skills to fill their gaps. Only a small portion of learning takes place in the classroom. Even more startling, research is finding that little learning occurs in self-guided e-learning sessions, although they are effective for mandated compliance training.

Today, learning is like YouTube: Employees find others who have what they need to know. This is not a coaching model, where one person assumes the higher role. It is sharing skills among equals, a "community of practice." Today, you teach me what I need to know. Tomorrow, I will teach you what you need to know.

Smart companies are taking advantage of this trend. They are devising ways to help employees find their own sources of training; they are creating listings of subject matter experts; they are providing ongoing reinforcement in short bursts rather than intensive, lengthy coaching sessions. In short, they are creating environments that encourage and foster informal learning.

And guess what? It is affordable.

Fred W. Spannaus, principal of Spannaus Consulting, is a senior professional in human resources. He loves feedback to his columns. He can be contacted by e-mail at spannaus@ameritech.net or by phone at 425-2635.