Turns out, companies aren’t giving managers enough of the training they need, when they need it. Middle managers believe more than two out of five of their company’s managers were unprepared when they took the role. What’s more, 87% say they themselves wished they’d received more training when they first became a manager.

Furthermore, the training they do receive doesn’t stick: 80% of managers who change their behavior after training revert to their old ways in 6 months or less.

In addition to the issues of timing and stickiness, managers voiced the overwhelming need for training on a broader set of topics. Ninety-eight percent of our respondents felt managers at their company need more training on business-critical issues such as professional development, time management, and employee turnover.

As we looked at the data from our study, a general rule of thumb surfaced with regard to training: if it’s better for managers, it’s better for business. In fact, 98% of the managers we surveyed believe key aspects of their company would improve if managers were training to be effective more quickly, including employee retention and office morale.

As any 21st century CEO will tell you, improving company culture and employee happiness are particularly pressing business challenges in a talent-centric economy. Better management training is critical to solving them.

Managers weren’t shy about telling us how their training content could be better. At the top of the list was a resounding cry for more compelling training: 98% of managers believe they’d be more likely to use the skills we’re training them on if the content were more engaging.

Beyond that, managers want training in bite-sized doses. Seventy-four percent say the large volume of information in most management trainings makes it hard to remember and apply. It only makes sense in our distracted age: our content needs to be more competitive with the rest of today’s digital media landsca

Great managers are the backbone of any great company, but they don’t become great own their own—they need great training to get there. For a clear view of the obstacles to look out for as you develop managers at your own organization, along with a roadmap for creating management development program that works, download our study today. Let’s make better managers together.