Survey: 58% of U.S. workers see gaps in leadership development

Does your organization conduct regular leadership training for senior leaders, managers, and managers-to-be? If you don’t, you might want to pay attention to a survey from the Society for Human Resource Management, SHRM.

SHRM surveyed a total of more than 2,300 U.S. workers, which included 1,600+ HR practitioners, 238 senior HR executives and 471 line employees.

Among the questions was this one: In 2024, how effective was your organization at leadership and management development? Respondents were asked to answer ineffective, slightly/moderately effective, or effective/very effective.

Less than rosy

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the senior HR executives — who in many organizations are responsible for employee development — saw a fairly rosy picture. Some 51% of these people rated their efforts as effective, while 44% said they were somewhat effective and only 5% said they were ineffective.

HR practitioners, who may have a better view of where the rubber actually meets the road, were less sanguine, however. Of these folks, only 37% gave their organization an effective rating at leadership and management development. Some 56% opted for a somewhat effective rating, and 7% for ineffective.

Line employees saw a higher ceiling, but also a lower floor, than HR practitioners. Of the former, 42% went for effective, 46% for somewhat effective, and 12% for ineffective.

Ineffective management/senior leadership

Significantly, in answer to another set of questions, 35% of employees told SHRM they’d been on the receiving end of poor or ineffective management in the previous year, while 34% saw poor or ineffective senior leadership.

These numbers could ring some alarm bells, considering the close relationship between leadership/management effectiveness, the quality of employee experience, and retention. Employees who rate their managers as highly effective are nearly twice as likely to feel fulfilled by their jobs as employees who rate their managers lower.

Indeed, the HR practitioners who were surveyed rated management/leadership development as their third highest priority. This came in behind only recruiting and employee experience, and ahead of important areas like labor relations and performance management.

A conclusion

What conclusion can be drawn from all this data?

Perhaps simply this: It’s axiomatic that employees don’t leave companies; they leave managers. If you want your best people to stay with you and perform at the highest level, do all you can to make sure your leaders and managers aren’t the kind of people good employees want to leave.

This blog entry is based on “2025 SHRM State of the Workplace,” a report based on a survey of 2,324 HR professionals, executives, and line employees.