In an online article entitled Sink or Swim, Human Resource Executive’s Scott Westcott reports that first-time managers are often promoted into positions without the know-how, tools or training to successfully lead a team. His conclusions are based on survey results compiled by Institute for Corporate Productivity, a workforce-productivity research firm that found only 25 percent of respondents judged their organizations to be “good” when it comes to helping managers make the transition from individual contributor to manager.

To improve new manager training, Westcott identifies a couple of key focus areas including comprehensive upfront screening, more practice dealing with sensitive employee issues, and better overall training. The challenge for HR, according to Westcott, is convincing senior leaders of the importance of investing in new manager training. To address that Westcott suggests quantifying the impact of poor management on turnover rates, employee satisfaction, productivity, safety incidents, etc..

If this is a challenge you’re facing in your organization, one tool that can help you measure the impact of poorly trained new managers is a Cost-of-Doing-Nothing Calculator we’ve recently posted on the Blanchard website. It’s free, easy-to-use, and it will help you quantify the impact of leadership in three key areas—voluntary turnover, employee productivity, and customer satisfaction. If you would like to explore some of the other challenges new managers face (along with some advice of how to overcome them) also take a look at the free webinar recording of Survival Skills for New Managers.