Somewhere in your organisation right now, a manager is struggling.
They were promoted six months ago because they were brilliant at their job.
Best performer on the team. Natural leader, everyone said.
Now they're drowning in one-to-ones they don't know how to structure, feedback conversations they keep avoiding, and a team that's starting to lose confidence in them.
Nobody trained them how to manage.
Nobody even asked if they wanted to manage.
They were simply handed a team and expected to figure it out.
This scenario plays out thousands of times every day across UK organisations.
And if your HR team isn't actively talking about it, you're probably watching the consequences unfold without connecting the dots.
The Chartered Management Institute (CMI)—the UK's leading professional body for management—paints a stark picture of UK management capability.
Their research reveals that 82% of workers entering management positions have not had any formal management and leadership training.
They are "Accidental Managers"—people promoted simply because they were popular, good at their technical role, or available.
That is the overwhelming majority of your management population learning to lead through trial and error.
The implications are significant.
According to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), poor management is estimated to cost UK businesses £84 billion annually in lost productivity.
The CMI describes this as "a wake-up call for a low-growth, low-productivity, and badly managed Britain."
HR teams should be paying attention.
If you're in HR or L&D, you already know that training budgets are under pressure.
Data from the Learning and Work Institute shows that total UK employer spending on training has fallen by 10% in real terms since 2022, reaching the lowest level recorded since data tracking began in 2011.
Employees now receive an average of just 5.7 days of training per year—the lowest figure on record.
Here's the uncomfortable truth: cutting training looks like sensible cost control in a spreadsheet.
But as noted by CIPD researchers, this creates "service gaps and skills shortages" that undermine succession planning.
The question isn't whether your organisation can afford to invest in management training.
It's whether you can afford not to.
Management capability gaps don't show up as a line item on a P&L statement.
They manifest in ways that are easy to attribute to other causes—until you start connecting the patterns.
Staff Turnover According to CMI research, 28% of employees have left a business specifically because of a negative relationship with a manager.
The Cost: Analysis by Oxford Economics calculates the average cost of turnover per employee earning £25,000+ is £30,614.
The Impact: For a mid-sized organisation losing just ten employees a year due to poor management, that is over £300,000 in replacement costs alone.
Disengagement Gallup's multi-year analysis shows that managers account for 70% of the variance in team engagement scores.
The Cost: When engagement drops, productivity follows. 33% of workers explicitly state they are less motivated to work because of ineffective management.
Quiet Quitting McKinsey research suggests the cost of "quiet quitting"—employees who stay but do the minimum—can be nearly as high as turnover.
Here's the data point that should be at the centre of every business case for management training.
Organisations that invest in management and leadership development programmes see, on average:
A 23% increase in organisational performance.
A 32% increase in employee engagement and productivity.
Those aren't marginal improvements; they are transformational.
Furthermore, 83% of Chartered Managers say they are more productive because of their training.
The CMI calculates their average "added value" to an organisation is £391,443.
The evidence is clear: management training isn't a cost.
It's an investment with measurable returns.
Despite compelling evidence, 60% of HR leaders struggle to prepare business cases that secure funding (according to workforce research by ADP).
The challenge is language.
HR talks about "culture" and "experience."
Finance talks about "return" and "risk."
To unlock budget, you must translate HR initiatives into the quantitative business case that CFOs demand.
If you're preparing to advocate for management training investment, here's how to frame the conversation.
Start with the Problem:
Don't lead with "we need to buy a training programme." Lead with "we have 47 managers who entered their roles with no formal training, and here's what that's costing us."
Connect to Strategy:
Does your organisation care about Growth? Retention? Customer satisfaction? Frame management capability as the enabler of those goals.
Calculate the "Cost of Doing Nothing":
Use the Oxford Economics figure (£30k per departure). If poor management drives 28% of your turnover, what is the annual cash cost of not training your managers?
Show the Return:
Use the CMI benchmarks. A 23% performance improvement dwarfs the cost of most training investments.
Propose a Pilot:
If budget is tight, propose training a single cohort with clear pre- and post-metrics. Success creates the evidence for broader investment.
Not all training is equal.
The programmes that deliver results focus on practical skills, not abstract theory.
One question HR teams often face is whether to pursue accredited qualifications.
ILM (Institute of Leadership and Management) qualifications provide external validation.
They offer structured learning pathways that are recognised globally.
Crucially, accredited programmes tend to have more robust structures.
They aren't one-day events; they involve assessment and practical application over months, which aligns with how adults actually retain new skills.
The gap between learning and application is where most training investment dies.
Effective management development addresses this through Spaced Learning (spreading content over time) and Reinforcement.
When evaluating providers, ask: How do you ensure learning transfers to the workplace?
If they can't answer that, look elsewhere.
The conversation about management capability isn't just about training. It's about risk.
"Those that continue to deprioritise training will feel the effects in capability gaps and reduced agility," warns the CIPD.
Your competitors who are investing in management capability are building an advantage that compounds over time.
Well-managed teams attract better talent, delivering better results, which funds more investment.
The organisations that recognise this will outperform those that treat management as something people should somehow figure out on their own.
The BCF Group has been helping organisations develop their managers for over 25 years.
Our ILM-accredited programmes—from Level 3 for first-line managers to Level 7 for senior leaders—provide the practical skills and recognised qualifications that make a measurable difference.
Whether you're looking to train a single cohort or develop a comprehensive strategy, we can help you build the business case and deliver results.
Get in touch to discuss your specific needs.