A survey conducted recently by the Society for Human Resource Management supports the old workplace adage that employees leave managers – not companies.

The study found that 84% of U.S. workers believe poorly trained managers create a lot of unnecessary work and stress.

SHRM also looked at employees’ perspectives on how ill- or well-equipped their supervisors are in managing people, what are the most important skills managers should develop, and how a better manager could improve their own performance as individual contributors.

About 57% of the workers polled say managers in their workplace could benefit from training on how to be better people managers.

Half (50%) of workers believe their performance would improve if their direct supervisor received additional training in people management.

The top five skills employees say managers could improve are: communicating effectively (41%); developing and training the team (38%); managing time and delegating (37%); cultivating a positive and inclusive team culture (35%); and managing team performance (35%).

"There is no relationship in the workplace more powerful than the one between people managers and employees," declared SHRM President Johnny C. Taylor, Jr. "As working Americans challenge organizations to manage and lead differently, those that don't will find themselves left behind.”

The professional association pointed out that release of the new survey findings coincided with the launch of SHRM's People Manager Qualification (PMQ), a new, interactive virtual learning program that is designed to help managers build the skills they need most to be leaders.