It’s becoming increasingly clear that HR leaders see management training and leadership development as two of the most important strategies they need to work on to retain their top talent. Over the past year, I’ve been speaking at several large industry events, where I’ve asked HR leaders, “What is the top learning priority for your organization in 2017?” The response has been overwhelming: leadership development.

That’s not all that surprising when you consider that employees don’t usually quit companies – they quit bosses. If managers don’t know how to lead, engagement will suffer, and employees will start looking for their next big opportunity. That’s why developing managers to be better coaches and providing front-line, on-the-job training is crucial to retention.

Providing leadership training that aligns with business goals has been shown to improve an organization’s business performance and directly impact the bottom line. Yet, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employers with fewer than 100 employees provide only 12 minutes of manager training every six months, and organizations with 100 to 500 employees provide only six minutes of training in the same time span.

Further, many managers wouldn’t mind more training. In fact, research by Grovo shows that 87 percent of middle managers wish they’d received more training after being promoted.

So how can you transform your company’s learning ecosystem? Here are a few things to consider.

Create a culture that encourages and rewards learning.

The first step is obtaining executive sponsorship and management support. Belief in the value of learning and development must come from the top, because encouraging employees to take time for professional development is critical.

Next, create a culture where employees are self-driven to learn and aren’t waiting for HR to train them. According to the ADP Research Institute^®, 84 percent of U.S. workers are eager and excited to use technology to learn. With technological advances, employees can tap into learning resources quickly to educate themselves, solve problems and keep their work moving. This on-demand learning helps employees develop new skills quickly so they can meet their employer’s needs and empowers them to select the courses that will keep them engaged and grow their careers.

It’s also important to market your company’s learning brand. Provide a place where employees can find the content easily, share feedback and promote the content to others.

Curate content that’s relevant and engaging.

With infinite information available online, it’s becoming harder and harder to avoid information overload and determine which content is relevant to employees. A good place to start is defining the desired outcomes and identifying the behaviors of employees who exemplify those outcomes. Next, determine what those star employees needed to know in order to do their jobs well, and find existing resources or create new content that teaches that knowledge for learners to achieve the outcome you’re seeking.

It’s up to learning leaders to develop a strategy to curate content, determine which content to aggregate and then deliver it to employees in the most usable way. The content should inspire employees like TED Talks videos; make it intuitive and “consumer-oriented” so employees don’t dread attending. Consider offering programs that focus on developing employees’ strengths. According to a Gallup study, strengths-based learning programs improve sales, profits and employee engagement. In fact, people who use their strengths every day are three times more likely to report having an excellent quality of life and six times more likely to be engaged at work.

Offer a diverse menu of learning options.

According to a 2015 survey by Chief Learning Officer and The Training Associates, instructor-led training continues to be the top corporate learning method, used at 87 percent of respondent organizations. That doesn’t mean newer methods like social and mobile learning, online videos, massive open online courses (MOOCs), and gamification aren’t picking up speed. In fact, 74 percent of companies say they are using traditional methods together with these new methods to create a blended learning approach.

There’s also been a shift from traditional methods of creating courses to allowing subject matter experts and employees to create and share their own learning content and videos. Not only is user-generated content cheaper, but employees enjoy sharing their knowledge, and their coworkers appreciate short “how-to” videos.

Timing is everything.

Offering training to managers shows that your company values them and is invested in their career development. But it can’t be a one-and-done effort. Learning needs reinforcement and frequent touch points. Case in point: According to Grovo, 80 percent of middle managers who received training failed to maintain behavioral changes after six months. Spaced repetition and review of materials is vital to changing behavior. People forget what they learn, especially when they don’t apply it or management doesn’t take time to show them how to use new skills strategically.

Aside from courses and seminars, mentorships and coaching can help reinforce learning and create long-term results. Another way to increase “stickiness” is to break educational sessions into short, digestible bites. According to research by Dianne Dukette and David Cornish, your mind’s ability to focus on a single task lasts about 20 minutes. Instead of a three-hour workshop, think about dividing instruction into 20 to 30 minutes of content per day.

When you consider that so many companies are facing a drought of skilled workers, training and development becomes all the more important. If you can’t find qualified employees, you must train employees to develop the skills needed. Further, having future leaders quit due to poor management creates a self-inflicted wound. Companies that take the time to develop the managers of today and invest in the leaders of tomorrow will improve their business results, culture and retention.