Gartner's 2026 survey says managers spend 9 hours a week on employees' personal concerns, yet only 39% of staff rate their feedback as useful. What it means.
Key takeaways
- Gartner's HR survey, published on 29 April 2026, found that 47% of managers say more is expected of them and they must work harder than a year ago.
- A syndicated report of the same Gartner research says only 39% of employees agree their manager is effective at giving clear developmental feedback, and just 41% say their manager helps them prioritise work.
- Put side by side, the numbers point to an uncomfortable idea: managers are spending more time on people and still not delivering the part of people management employees say they need most, which is feedback that helps them grow.
Last updated · Bodhih Insights team · reviewed by Siddharthan VGJ, Founder
Picture a Thursday for a team manager at a Pune services firm. She has one hour blocked for "planning". Instead, one team member wants to talk about a difficult family situation. Another is anxious about whether AI will make her role redundant. A third is quietly interviewing elsewhere and wants advice, which is awkward. By 6 pm the manager has been kind, patient and present for every one of them. She has also not given a single piece of feedback that would help anyone get better at their job.
Nobody wrote "counsellor" into her job description. Yet Gartner's latest manager research suggests this is increasingly what the job has become.
The Surprising Part: It Is Not an Effort Problem
When people hear that managers are stretched, the usual reaction is to ask them to prioritise better. This data suggests that is the wrong diagnosis.
Managers are not neglecting people. Two-thirds say people are their main job, and they are giving hours of their week to it. The problem is what kind of people time it is. Emotional support and developmental feedback are different skills:
- Emotional support is responsive. Someone comes to you with a worry; you listen, reassure and help them cope.
- Developmental feedback is proactive and sometimes uncomfortable. You notice a pattern, name it clearly and help someone change what they do.
The first happens naturally, because people bring their concerns to a manager who seems approachable. The second rarely happens on its own, because nobody walks into your cabin asking to hear about their weaknesses. In a week already crowded with the first kind, the second is the one that gets squeezed out. This is the quiet trade-off hiding inside the nine-hour figure: a manager can be warm, available and well liked and still leave the team with 39% confidence in their feedback.
Why India's Managers May Feel This More
Gartner's data is global, so we should not claim a precise India number. But several conditions here make the pattern plausible.
- Wider spans, fewer layers. As we wrote in The Great Flattening, many organisations have removed management layers, leaving the same managers with more people to look after.
- Closer relationships. In many Indian workplaces the manager is more than a supervisor: a mentor, a sounding board, sometimes a family-style authority figure. That is a strength, and it also means more personal issues arrive at the manager's door.
- Many first-time managers. Strong individual contributors are promoted fast, often without any training in the conversations that now fill their day. Our look at the disengaged manager showed how quickly that load can wear people down.
- AI anxiety on top. Questions such as "Will my job exist next year?" are now routine one-to-one topics, and the manager is expected to answer them honestly while often being unsure themselves.
Three Shifts That Give Managers Their Week Back
The answer is not to make managers colder. It is to change what their hours buy.
- Triage the conversation. Teach managers to tell the difference between a moment that needs support and one that needs a coaching question. Many "emotional" conversations are really about unclear priorities or skill confidence, and can be turned into a short, practical next step.
- Make feedback small and scheduled. Ten minutes a week per direct report, anchored to one piece of real work, is more effective than an annual review. Short, specific and frequent beats long and rare.
- Share the load. Not every concern should go to the manager. Clear routes to HR, employee assistance and peer support protect the manager's time and give employees better help for serious issues.
What Organisations Can Do About It
Teach coaching as a core manager skill. Coaching for Managers trains people leaders to ask better questions, give behaviour-focused feedback and turn everyday conversations into development, rather than leaving feedback as an instinct some managers happen to have.
Strengthen the human skills underneath. Emotional Intelligence Training helps managers recognise what is behind a concern, respond with empathy and still hold the line on performance. Communication Skills Training builds the clarity needed to say difficult things well.
Prepare new managers earlier. Leadership Skills Training gives first-time and mid-level managers a practical foundation, so the transition from doer to leader does not happen by trial and error.
Find out where your managers actually stand. Before designing anything, use assessments and 360-style feedback to see which managers are strong at support, which are strong at development, and where the gaps are. A customised programme can then target the real need.
The Bigger Idea
We tend to measure managers on whether their teams like them and whether targets are met. The Gartner numbers invite a third question: Does your team get better because of you?
A manager who spends nine hours a week listening is doing something valuable. But listening alone does not build capability. The organisations that will gain most from their people in the next few years will be the ones that stop asking managers to be everything to everyone, and instead train them to turn their scarce, precious hours into growth.
The Pune manager from our Thursday story did nothing wrong. She just was never taught how to make the same hour do two jobs at once.
Frequently asked questions
How much time do managers spend on employees' personal concerns?
According to Gartner's HR survey published in April 2026, managers spend an average of nine hours a week, more than 20% of their working time, on employees' personal and emotional concerns. This is a global survey figure, so the exact number for Indian teams may differ.
What percentage of employees say their manager gives useful developmental feedback?
A syndicated report of Gartner's 2026 manager research says 39% of employees agree their manager is effective at giving clear developmental feedback, and 41% say their manager helps them prioritise work. We have not seen the original release, so verify against Gartner before quoting it formally.
Why does developmental feedback matter more than emotional support?
Both matter, but they do different jobs. Emotional support helps people cope in the moment. Developmental feedback helps them improve and progress. If a manager's time is consumed by the first, growth stalls and employees may feel stuck, which can affect engagement and retention.
Can managers be trained to give better feedback?
Yes. Feedback and coaching are learnable skills. Practical programmes such as Coaching for Managers teach questioning, observation and behaviour-focused feedback through realistic practice, and are most effective when reinforced on the job with short, regular follow-ups.
How can an organisation tell whether its managers are strong at development?
Combine employee pulse surveys, 360-degree feedback and short practical assessments of manager conversations. Look for the gap between how approachable managers are and how much their teams say they grow. Bodhih's assessments can support this.
Where do the statistics in this article come from?
Gartner's HR survey of managers published on 29 April 2026 (47% working harder, nine hours a week on personal concerns, 66% prioritising people management) and a syndicated report of the same research (39% and 41% employee ratings). Original Gartner pages were not accessible to us at the time of writing, so please treat the figures as directional and confirm them at source.
