Building an organisation fit fur the future

8 April 2026

Q&A with Amy Round, Group People Director

As part of 2025 Annual Report and Accounts, we spoke with Amy Round, our Group People Director. Amy sets out how our people and culture are pivotal to our success, and how we’re continuing to build an organisation fit for the future.

Q: What were the highlights for the people team in 2025?

We launched Grow with Us, our new learning hub that brings together performance, learning and goal setting into one easy-to-use place. We also began embedding our values into everything we do, from performance conversations to The Big Welcome, which is our new Company Induction. We’ve also seen strong engagement with My Impact, a performance-enabled framework, which we launched last year. Around 80% of our community is engaging with conversations around what they’re delivering and how they’re delivering. Finally, we opened our new London office, which is sparking collaboration, connection and high performance.

Q: What changes has Unite Students made to learning and development in 2025?

This year we’ve made a number of changes to our learning and development offering, not just through structured development programmes but through real conversations about growth and career opportunities. We’ve put a big focus this year on our managers, because 70% of the experience we have at work relates to our managers. We’ve really focused on building up their confidence to lead brilliantly, to give and receive feedback and to lead through change, and that’s supporting a culture of positive engagement and continuous learning.

Q: How important has Unite Students’ people and culture been to its success this year?

Our people and culture remain pivotal to our success. We’re committed to building an organisation that’s fit for the future and we’ve restructured the business to help achieve that. By working together this year, we’ve co-created new values, reshaped how we talk about performance and launched new policies that matter, from hybrid working to menopause support. Our people have also driven record high NPS scores, proving that when our people thrive, we’re able to deliver outstanding experiences for the tens of thousands of students who choose to live with us each year.

Q: What are the key priorities for the people team in 2026?

Evolving our technology platforms and ways of working to ensure that work is easy and fun for our people. We’ll be launching a new wellbeing network, we’ll continue to support our managers on their journey, and we’ll expand career opportunities for our people. We’re also excited to to have moved to a new Bristol office, which we hope will further enhance our ability to connect with each other, to collaborate and get stuff done.

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