Why universities need real connection in a hybrid world 

Universities are centred by place – the historic architecture, cutting-edge laboratories, and the vibrant, physical buzz of a campus community. Yet, behind the scenes, the way university staff work has radically shifted. Since Covid days, like many other sectors, we have embraced the flexibility of hybrid schedules, digital workflows, and virtual meetings. I’m not sure without Covid, we would have ever even deemed this possible and while students are encouraged to embrace the full experience of campus life, many areas of a university still operate in a largely hybrid operating model.  

The benefits are invaluable in increasing efficiency and work-life balance, but it does quietly threaten the ability to embed a culture led by a shared vision and goals. People become a Team’s message away instead of a phone call, people become increasingly blinkered to what happens outside of their role or team. People become faceless behind screens. 

“We need more communication! We need more emails! We need a slicker intranet!” 

A landslide of communications and an overload of information often seems the solution, but it only serves to exacerbate the problem. During my time in internal communications, it is creating opportunities for real connection that builds and retains a talented workforce that is all pulling in the same direction. 

For the education sector, this realisation has transformed traditional learning and development opportunities into a week-long dedicated strategic anchor called ‘Staff Development Week’ that brings academics out of their faculties, professional service teams out from behind their screens and executives out of their offices.  

The week of learning delivers a menu of career advancing development opportunities, centred around a university-wide conference and directorate level team days to unpack the strategy and provide localised meaning. This is how internal engagement works best. By creating those water cooler moments that we lose through hybrid working, breaking down the silo’s created by screens and bridging gaps created by hierarchy by providing real connection through a shared purpose.  

This matters deeply in education, where our ultimate output is human potential. If our staff do not feel connected to the wider mission of the institution, it filters down to the student experience. A successful staff development week should therefore feel less like a series of disjointed seminars and more like a curated community festival. It should celebrate shared achievements as we do with our Vice-Chancellor and President Excellence Awards, confront collective challenges, and remind every employee, regardless of their role, why their work matters. 

A digital module can teach a process, but only a shared physical experience can shift a culture. When colleagues sit in the same room, share the same energy, and participate in the same conversations, it builds social capital that sustains the institution through the rest of the year. 

Bringing people together is a core necessity for organisational health and growth. By transforming staff development from an administrative requirement into a landmark physical event, we do more than just upskill our workforce. We remind ourselves that a university is a living, breathing community of people seeking to make an impact in the world, through education.