By Suraiya Comunello
Menopause is affecting experienced talent across the student accommodation sector, but most organisations aren’t measuring its impact. Women in PBSA (WinPBSA) is aiming to change that.
WinPBSA, the pioneering industry network advancing women’s roles in the student accommodation sector, is launching a Menopause Best Practice Guide, the first sector-specific resource of its kind.
To ensure the most important voices shape it, WinPBSA has launched the first dedicated menopause survey across the industry, open to operators, investors, universities, and employees, which will form the foundation of the guide.
The initiative targets a workforce reality that most sector organisations are not yet proactively measuring. A significant proportion of experienced female employees aged 35–55, carrying institutional knowledge, leading teams, and managing resident relationships, are navigating perimenopause or menopause, often for four to eight years, often in silence. Research consistently links menopause, maternity, and parenting to accelerated female attrition at mid-to-senior level: precisely the career stage where the sector can least afford to lose talent.
The cost of inaction is measurable. According to the UK Government’s 2024 menopause progress report, one in six women experiencing menopause has considered leaving their role due to a lack of employer support. The CIPD estimates replacing a mid-level employee costs between 50% and 200% of annual salary – and that figure does not capture the quieter loss: the experienced manager who stops putting herself forward, the leadership pipeline that silently narrows. Brightmine’s 2025 research, drawing on 237 UK organisations, found that 72% provide no menopause-specific manager training, and fewer than one in ten HR leaders believe their organisation is doing enough. From 2027, organisations with 250 or more employees will be legally required to publish menopause action plans. Half currently have no plan in development.
Menopause is affecting experienced people across every student accommodation organisation – and most businesses have no idea of the scale, because they’re not measuring it. WinPBSA is changing that. This survey exists to build something practical and sector-specific: a guide that operators, investors and universities can actually use to support their teams and protect the talent they’ve invested in. The more organisations that contribute, the sharper and more useful that guide becomes for everyone.
Suraiya Comunello, Chair, WinPBSA
Two surveys are now live. The Leadership & HR Survey is designed for senior leaders and HR directors, and covers organisational policy, management capability, and business impact. The Employee Survey captures lived experience, awareness, available support, and views on what would genuinely help. Both are fully anonymous and take under ten minutes to complete. Findings will be reported in aggregate only.
Participating organisations will receive early access to the findings and the final Best Practice Guide. The guide will include policy templates, manager conversation frameworks, and operational case studies designed for the specific workforce structures and environments of the sector.
Group Managing Director of Homes for Students Kate Forester adds:
The menopause survey and best practice guide marks a vital and timely step forward for both the PBSA sector and the wider property industry. It has the potential to open more informed conversations about menopause and its impact across the workplace, encouraging understanding and support from colleagues of all genders.
We are proud to be onboard with this initiative, led by WinPBSA and will be utilising the results and guide to share best practice across Homes for Students and the wider group.
The survey is open to all employees, regardless of gender. Male leaders and managers play a critical role in creating supportive cultures where these conversations can happen. WinPBSA exists to raise the bar for the whole sector. The more organisations that contribute to this research, the more relevant and actionable the guide becomes for everyone.
Suraiya Comunello concluded:
Much corporate policy focus has been on maternity and adoption leave, and rightly so. But menopause affects every woman, regardless of whether she has children, what role she holds, or how senior she is. To drive lasting change, we need to invest in every stage of a woman’s working life -not just the most visible ones. For WinPBSA, that means understanding the challenges that too often go unnamed, and making sure our sector is equipped to respond. If we are serious about retaining the talented, experienced women who make this industry work, we need to support them through every phase – not just the ones that make it onto a policy agenda. This guide exists for exactly that purpose. The voices of the industry are crucial to making it useful – and we cannot wait to deliver guidance, grounded in real experience, that makes a genuine difference.
Survey links:
Sources
- UK Government: Menopause and the Workplace Progress Report, 2024
- Brightmine: Menopause Support at Work Research 2025 (LexisNexis Risk Solutions)
- CIPD: Menopause in the Workplace — Employee Experiences in 2023
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About WinPBSA
WinPBSA is the industry network advancing women’s roles in the student accommodation sector. Founded in October 2024, it exists to achieve a PBSA sector where gender is not a barrier – ensuring equity in opportunity, parity in leadership, and equality in pay, culture and influence. It operates with a committee drawn from organisations across the sector and is led by Chair Suraiya Comunello and supported by GSL.
