Student Roost Achieves 95% Compliance and Promotes 50% of Leadership Development Participants with Litmos

Student Roost is one of the largest purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) providers in the UK, with over 650 employees across operations and head office functions. The business uses Litmos to achieve 94–95% compliance rate, promote 50% of leadership program graduates into management roles, and eliminate hours of manual training administration — all managed by a four-person L&D team.

Who is Student Roost?

Student Roost is one of the UK’s leading PBSA providers, supporting students across more than 50 properties in 21 university cities throughout the UK. With more than 650 employees working across property operations, customer service, facilities management, leadership, and corporate functions, the organization is committed to creating exceptional resident experiences while investing in employee development and career growth.

The Learning & Development team supports employees across every level of the business, delivering onboarding, compliance training, health and safety education, customer service training programs, leadership development, and instructor-led learning experiences. As the organization has grown, Student Roost has relied on Litmos as the central platform for managing learning, compliance, reporting, and employee development across its geographically dispersed workforce.

Today, Student Roost manages learning for more than 650 employees across 117 teams, using Litmos to deliver consistent training experiences and support career progression.

Before Litmos

Meeting the Challenges of Growing Complexity

Student Roost has been using Litmos for approximately eight years. As the organization was growing and establishing its learning and development function, it needed a scalable way to manage training and create consistency across the business. Before introducing Litmos, Student Roost’s training was organised and delivered manually, making it critical to implement a platform that could support its long-term growth

As the business expanded, training administration became increasingly complex. Instructor-led training (ILT) was managed only through Outlook invitations and spreadsheets, creating significant administrative work for the Learning & Development team. Employees were often registered for sessions by managers, requiring multiple communications and manual tracking processes. In some cases, learners were enrolled in training sessions without even knowing they had been registered.

The challenge became even greater as the company continued to grow:  “We no longer had a dedicated training administrator, so it became really important that people could register themselves for workshops and training sessions instead of everything being managed manually,” described Grace Prosser, Learning and Development Specialist at Student Roost.

Student Roost also needed a way to standardize onboarding, manage compliance training across multiple job roles, provide better visibility into training completion, and create development opportunities that would support employee retention and succession planning. With a workforce spread across locations throughout the UK, the team needed a centralized system that could automate administrative tasks while giving employees and managers greater ownership of learning.

Litmos provided a single platform to manage online learning, instructor-led training, compliance tracking, reporting, onboarding, and career development programs. By centralizing these activities, Student Roost was able to simplify learning administration while creating a more engaging and scalable learning experience for employees across the business.

After Litmos

From Manual Training Management to Scalable Learning

Over time, Litmos evolved from a learning platform into the central hub for training and development across the organization. As Prosser explained: “We use Litmos for everything really, when it comes to our learning management.”

Increasing Compliance, Reducing Administration, and Developing Future Leaders

Litmos has become a critical part of Student Roost’s learning and development strategy, helping the organization improve compliance, reduce administrative burden, support employee development, and create greater visibility into learning across the business. As the organization has grown to more than 650 employees across operational and HQ functions, Litmos has enabled the Learning & Development team to scale learning programs without scaling administrative overhead.

Achieving 95% Compliance Across a Distributed Workforce

One of Student Roost’s most significant achievements has been its compliance performance. After implementing more structured reporting and visibility through Litmos, the organization consistently maintains compliance rates between 94% and 95%, meeting its internal target.

Monthly reporting allows leaders and Regional Directors to identify completion gaps and provide targeted support where needed. This visibility has been especially valuable in helping managers address challenges within specific employee groups and ensure required training is completed on time.

“Litmos gives us the visibility and reporting tools we need to stay on top of compliance. We’re consistently sitting around 94-95%, which is in line with our internal target and a huge achievement given the size and spread of our teams.” – Grace Prosser, Learning and Development Specialist at Student Roost

Part of what makes this level of compliance possible is Student Roost’s ability to organise learning across a complex workforce. The organization has built 117 teams within Litmos, allowing training to be assigned, tracked, and reported, based on specific roles, departments, locations, and compliance requirements.

“The Teams functionality has been incredibly valuable for us. We can organise learners by role, department, location or even specific development programmes, which means training can be targeted to exactly the right people. It gives us much better visibility, helps managers stay accountable, and ensures everyone gets a learning experience that’s relevant to them,” describes Prosser.

By giving managers visibility into the learners and teams that need support, Student Roost has turned compliance from a reporting exercise into an actionable strategy for continuous improvement.

Eliminating Hours of Administrative Work Through ILT Automation

Instructor-led training has delivered some of the most visible operational improvements. Prior to using Litmos ILT, the team relied on manual scheduling, Outlook invitations, and spreadsheets to manage registrations and attendance. Training calendars had to be maintained separately, invitations were sent manually, and tracking participation required significant administrative effort. Today, employees can register themselves for sessions, managers can approve attendance through automated workflows, and training calendars can be published in advance. Features such as session copying, bulk uploads, Teams integration, and automated notifications have made it easier to manage instructor-led training at scale.

For the L&D team, ILT has become one of the platform’s most valuable capabilities.

“The Microsoft Teams integration has been brilliant for our virtual training sessions. Invitations go straight into calendars, which improves visibility and reduces the need to manage communications across multiple platforms. It’s made the whole experience much simpler for both learners and us as administrators.” – Grace Prosser, Learning and Development Specialist at Student Roost.

Reducing Time Spent on Manual Training Tasks

Litmos has helped Student Roost shift learning ownership from administrators to employees and managers. Rather than relying on manual enrollment processes, employees can now browse available learning opportunities, register themselves for sessions, and take a more active role in their professional development.

The move to self-service registration has improved learner engagement and accountability. According to Prosser: “It’s been really good for making sure that the people signing up are actually signing up because they want to, and they know what’s going on.”

The time savings have been particularly impactful for the Learning & Development team. Rather than creating individual Outlook invitations and manually managing spreadsheets throughout the year, Student Roost can now upload its training calendar in advance and automate much of the registration process. The ability to bulk upload sessions and quickly duplicate recurring training events has eliminated countless administrative tasks and freed the team to focus on higher-value learning initiatives.

When asked how much time Litmos has saved, Prosser said: “Roughly 5 hours of admin per week, which may not sound like much, but it is a few hundred hours per year!”

Sam Tatlow, an Operational Trainer in Student Roost’s Learning and Development department, explained:

“[We have saved] hours and hours because we also have the option to bulk upload as well. It’s a lot easier now that we’ve got the option to copy sessions, which means that we don’t have to input every detail, every time. If we’re doing a customer service session, we can easily copy it, change the location, and we’re done without having to rebuild the entire session structure. Little shortcuts like that make a huge difference.” – Sam Tatlow, Operational Trainer – Learning and Development, Student Roost

Today, a three-person Learning & Development team manages training for more than 650 employees while spending significantly less time on administration and more time supporting employee development and business growth.

Creating a Culture of Employee-Led Development

Managers have also incorporated learning discussions into regular one-on-one meetings, creating more opportunities for career development conversations throughout the business. Tatlow described the impact by saying: “During our one-to-ones, we sit and open the ILT calendar and go through workshops and courses that might be good for their progression.”

This shift has created a stronger learning culture where development conversations happen organically, and employees are empowered to take ownership of their growth. As Tatlow explained: “It means that we don’t have to be part of every development conversation for development to happen.”

Standardizing Onboarding and Compliance Training

Student Roost uses Litmos Learning Paths to deliver standardized onboarding experiences across all locations and job functions. By combining internally developed content with Litmos Content courses, the organization ensures that every new employee receives the same foundational training while reducing the need to create every compliance course internally.

This blended approach allows the Learning & Development team to focus on organization-specific training while leveraging Litmos Content for foundational compliance topics such as GDPR and manual handling.

“Having access to Litmos Content has been hugely beneficial. It means we don’t need to create every piece of compliance or skills-based training ourselves, which frees up time to focus on organisation-specific learning and our wider development strategy. We know the content is high quality and regularly updated, so we can be confident we’re giving our people the right learning at the right time.” – Grace Prosser, Learning and Development Specialist at Student Roost.

The consistency created through Teams and Learning Paths ensures that employees across all locations receive the same onboarding experience, helping establish a strong foundation from day one. As Prosser noted: “Learning Paths have helped us create a much more consistent onboarding experience across all locations, roles and teams, so, we can be confident they’re receiving the right learning from day one.”

Developing Future Leaders and Supporting Retention

One of the most impactful outcomes has come from Student Roost’s pre-management development program. Using Litmos to organize content, assessments, and monitor participant progress, the organization has created a structured pathway for employees interested in leadership roles. The program was designed to support internal succession planning while providing employees with clear career progression opportunities.

The results have been significant. As Prosser shared: “We’ve seen 50% of people who completed our pre-management development programme, Elevate, progress into management roles. For us, that’s a real indicator that we’re not just delivering learning, we’re helping people take the next step in their careers.”

By creating visible pathways into leadership roles, Student Roost has strengthened succession planning while demonstrating a commitment to employee growth and advancement. At the same time, Student Roost reports that employee turnover is currently at its lowest level on record. While multiple factors contribute to retention, the organization’s focus on development opportunities, leadership pathways, and internal mobility has played an important role in helping employees build meaningful careers within the company.

 “The Elevate programme isn’t just about delivering training, it’s about preparing people for their next step. Litmos has helped us create a consistent development experience, track progress effectively, and support succession planning. Seeing over 50% of participants move into management roles demonstrates the impact that structured development can have.” – Amy Richardson, Operational Trainer at Student Roost