How Higher Ed HR Is Tackling Loneliness
About 1 in 2 adults in the U.S. report experiencing loneliness, making it a dangerous epidemic. A recent Surgeon General’s report warns that loneliness can be deadly, as harmful as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. The same report warns that loneliness is associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety, and premature death. That means human connection is as necessary for our long-term survival as food and water.
On college and university campuses, there is increasing concern about student isolation, but loneliness can impact everyone, including staff and faculty. Recognizing how and why loneliness affects the higher ed workforce is essential for creating a truly supportive and inclusive campus environment.
For this article, we spoke with higher ed HR professionals across the country to find out how they’re tackling loneliness on their campuses through belonging and inclusion initiatives. In our conversations, they emphasized that the higher ed workforce is generally drawn to the community feeling and sense of purpose that a career in higher education offers — but this community must be built and maintained. Cindy Cho, senior human resources business partner at Stanford University, noted that employees desire a supportive and fulfilling work environment that they may not get elsewhere: “What I’ve noticed is they expect a little more from a university. We are not a typical employer.”
Here’s the good news: efforts to ensure connection and belonging not only fight loneliness, but can also boost recruitment and retention, increase employee satisfaction, and can contribute to making your institution an employer of choice.
What Is Loneliness?
“Loneliness usually isn’t by itself,” Jeanette Diamond told us. As the wellness and staff development coordinator at Dickinson College, she has thought deeply about how loneliness shows up on her campus. “There’s usually something else that goes with it. It might be a side effect or something that happens as a result of a life circumstance.”
That’s what makes loneliness so hard to tackle on its own. It’s not a single emotion, but a tangle of emotional, mental, and physical states and symptoms. A lack of social connection, for example, is associated with increased depression and anxiety. Perhaps surprisingly, the COVID-19 pandemic is not entirely to blame for the uptick in loneliness — it’s been on the rise for years. Why loneliness has risen in recent years is a thornier question, but certain groups do seem to be experiencing loneliness more acutely than the general population.
Who Is Lonely?
Young adults. While older adults may be more socially isolated, young adults are more likely to report feelings of loneliness. According to one study, loneliness among young adults has increased every year from 1976 to 2019. The Making Caring Common Project at Harvard University noticed that a significant majority of respondents ages 18 to 25 “reported acute feelings of loneliness in the previous month.”[i]
Parents and caregivers. Caregiving responsibilities can be especially isolating, with 41% of parents saying they are so stressed they cannot function most days, according to a report on parental well-being released by the Surgeon General last year. Single parents are much more likely to experience loneliness.
People with lower incomes. People who earn less than $50,000 per year are more likely to be lonely, with 63% of adults in this group reporting loneliness, 10 percentage points higher than those who earn more.[ii]
Marginalized or isolated groups. Other groups are also at risk of heightened levels of loneliness, including people with poor health (both physical and mental) and people with disabilities. People who are isolated by geography (for example, rural residents) or people whose ethnicity, race, or identities are marginalized may also be at risk, including LGBTQ+ people.
How Does Loneliness Affect Work?
Productivity and performance. A Cigna report on loneliness in the workplace found that “less than half of lonely employees say they are able to work efficiently (47%) and perform to the best of their abilities (48%), compared to about two-thirds of non-lonely employees who are able to perform efficiently (64%) and at their peak performance (65%).”
The same study found that poor physical and mental health associated with loneliness also interferes with work. Lonely employees are more than twice as likely to miss a day of work due to illness.
Lonely employees are more than twice as likely to miss a day of work due to illness.
Engagement and satisfaction. Engaged employees are less lonely, according to a Gallup study on the global workplace. If employees are engaged in their work — meaning they feel work is meaningful and they are connected to a team and an organization — the likelihood of loneliness is lower. A U.S.-based study, also by by Gallup, found that engaged employees are 64% less likely to be lonely than employees who are not engaged.
How Can Higher Ed HR Address Loneliness?
Higher ed HR leaders have grown increasingly concerned about the effects of loneliness. “It’s impacting everyone,” Matthew DeTemple, assistant dean of Shepard Broad College of Law at Nova Southeastern University, told us. “We still lack a complete understanding of the long-term impacts of COVID-19 and the effects of social isolation. Many individuals with pre-existing mental health issues found themselves in overwhelming situations without adequate support.”
To address how higher ed HR can battle loneliness and boost connection, we spoke with HR practitioners and leaders from a range of institution types and sizes, including Dickinson College, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Stanford University, and the University of Mississippi. Here are the ways they’re helping to foster a culture of connection and well-being.
Colleague-to-Colleague Support
Employee Resource Groups Foster Belonging at Stanford
Stanford’s belonging challenges are similar to those of many large research institutions: a sizeable staff population (over 18,000) spread out over multiple campuses, with many people working hybrid or remote. This poses challenges with retention and belonging. That’s where Employee Resource Groups come in.
Cindy Cho has extensive experience in leading and advocating for ERGs. She’s been chair of the Asian Staff Forum at Stanford since 2012, and recently presented on the topic at the 2024 CUPA-HR Annual Conference and Expo. ERGs “provide people those opportunities to come together and meet other people on campus so they can develop connection with other staff and that connection to the university as well. Hopefully, if they feel like they’re a part of the university, they’re more likely to stay.”
“Hopefully, if they feel like they’re a part of the university, they’re more likely to stay.”
For Cho, ERGs provide a place of true belonging at a large institution like Stanford. “It’s providing people those opportunities to connect in a space where people feel more comfortable. They don’t have to explain themselves.”
Allies are also welcome. “I had somebody who attended one of our Lunar New Year events, and they said, I’m not Asian, is it OK for me to be here?” She responded, “We welcome you to be here, and we hope that if you have any questions, you feel free to ask. We can help you learn what your zodiac sign is, or how we traditionally celebrate.”
ERGS at Stanford are also moving away from using the term “employee” to “staff resource group,” a shift that likewise signals to staff that they belong and that there is programming designed to specifically support that population.
Eagle Guides Fly High at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
At Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, increasing connection became a priority in the wake of the pandemic. In 2020, Embry-Riddle suddenly found itself struggling to hire. Andrea Hooper, executive director of HR, said, “We didn’t really have a strong engagement arm prior to COVID. People came to Embry-Riddle, and they never left.”
Finding themselves in a different world after returning to campus, HR shifted its focus to retention. “What can we do to help ensure that they feel part of something bigger, that they feel part of this community — the history, the traditions that we have?”
Thinking back on her own feelings of loneliness when she was onboarding led Hooper to help develop the Eagle Guide program. Eagle Guides — an elevated buddy system named after the Embry-Riddle mascot — matches incoming employees with current employees. “So no one has to wonder,” Hooper said, “Where can I go? Who can I talk to? Who do I go with to an event on campus, so I don’t feel uncomfortable mingling with people?”
The Eagle Guide program is designed with belonging in mind, with pairs matched based on interests rather than randomly assigned. One exciting benefit that Eagle Guides tell new employees about is observer flights, when employees get to ride along with a student pilot. “A lot of people don’t know that. It’s a pretty cool way to see what our instructor pilots are doing on a daily basis.”
Cayla Powell, the employee engagement and development manager, said Eagle Guide participants share their success stories at quarterly new-hire luncheons: “We couldn’t have written a better script for the program. They’re sharing about how helpful it’s been on both sides, and it’s really helped to engage employees in Embry-Riddle.”
Building Strong Bonds in a Remote World
Stanford’s Multi-Campus Challenge
When constructing their administrative campus, Stanford expanded into nearby Redwood City. “The Redwood City campus said they felt isolated and removed from historic campus,” Cho told us. “They tend to be more in the business-facing part of the university. A good five to seven miles away from campus, they don’t feel the physical connection to the academic mission. So how do we find opportunities to bring employees back together if they don’t have the opportunity to come to an in-person event?”
Pondering this question led Cho to be more mindful about designing events for the Asian Staff Forum she leads, making sure to include the Redwood City campus and remote employees. “If we can hybrid the event, we will try to do that. There is one event per year that’s our key focus — a big lunch for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month — and we have made it, essentially, three events in one. We host one location on historic campus and one location at our Redwood City campus, and then we also offer it on Zoom, so that if you cannot come in person or you’re remote, you can still hear the speaker.”
Slack is another safe, welcoming space encouraging social connection among the Asian Staff Forum. “A lot of people will share things that are happening within the community. For example, people were asking last week about any Diwali events happening nearby.”
A Global Horizon at Embry-Riddle
With some teams fully remote, and a campus in Prescott, Arizona, plus a worldwide arm of their university, Embry-Riddle takes significant steps to ensure quality in-person connections, including:
- An annual holiday party, where anyone who lives regionally is invited.
- In-person retreats hosted by the chief information officer for the fully remote IT team. IT staff are flown in for engagement activities, events and recognition.
- An in-person summit that brings together U.S.- based and international employees of the worldwide campus.
- A week spent on the Embry-Riddle home campus in Daytona Beach when someone is hired into HR on the Prescott campus.
- Rotating teams that travel between campuses to collaborate on projects in person.
- A Microsoft Teams-based book club hosted by HR where connecting as a team is the main goal.
Resource Spotlight: Book clubs are a great way to connect. Embry-Riddle’s HR book club is currently reading Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High. That’s one of the books our CUPA-HR leaders chose for their book club recommendations.
“In HR, the Word Is Always Balance”
All the HR professionals we spoke with emphasized the importance of work flexibility — and acknowledged its challenges. Namely, they worried employees who are remote or hybrid may not always feel like they’re part of something bigger.
But a return-to-office mandate was not what they had in mind. Instead, think balance and purpose, said Brandon Young, vice president and chief human resources officer at Embry-Riddle. “In HR, the word is always ‘balance,’ right? I think we’re in a time where maybe the pendulum swung one way and we’re trying to find where that right balance is. And if you have everyone in the office, and they just sit at their desk all day, that is not serving the purpose.” At the same time, he warned that “work-from-home is not the all-encompassing panacea that sometimes people think it is because there is something lost from that. Every decision has a cost.”
Resource Spotlight: Register for the March 5 Higher Ed HR Accelerator that focuses on making Higher Ed an employer of choice.
Implementing Comprehensive Well-Being Strategies
Removing the Stigma Around Mental Health at Dickinson College
Jeanette Diamond of Dickinson College believes that a broad-based approach to mental health care on campus can help address loneliness. Dickinson has made a recent push to renew its focus on mental health and well-being, starting by destigmatizing mental health issues. “We plan anything from having some of our professors in psychology give a talk on a mental health topic, to regularly offering mindful meditation practice and yoga at different times during the week,” Diamond said of their holistic approach.
Employees might forget their EAP benefits in a time of crisis, and Diamond is proactive about reminding them of their three free visits per year. “All the employee has to do, whether they’re part time or full time, is call the organization and identify as a Dickinson employee.” She’s been pleased with the results. “I’ve had employees come up to me after the fact — unsolicited, because I wouldn’t ask — and they’ve told me it’s life-changing. It’s really turned things around for them.”
Catering to a variety of well-being needs is important, Diamond said, but for her the key is “just removing the stigma.”
The Right to Well-Being at the University of Mississippi
“At the University of Mississippi, employees have three wellness hours per month that are each employee’s right,” explained Lynn Wilkins, the work life resources program manager. “It’s state statute, so we don’t even need to worry about university policy on that.” Employees can divide those hours up as they see fit for any organized campus health offering, whether it’s a walk, an employee resource group, a fitness class, or a workshop that focuses on a mental health and wellness topic — they all qualify.
While the state of Mississippi has encouraged the right to wellness, it’s up to the institution to create wellness programs that work. Wilkins cited their “robust worksite wellness program that includes all kinds of opportunities, bringing together people from across different departments that may not meet otherwise. It might be a monthly meal, or it might be a lecture or a plant swap.”
Recreational offerings for employees have also expanded, including a $5-per-month gym membership and a physical trainer specifically for employees.
Getting Buy-In
Colleagues
Empowering colleagues to reach out to each other is an important strategy for Diamond. “For wellness programs, we tell people to bring a buddy, encouraging them to bring someone else who might not be as easily pulled away from their desk. It might not be the answer all the time, but usually if you can get one person to go, they can get the other person to go with them so that they’re not going solo.”
Supervisors
Researchers of workplace loneliness have found that people who didn’t feel lonely at work had managers who supported their relationships with others.[iii] Empowering supervisors to encourage workplace connection is critical.
Empowering supervisors to encourage workplace connection is critical.
One easy way to do that is to schedule events either after normal working hours or during the lunch hour. But, Cindy Cho said, this is trickier with non-exempt colleagues who may need to clock in and clock out or might not work a traditional office schedule. Both Diamond and Cho try to schedule events at different times to accommodate varying schedules.
They also stressed the importance of getting buy-in from leadership so supervisors feel empowered. “I think that’s where the university needs to step in and provide additional recognition and support and say, we want to support the work of these groups,” Cho said.
Leadership
For these efforts to succeed, leadership should convey the message that connection is a priority. “It has to have to have buy in, top-down and bottom-up,” Diamond said of Dickinson’s comprehensive well-being advocacy. “You can sometimes get the buy-in from the people on one level, but not always get it from the other. That can be a real challenge, and it’s not always budget. Sometimes it’s about priorities.”
More Tips for Increasing Connection
Walk the Walk in HR
HR has to set a campus precedent, Diamond said. “We promote a lot of different programs and events. We walk the walk, and we talk the talk. We encourage people to sign up and go. We encourage supervisors to allow their staff to attend as long as it doesn’t create a ridiculous burden of hardship.”
Institute Leave and Workplace Flexibility for Parents and Caregivers
As a point person for working parents at the University of Mississippi, Lynn Wilkins has seen her fair share of stressed caregivers. Caretaking roles, she said, are exhausting and isolating. At times, “it’s all employees can do to show up to work and play that role at home.” Likewise, grief can be all-consuming in a way that interferes with a person’s ability to function, which is why the University of Mississippi has a biweekly grief support group moderated by a licensed counselor.
Be Intentional About Returning to the Office
The No. 1 myth researchers of workplace loneliness seek to bust is that loneliness can be fixed with in-person work. “To villainize remote work as the culprit for loneliness is to miss the nuances of the problem,” they stress. If a culture of connection is lacking, then a return to office mandate won’t solve the problem of loneliness.
The No. 1 myth researchers of workplace loneliness seek to bust is that loneliness can be fixed with in-person work.
Returning to the office just to interact online also won’t necessarily increase connection. “It drives me crazy when we have people who are using Teams for three doors down,” Embry-Riddle’s CHRO Brandon Young said.
Instead, he said, connection needs to be intentionally designed. It also needs to address the nuances of loneliness. Research has shown that colleague-to-colleague connection is only one dimension among many that make workers feel connected to their job. This study urges leaders to consider CLEAR connections: employees’ connection with their colleagues, leader, employer and role.
Consider a Volunteering Program
Loneliness is often accompanied by a lack of purpose. A Harvard study found that “lonely adults were much more likely to report lacking meaning (69%) and a sense of purpose (67%) compared to those less or not lonely (32% and 36%, respectively).” Two-thirds of the respondents also said that helping others, such as community service, would reduce their loneliness. Studies have shown that volunteering also boosts employee satisfaction.
Recognize Employees
Employees need to feel like they are part of something bigger — that’s one of the key points the HR pros we spoke with stressed. Recognizing employees for good work, or a special occasion like a birthday, can make them feel valued and included.
Connection and employee recognition work hand-in-hand in the Embry-Riddle Eagle Guide program. “I always like that personal touch,” Hooper said of choosing guides. When she asks people to join as guides, she tells them, “We think you would be really great for this program because I see you interacting with some people, and I think you just have that warm demeanor that’s welcoming.” That’s a form of engagement in itself — they feel appreciated for being good liaisons.
Resource Spotlight: How does your recognition program stack up? Audit your program and read about key considerations for effective recognition programs.
Get the Word Out
Think about incorporating messaging about loneliness in your well-being programs. Getting the word out about ways loneliness can affect mental health is key, according to Making Caring Common, which notes that lonely people might benefit from “information and strategies that can help them cope with loneliness, including strategies that help them identify and manage the self-defeating thoughts and behaviors that fuel loneliness.”
Gather Data
Most of the HR experts we spoke with noted how tricky it is to inquire about loneliness, both because it’s enmeshed with other emotions and it’s such a personal, subjective feeling. But there are ways to gather data. Committees in charge of climate or pulse surveys may consider adding questions that draw from the Work Loneliness Scale created by the Institute for Life at Work.
Keep It Simple
Offer time for connection — and food if you can.
These two seemingly small things can make a huge impact, according to a study on worker loneliness. After surveying workers on eight types of social interaction, “three types of social opportunities were almost universally ranked highest on the list, no matter how we cut the data: free communal lunches, meetings that devote time to personal chitchat, and happy hours.”
“I know it’s an old cliche, but culture eats strategy for lunch. You’ve got to set the right culture — engagement, collaboration, a sense of belonging.”
Examine Campus Culture
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to the complex feeling of loneliness. But HR pros consistently point to the importance of fostering a campus culture that prizes inclusion, connection and belonging. “I know it’s an old cliche, but culture eats strategy for lunch,” Young said. “You’ve got to set the right culture — engagement, collaboration, a sense of belonging. That’s what’s going to help retention. That’s what’s going to help the level of engagement.”
A thriving, healthy work culture can help reduce feelings of isolation, but it can also significantly impact employee retention, engagement and happiness. When employees feel respected and supported, they are more likely to remain in their job and contribute more meaningfully to their work.
Please use the following when citing this article: Burrell, J. (2025). How Higher Ed HR Is Tackling Loneliness. Higher Ed HR Magazine.
[i] Shaer, M. (2024, Aug 27). Why is the Loneliness Epidemic So Hard to Cure? The New York Times.
[ii] The Cigna Group. (2021). The Loneliness Epidemic Persists: A Post-Pandemic Look at the State of Loneliness Among U.S. Adults.
[iii] “When we asked respondents whether they felt that their manager was doing enough to support their relationships with others at work, only 18% of the highly lonely employees said yes, compared with 77% of the people who weren’t lonely at work.” Noonan Hadley, C. and Wright, S. (2024, Nov-Dec). We’re Still Lonely at Work. Harvard Business Review.