The power of internal podcasting for employee communications

Have you ever heard of a podcast? If not, you should go listen to one now. If yes, you are already halfway there to know the benefits it offers.

Podcasting is an effective tool to distribute information and when used internally helps employees to feel more connected with the company. This helps to foster a sense of cohesiveness and team culture which goes beyond conventional means. The power of internal podcasting, as a means to boost morale and share the vision of the company, is a very powerful, yet underestimated tool.

With remote work and social distancing becoming the norm in the post-pandemic era, almost all the companies worldwide are carrying out their internal communications remotely.

In an era where digital technology disruption is taking the world by storm, internal podcasting can help you to exercise innovation and create engagement. There are companies that have already used the power of internal podcasting to reap benefits for themselves and their workforce. 

If you think you are ready to use internal podcasting for your benefit, but don’t know where to look, help is here. Hypecast with its state-of-the-art app will help you to create and share internal podcasts within your teams and with your clients and business partners.

Internal podcasting has helped improve employee communication in many companies. Let’s have a look at a couple of them which are also available in the public domain.

American airlines

One of the biggest airlines in the world, American Airlines is a name synonymous with the airline industry itself.

They started their Tell Me Why podcast hosted by their VP of communications. The basis of this internal podcast is very simple. They want their people to know why they do the things they do?

Tell Me Why explains the rationale behind the decisions they make or the approach they take as a company. 

The podcast has helped the airlines reach its employees and customers alike, giving them a clearer picture on the way the company operates, and the roadmap for the future. 

Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs has not one or two but three internal podcasts for their employees:

• Exchanges at Goldman sachs- This is a podcast in which experts from within the firm discuss developments which shape the industry, markets and the global economy in general.
• Top of Mind- In this podcast, Allison Nathan of Goldman Sachs does research and deep dives into macro developments that are at the top of the mind of investors, executives and policymakers. 
• Talks at GS- In this Goldman Sachs podcast, they invite leading thinkers to share insights and ideas which are currently shaping the world with their employees

Why internal podcasts should stay internal

Podcasting as you can see from the above examples is becoming an important tool of communication in companies big and small alike, but there are downsides to the ones available in the public domain.

1. Sharing confidential or business critical information is not possible. An internal podcast might inadvertently share sensitive information, which could be poached upon by competitors to their advantage.
2. The purpose of an internal podcast is to build the company culture and cement team building activities. They serve no purpose in the public domain.
3. It becomes difficult to track the analytics of a podcast when made available in the public domain. The messaging takes a backseat when people fail to resonate with it. It also becomes difficult to gauge the engagement in terms of data. The whole messaging of an internal podcast takes a backseat as the information gets lost when it is B2C driven.
4. The content for an internal podcast is created with a specific aim, for the employees. It makes sense to have a targeted approach with a specific focal point, instead of a generalised one. This would help the quality of the content produced in the podcast to be better. Publicly made available podcasts do not serve that purpose.

Since podcasts are ubiquitous, most employees would already be familiar and aware of the way they function. This holds true especially for the younger generation which forms a substantial part of the workforce.

The reasons why communication via internal podcasting is effective can be broadly categorized into two parameters:

Simplicity

Internal podcasts convey a message in the simplest possible way, with minimal overtones and undertones. They are cost-effective to produce compared to other media and require very little equipment to set up. Because of their small setup time, it allows experts to volunteer their time and share their knowledge more effectively.

Podcasts help to add the “human” element to a message and help to clarify the message in a more convenient yet sophisticated manner.

Edify

Podcasting is an excellent medium to educate. Let's take the example of sales teams who are mostly on the road, commuting. To conduct an in-house session, training or a town hall is not only a complicated exercise but one in futility too. Might as well spend the time on the field.

Internal podcasts can help sales people on the move get the latest in learnings, while on the move without having to jeopardize their commissions or clients.

The above apart podcasts are a welcome break to employees who would otherwise be spending quite a lot of their time on screens, which can affect both help and productivity.

How and who can help you create a podcast

Listening to a podcast is the easy part, but can that be said when you want to start your own internal podcast?

The answer to the above question is subjective. Anybody could make a podcast, but not everybody has the expertise or the know-how to create a good one. Something which sets the tone of the message and takes it to the listener with minimal flaws.

Before you set out to start an internal podcast, ask yourself a few questions:

1. What are your objectives from the podcast?
2. Do you have a strategy in place?
3. Who is going to manage this?
4. How will employees get to know about the podcast and engage with it?
5. What are the platforms available to host?

You could spend a fair amount of your precious time pondering over the above queries, trying to figure out the best possible way forward.

The better option would be to connect with Hypecast. It is not just a secure platform but very easy to manage too. 

You could turn your existing comms into audio, create a morning brief or share the latest news. All as easy as sipping your morning cup of coffee. You will also have access to all the analytical data at your fingertips. This would help you to gauge the quality of your content and that of your listeners via relevant data. You would also get curated episodes from the latest podcasts worldwide matching your personal interests. It will help to keep a tab on the trends which are working and the ones which aren’t.

Whatever be your internal podcasting need, Hypecast will be the perfect fit to meet it and exceed it. Please feel free to reach out and book a demo with us. Clients like L’OREAL, Lemken & Taylor Wessing have trusted us with their internal podcasting needs. It’s your turn now.