Organizations are adjusting to working from home to protect their employees from the outbreak. Recruiters are looking for gigs and employees who can work remotely. The HR team is also juggling a variety of engagement activities to keep their employees happy, valued and informed.
With technology disruption, comes a big relief—yes, you have new innovative ways to stay connected with your employees and make their lives easy.
Internal podcast-is one such way to stay in touch with your employees during this pandemic. If you are wondering what is an internal podcast or consider running an internal podcast in your organization to engage with employees, here you go .
How to create a podcast for employees?
Planning the schedule
You have chosen a creative means to stay abreast with your employees. This involves an adequate timeline and proper planning to stay connected. Be mindful, it takes a considerable amount of time to produce and edit a podcast. So set the expectations right and adhere to regular cadence.
If you are going to air a show every month or quarter, prepare well and plan episodes prior to a month so you don't have last-minute panic. Running a podcast involves the availability of guest speakers and without prior planning you are in for rescheduling and restructuring of your agenda.
Finding the equipment and software
Now that you have the plan for a podcast in place, the next thing is to set the stage right! Make a list of what you need to run a podcast. Don't spend on a recording studio, instead, you can create a professional studio within your organization.
In-built computer mics will be your first choice but getting a USB microphone will be ideal. You can also look at other options like Snowball mic or Yeti. Try to hire mics if you find them at a reasonable rate only for the shows.
Recording a podcast is not difficult but the actual hassle lies in editing the entire audio. So, start looking for editing software and get the right one after analyzing the choices.
Hosting in the right platform
Once you have the content and equipment to record your podcast, and the software to edit it, think of how to host your podcast. There are many platforms available for hosting and finding the right one will leave you baffled. Take time to do basic research on hosting platforms and finalize based on your requirements.
If you are looking for privacy, your podcast can be password-protected too, so your employees with passwords could only listen to your private feeds. Select your tool for the private podcast and feel protected.
Now, that you have created a podcast and ready to air it. What's next?
How to make the employees listen to your podcast?
Touching remote workers
Many employees are working from home off late and they may feel isolated as they have no way to experience community life during the pandemic. Office culture is long forgotten.
To do away with this vacuum, you can air your podcast and rejuvenate lost lonely minds. By airing an internal podcast, your employees will feel valued and cared for.
Here's the story of Mphasis and how they engaged with their employees.
Mphasis on Air (MoA) went public and online from March 2020 onwards, when their employees started working remotely. Though emails, video conferences, and phone calls from HR were always there, Mphasis took their communication to the next level-on air.
MoA has been there for some years, but during the lockdown, they moved MoA to SoundCloud and made it publicly accessible.
Mphasis had several broadcasts, like important updates, insights from management, and shows on health tips, work hacks, and quiz contests. They found new ways to make their employees linger on while interesting communication happened via their radio channel. Employees also received exciting rewards fused with chartbuster music.
Dnyan Shah, Mphasis's global employee-engagement head, and her team worked together over the years to create their unique internal podcast, which is a huge success today.
"We took a hyper-personal approach to ensure that all our employees' concerns were addressed, while leveraging the right technology to maintain a social connect, despite physical distancing, thereby keeping the work culture consistent." expressed Srikanth Karra, CHRO of Mphasis.
Every organization should realize the need to safeguard the welfare of their employees like how Mphasis does. Be assured internal podcasts or radio channels can create and retain employee relationships even when working remotely.
Moreover, running a podcast can eventually create a brand image for any organization and attract talented individuals to work for them. Especially, when recruitment teams are facing unprecedented challenges across the globe to produce a quality hire, you are fortunate enough to avail technology to support your hiring process.
Use technology as a bridge to connect with your employees, treat internal podcasts as the new mode of hiring, and encourage employee referrals through your shows.
As enablers of change, share your ideas of how you can bring in more referrals through your podcasts.