With remote work here to stay, it can be hard to keep everyone feeling like they’re part of a bigger team. Podcasts can help.

“The pandemic finally broke what had been a broken work culture, and organizations are just beginning to mend some of those fences. Internal podcasts provide an ocean of opportunity for storytelling and candor. Glossy videos and corporate speak no longer suffice.”

Dana Elmquist, President, Fieldcast

Podcasts are beginning to be used internally by more organizations to re-set culture and build cohesion. And to keep people from quitting.

It’s true. You might have thought that by now—the midway point of 2023, with the pandemic officially over— that we’d all be getting back to the office. But that’s simply not happening. According to the Flex Report, which collects insights from more than 4,000 companies employing more than 100 million people globally, the share of workers in the office full-time dropped to 42% over the past three months. That’s down from 49% in the first quarter of this year, Flex says. Meanwhile, the share of offices with hybrid work arrangements increased, hitting an average of 30% during the second quarter—up from 20% tallied during the first three months of this year.

The bottom line? Hybrid seems to be gaining share. And internal podcasts—those made by a company with the participation of its knowledge workers—are helping to make that possible. Internal podcasts are becoming a big part of the new hybrid work culture, especially when they’re launched in highly conversational, worker-relevant topic formats designed to keep everyone feeling both heard and like they belong, regardless of where they are physically.

Still not convinced? More organizations are creating in-house, employee-relevant conversations that can be consumed on demand—regardless of where people are physically. Most surveyed say they are doing it to:

Help strengthen the connections between people in the organization—especially those working at nonprofits—by making them feel more connected and valued. According to the 2023 Nonprofit Trends Report, 67% of nonprofit marketing and communications workers surveyed before the pandemic said they worked from the office. Today, the report says, only 5% of them do so, and it’s creating a new culture and management challenge for social purpose organizations. “It’s a striking and fundamental change in the way communications work gets done in the nonprofit sector,” says Kivi Leroux Miller, founder and CEO of the Nonprofit Marketing Guide and trends report.

Personalize communication, in tone and content. When CEOs, division chiefs or executive directors speak naturally, as they would in a normal conversation, it makes it easier to pay attention to their message. And when the podcasts aired over internal feeds targeted to dozens or to thousands and include conversations with employees about common goals or concerns, it can bring employees closer to each other.

Increase the convenience for people to consume information. No more having to comb through an endless stream of emails or having to stay glued to a screen to watch a pre-recorded video.

Keep people up to date on things. They can help a new employee get onboarded quickly, or help existing workers develop additional skills in a new or current role.

Podcasts created internally for the office also can become a great space in which to have challenging conversations— to help internal stakeholders learn more about what’s happening across society relevant to their organization’s work and cause advocacy. Consider Dropbox. It launched an internal program of events called ‘Truth and Reconciliation’ in 2020, in response to the Black Lives Matter movement. It was a way to start a conversation about institutional racism and how to create change. Launching an internal podcast was a key part of that initiative. All of the talks held live were made accessible to employees as a series, and gave them a chance to weigh in with questions and share their biggest takeaways with each other.

And that’s not all. Podcast analytics allow organizations to see which episodes are most popular, and which segments resonate most with internal stakeholders.

Need more information about how to create an internal podcast for your organization? Give us a shout. We can help.