How an Internal Podcast Can Humanize Your Brand

Streamline company culture and retain great talent with a medium made for teams.

Peter Drucker once said that “culture eats strategy for breakfast” — and you know what?

We couldn’t agree more.

In a time of poor mental health, unprecedented circumstances, and subpar work-life balance, qualified folks want more from their employers.

So, if you plan to attract and retain exceptional workers, you have to put people before your bottom line.

A huge part of this is creating an atmosphere that works — and taking steps to humanize your company.

This is a tall order. We know. But we have a game-changing trick up our sleeves.

When it comes to building a culture of humanity, there are few tools more powerful than the internal podcast.

With a series made explicitly for your people, the possibilities are endless.

We explore a few of them below.

Connect your team

We all want to feel like we’re part of a real community, right?

Well, communities rely on one crucial thing — real people with real minds, hearts, and personalities.

Sure, you can add some spice to your emails, host regular meetings, and go for workplace coffee dates.

But, when it comes to connecting your rapidly growing team, an internal podcast is a no-brainer.

This medium is:

• More personal than email.

• More in-depth than coffee dates.

• Far more efficient than any in-person meet-up.

When you host a team member on your podcast, you have the opportunity to explore their role, their values, and the contributions they make to your team.

By treating these folks as individuals, you remind your people that they’re part of a community — and never cogs in a machine.

You also have the opportunity to:

• Connect team members that might never meet.

• Learn from the folks you feature.

• Humanize upper management.

• Share ideas and values that inspire the rest of your company.

 

Make room for feelings

The days of stone-faced meetings and icy board rooms are over. Or, at least they should be.

If you want to build a people-first culture, it’s time to leave perfectionism and stiff upper lips in the past.

It’s time to prioritize psychological safety.

A psychologically safe workplace leaves room for error, new ideas, continuous feedback and (of course) feelings. 

By having real conversations on your company podcast — with folks in all sorts of positions — you create room for everyone’s humanity.

A great internal podcast:

• Feels relaxed and unscripted.

• Prioritizes authenticity.

• Forgoes perfectionism.

• Portrays its guests as real folks with real feelings.

By creating this kind of content, you tell your entire team that you respect how they feel — that you respect their humanity.

This is crucial to creating an atmosphere of psychological safety which, in turn, is crucial to high-performing teams.

Demonstrate your values

We can all agree that your team members should be showing up for more than just a paycheque, right?

Folks are choosing with their hearts these days — and the best relationships (professional or otherwise) are based on shared values.

So, if you want to keep great folks with you long term, you have to make your values crystal clear.

Sure, you can touch on your values through company emails, team meetings, and your mission statement. But an internal podcast can take you one step further.

You can use your podcast to explore:

• Causes that are important to your team.

• The why behind your brand.

• How your values will shape the future of your company.

A great brand has a great story. A great story is driven by value and purpose.

These narratives shouldn’t be reserved for prospective customers. They should be consistently driven home with every single member of your team.

 

Put people first

By creating content for the folks that work with you, including the folks that work with you, you send one message loud and clear.

You tell them that they matter.

When you invest in an internal podcast, you show your team that:

• Company culture matters to you.

• Their professional development matters to you.

• Team experience matters to you.

• And that people will always come before profit at your company.

Emails are great (when they don’t get lost in a busy inbox). One-on-one interactions are great (but have their limitations). An internal podcast does it all — effectively and efficiently.

This is a medium that makes space for humanity — for sharing, and learning, and growing, and feeling — even at the largest companies, among the fastest growing teams.

Ready to start yours today? Reach out to the folks that make our company.