How to use podcasts to boost employee & leader engagement

Podcasts provide you with a fantastic opportunity for engaging employees and leaders beyond the live workshop.

Their portable format encourages learners to delve further into topics in their own time, away from the desk, and offers the chance for executives and colleagues to role model change in a way that is easily accessible. 

In short, podcasts are a tremendous engagement tool that is quickly becoming a favourite for organisations of all sizes. Our ‘powershot’ podcasts condense big topics into easy-to-digest 20-minute episodes that actively encourage listeners to digest wellbeing & mental health content in their own time. 

In this article we will explore:

1. How you can boost employee engagement with podcasts
2. Why podcasts give leaders and employees a voice
3. How podcasts communicate more knowledge in less time
4. How podcasts fit into your wellbeing & mental health learning journeys
5. A mini case study on how podcasts and other tools were used to bring employees back into the office

As always, our experts are on hand to advise you on all things strategic mental wellbeing for employees and leaders.

 

How you can boost employee engagement with podcasts

Podcast listeners increased by 29.5% from 2018 to 2021. 

Boosted by Covid, podcasting experienced unprecedented growth and podcast audiences diversified.

 

 

It’s easy to see why. Podcasts can be informative and entertaining and can be consumed anytime, anywhere. 

This makes them a great tool for engagement. With podcasts, learning can begin on the commute, continue during lunchtime and even gently nudge on an evening walk. 

While live workshops ensure the learner is active, present and engaged during a collaborative 60-90 minute gap in their week,  a podcast empowers the learner to dig into topics in their own time.

The conversation-style format of a podcast also creates a new style of learning environment. While our live panels do the same for a larger audience, a podcast puts the listener into a ‘fly on the wall’ state of learning.

 

Podcasts give leaders and employees a voice

The importance of role modelling and sharing success stories during an active learning programme is incredibly valuable. Seeing or listening to a leader share their challenge, pledge or achievement is a great way to encourage buy-in across a learning population.

Interviewing leaders and employees during podcast episodes ties in the learning journey further to the organisation.

A powerful motivator for learning populations is the sense of camaraderie and being in it together. It’s why initiatives like Global Step Challenges are so popular – it’s a simple way for colleagues to do something together that has a visible result and benefit.

Podcasts are the same. This is also a great way to connect leaders and employees and add a human voice to a job title or distant name.

 

More knowledge in less time

Our ‘powershot’ podcasts condense big topics into easy-to-digest 20-minute episodes that actively encourage listeners to learn on the move or simply away from their desk. 

We host experts from the fields of nutrition, psychology, leadership wellbeing and development, mental health, mindfulness, sleep, and movement in an inspiring and practical way. 

While video and live workshops are great for broader subjects that need collaboration and speaker-to-learner engagement; podcasts offer a new frontier for engaging the learner when they are in a different state of mind.

 

Get moving and learn

We already demand so much of our people to attend live workshops and be present enough for the learning to stick. While we design our workshops to be as engaging as possible, sometimes learners need to be empowered to explore the topic more in their own time. 

Storytelling is a huge ingredient in learning. While we bring as much of that as we can to the live workshops, podcasts allow us to delve even deeper into these inspiring stories. 

Take our featured episode above with Dr Colin Robertson, one of our leading speakers with a background in human performance and sports science. 

Besides working with professional athletes, Colin has been a key player in advancing the research in chronobiology, looking at the impact of sleep and everything rehabilitation, recovery and rest-related in human performance. 

 

Case study: How podcasts brought employees back to the office 

Challenge: As COVID rules were relaxed, one of our longstanding partners came to us with an all too familiar challenge: how can we gently encourage our people to return to the office? 

Solution: A bespoke podcast series, communications and series of toolkits to empower employees and leaders to design a work environment that they want.

Podcast episodes included interviews with the senior leadership team, workplace wellbeing and vox pop style interviews with colleagues sharing positive stories on collaboration, developing their ideal work environment and more.