Bored, tired, or feeling unproductive? These are just some of the things most of us go through during an average week at the workplace. As fun as meetings and one-to-ones are (let’s face it, they’re not), there are far more effective ways to keep everyone in the loop. Whether that’s regular internal newsletters or general office chit-chat, we can all agree that byte-sized digestible info is the way forward. Podcasts drive productivity by keeping employees informed with company updates, events you're attending, and all the other happenings internally.

Now we all know podcasts are nothing new, but when you add them to your internal communications arsenal, you open up a whole new way for driving employee engagement and keeping people ‘in the know’. Here’s why:

#7. Podcasts Help Remote Workers Stay Connected

This ‘social’ aspect of podcasts comes in handy. Remote work is on the rise and it brings with it exciting opportunities, but isolation is a serious problem.

For remote workers, there's no water cooler talk or office banter, which can lead to disconnection with the business.

Not only does isolation wreak havoc with people’s wellbeing (let’s remember that isolation is a feared form of torture even among hardened prisoners), but operating continually outside a familiar social environment can lead to detachment, communication breakdowns, and eventually a massive loss of engagement and productivity.

Instead, podcasts drive productivity by offering people a chance to hear another person from their company, staying connected with updates and company news. Our founder here at Podcast.co runs a show called Create Reach Inspire were he talks about interesting things at the company, chats with special guests, and keeps everyone updated.

#6. Podcasts Are Consumed Passively 

According to the BBC, the average commute in the UK takes 54 minutes, which adds up to over 200 hours per year. On top of this, most of us spend a fair bit of our lives cooking and cleaning. Podcasts, along with radio and other forms of audio, are the only forms of media that can be combined productively with other activities, usually in a passive way. 

The obvious benefit of this is that the opportunity cost of listening is very low. You don’t have to set aside time for listening, you can do it as a secondary activity in time you’d otherwise waste.

Podcasts convert hundreds of dull hours into wholesome learning experiences or entertainment. This is the number one advantage of podcasting over other forms of media you can use for internal uses as your business.

#5. Podcasts Are Creative & Fun!

Podcasts open up their listener's minds in a very unique way. Since the internet, we’ve been swamped with text. Text struggles to grab attention - I mean, you're probably skimming this right now. 

Those long-form emails, yeah, they aren’t exactly hot content. You can edit all of your own mistakes out of text too easily, which can sometimes feel overly produced, dry, and emotionless. Video can be very powerful, but can often seem scripted and false because most of us aren't natural with a camera in front of our face.

But podcasts are different, they're intimate forms of content.

Listeners feel a relationship with podcasters as if they were part of the conversation. Unlike video, presenters feel relaxed and behave normally, having fun and being themselves, like they're talking to you as an old friend. There's plenty of room to be creative and fun, even if it's for an internal business podcast. Just take our tech support team that started their own podcast about fun things happening at the office, mixed with their own personal stories from finding love to finding the perfect burrito.