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In episode 33 of “The JoyPowered™ Workspace Podcast,” JoDee and Susan discuss creating, utilizing, or enhancing podcasts for internal communications with expert podcaster Jen Edds of The Brassy Broadcasting Company. Topics include why podcasts are great for internal communication, why now is a good time to start a company podcast, and how to get started.

Podcasts can be a great way to reach employees that aren’t always in the office or sitting behind a desk. They’re also on-demand content that can be accessed whenever it works for the employee, so chances are better that it will actually be consumed. If you’ve been thinking about creating a company podcast, now is a great time; there’s a really low barrier to entry both financially and in terms of the equipment required. Our voices are a powerful way to connect, and nuances that might get lost in text and email can be conveyed through audio.

There are no rules of podcasting, so it’s a great place to have fun and stretch your creativity. Episode length should be based on how long you can entertain your audience, and if producing every week or every other week is a grind, you can release a bunch of episodes at a time.

When you’re ready to get started, all you need is a decent USB microphone! Be cognizant of the space you’re recording in; you should be surrounded by material that will absorb sound, and avoid hard surfaces that cause sound to bounce around, like hardwood floors, metal, or glass. There are a variety of free or inexpensive software applications you can use to record and edit your podcast, so overall it doesn’t have to cost a lot of money.

There’s still a lot of education to be done around podcasting; your younger employees are more likely to be familiar with podcasts. Luckily, they can be shared on lots of platforms, like your website, YouTube, or Amazon Echo, so they’re still easy to share with employees who have less experience and knowledge of podcasts.

In this episode’s listener mail, Steven asks how to handle people in the workplace who consistently use foul language. JoDee and Susan discuss the rules governing whether you need to pay interns or not.

Mentioned in This Episode:

• Purple Ink, the HR consulting firm JoDee owns
• Susan Tinder White Consulting, the HR consulting firm Susan owns
• JoyPowered, JoDee’s first book
• The JoyPowered Family, JoDee’s second book
• The Brassy Broadcasting Company, Jen’s company
• Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the Beatles album Jen uses as an example of how long things can be entertaining
• Audio-Technica ATR2100, Jen’s favorite microphone
• Carmel Digital Media Lab, the location where JoyPowered is recorded
• Garage Band, Logic Pro, Adobe Audition, and Audacity, Jen’s favorite software applications for recording and editing podcasts
• Zoom, a video meeting application you can use to call and record guests
• YouTube, an easy way for people who aren’t familiar with podcasts to find and listen to your podcast
• Amazon Echo, which you can ask to play podcast episodes hosted on Libsyn
• Libsyn, where Jen’s podcast is hosted
• Jen’s free podcasting course through Teachable
• Jen on Instagram and YouTube
• The Department of Labor’s “primary beneficiary test”, which determines whether interns are entitled to wages and overtime pay
• Gut+Science, a podcast that explores employee engagement insights you can act on from CEOs you can trust