Many moons ago, I worked for “a major Canadian broadcaster.” Fairly often, our head office in Toronto – a.k.a. the source of all knowledge – would issue a missive through the company intranet: Something about a new policy or procedure, maybe an announcement about a new corporate direction, or a new leadership hire. To be honest, I’m not quite sure of the exact content, because I never read them. Not once. The information was too general, felt “above my pay grade,” and bore no direct relevance to my busy job as a daily current affairs radio producer. Those intranet communiques went straight to the information burial grounds.
Every company has one: a communication graveyard, where top-down messages go to die. It’s full of unread intranet posts, unopened “all-staff” emails, and long PDF updates that never made it past the first paragraph. Leaders spend time crafting messages they know are important, yet employees skip over them, too busy, overwhelmed, or fatigued by yet another channel competing for their attention.
This is intranet fatigue: the slow erosion of engagement with company messaging that happens when communication feels both ever-present and unimportant… like background traffic noise.
The solution? One idea is an employee communication podcast— a format that turns cold corporate updates into human-to-human connection opportunites.
Why an employee communication podcast works
“O, how wonderful is the human voice! It is indeed the organ of the soul,” wrote American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. More than a century later, the same truth applies to company culture. A memo on the intranet simply can’t inspire the way a voice can. An internal podcast makes leadership, peers, and colleagues feel human, relatable, and real. Leaders share strategy authentically. Teams celebrate milestones together. Employees hear their peers recognized in their own words. Instead of being “talked at,” people feel included.
With video podcasts, you can take this a step further, and allow employees the chance to study body language and other non-verbal cues – or share in a smile.
As employees listen (or watch, if you opt for video), they hear the emotional context behind the words: the confidence, the vulnerability. Maybe it’s back-to-school season and the CEO’s battling the same cold as every other parent on staff. Maybe they just got engaged and can’t conceal their optimism. Or maybe they pause, breathe deeply, and deliver a difficult message with compassion. Whatever the tone, it’s unmistakably human; the opposite of the daily barrage of faceless, forgettable bullet-point messages or walls of dense text.
Flexibility makes podcasts a better internal engagement tool
The other thing employees like about podcasts is their portability. Unlike intranet articles or lengthy newsletters, a podcast is built for the rhythm of real life. Employees can listen during a commute, on a coffee run, or while tackling routine tasks. That flexibility matters, especially for hybrid or frontline workers who don’t always have time to sit down at a laptop to read updates.
It’s not another tab to click through. It’s a tool that travels with them. And if it’s well-produced, a company podcast is an opportunity to entertain employees, celebrate them, and/or make them feel part of something bigger than themselves.
That’s why smart organizations are embracing podcasts as a modern internal engagement tool.
When JAR built an internal podcast for lululemon, the challenge was clear: how to bridge the gap between the company’s Canadian headquarters and its global teams. We extended their internal comms strategy by transforming the popular lululemon Speakers’ Series—a monthly inspirational event at the Vancouver head office—into a format everyone could access. We recorded the live talks, layered in background interviews with speakers and employees, and expanded on the themes in ways that resonated across borders. The result: a portable audio podcast that stretched the benefit of an in-person experience into a global source of inspiration and alignment, all while allowing the typically very active lululemon employees the freedom to listen during their workouts.
Strengthening belonging with a company culture podcast
For Prospera Credit Union, the challenge was different but just as human. Fresh off a major merger, they needed to share a new set of foundational values with a combined workforce. Instead of pushing out memos, we brought employees into the conversation. Through candid discussions with staff and subject-matter experts, the podcast unpacked those values in conversational, relatable terms—exploring nuances and surfacing hidden meanings. The series gave employees not just information, but ownership, helping them see themselves inside the new culture.
A company culture podcast creates intimacy across a massive workforce, making a 10,000-person organization feel like a small team that’s come together to share a powerful experience.
- Employees hear colleagues’ stories in their own words
- Leaders speak directly to the team in an authentic way
- Milestones are celebrated with a sense of shared pride
- Emotional guards are let down, and people show up as themselves.
Instead of reading “corporate comms,” employees hear culture in action.
From communication to connection
At its core, an employee communication podcast is about creating belonging. Hearing a colleague’s story builds empathy. Listening to a leader speak directly to you builds trust. Unpacking complex corporate initiatives in conversational terms creates employee confidence. Celebrating milestones together builds pride.
When communication feels human, employees engage, and company culture comes alive.
Key takeaway: If your intranet is becoming a graveyard of unread posts, it’s time to try a new format. Internal podcasts don’t replace your intranet or email. They transform them. They take the same messages and give them a human heartbeat, ensuring employees listen, watch, and most importantly… care.
Jen Moss is the Co-Founder and and Chief Creative Officer of JAR Audio. As JAR’s podcast “doula”, collaborating with enterprise brands to bring great podcasts into the world. With a background spanning CBC Radio, Canada’s National Film Board Digital Studio, Vancouver’s Roundhouse Radio and the University of British Columbia, she guides the creation of captivating podcasts at JAR.
