Ah, podcasts! Since their early adoption in 2003, podcasts have been on an upward trend, with more than 36% of internet users regularly tuning into their favourite episodes on a weekly basis. Podcasts have evolved into great storytelling feats, to personal opinions on a wide array of topics to straight up argumentative platforms for critics to do battle. There is literally no topic that a podcast somewhere hasn’t covered to some degree.
But how can podcasts support the recruitment process? What topics can be covered to help build your company brand? These are the questions we’ll be answering in our Fetcha insight.
Push your company branding to new heights
Podcasts have become a powerful way to maximise a company/brand’s image. They allow for knowledge sharing and diverse topics to be discussed between members of the team, enhancing visibility to customers, followers and potential employees. We’ve seen businesses in the UK use podcasts to form monthly ‘Job Radio Episodes’, where they can spend 30 minutes discussing new roles available and what the positions entail. We often hear that job descriptions can be quite vague and impersonal, making an application less likely through traditional means. Podcasts remove that barrier by having the team discuss the role in detail, who they’re looking for as well as combining elements of the company culture and life at work. All positive things for an applicant to listen to.
So, what topics can you cover if you’re looking to set out into the world of podcasts? We’ve put together some series/episode topics and ideas below, all of which, if done properly, can significantly help not only your recruitment process, but also help strengthen your company image and authority in your space.
Team Challenges – Where your team can discuss challenges they’ve faced and how they’ve been overcome. If recorded with a positive spin, these types of episodes can help potential applicants connect with your team before even applying.
Job Spec – Here you can be more thorough with open roles and what’s required, having people in your team who do a similar role talk about the job, what it consists of and so on. These are our top pick for recruitment podcasts that have the biggest effect on new hires. Having someone already doing the role, to some degree, and openly speaking about the job and what it’s like offers a massive boon to interested job seekers.
What’s your brand? – If you’re looking to really invest in podcasts to push recruitment, one way is to have a series that focuses on your company brand as well as others. By inviting other company speakers, you can rapidly increase your reach and authority, sharing stories on what makes their brand work, what beliefs and values they focus on and more. Job seekers are usually wanting more information before applying, so these types of readily available audio sessions are perfect for increasing applicant buy-in.
OK, where do I start?
We’ll say this, don’t make a mountain out of a mole hill! Having a podcast series is very simple, just start with the microphones and go from there. We’ve spoken with countless businesses who are looking to start a podcast to support their recruitment push. Most of which are making it overly complicated with a huge shopping list. Start super simple and slowly get better equipment that you can integrate to make your series sound more professional. The main ingredients will be speakers who are confident and happy to share their stories and simple microphones that record good quality audio and are easy to use.
In regards to episode length, most podcasts have an average duration of 30 – 40 minutes, but we’d day anything over 15 minutes is great to start with. As you find your feet, develop your style and bring in more guest speakers, you’ll quickly find that you’re having much longer conversations and that you need to chop up the audio for multiple episodes.
As podcasts are a newer creation to the typical blog posts and articles, you’ll find less competition when starting out. We recommend maximising the searchability of each episode by creating a mini blog that offers highlights on each episode. You can host these on your website to promote SEO and build an audience much faster than a standalone blog post.
Sources of Inspiration
Hopefully you can now see the value a podcast series can offer to your business. The next step will be to get setup and start recording. We’ve listed a few examples below that will provide you some great insight into how other businesses are using podcasts to support their recruitment process. Be sure to listen to a few and make notes on what you like about them, ready to evolve into your own episodes.
The Recruiting Brainfood Podcast by Hung Lee
Hiring on All Cylinders by Entelo
The HR Uprising Podcast by Lucinda Carney
Final thoughts
Podcasts are the next step to a more engaging and interesting recruitment process. And, when coupled with increased video content, provide a modern, exciting and refreshing way to guide and welcome job applicants. We’re looking to launch our own episodes in early 2023, so be sure to follow our LinkedIn to be the first to know.