My interest in company storytelling through branded company podcasts extends to internal learning & development programs as well. And there are a few companies that are putting those ideas together and making their employee training material consumable as public podcast feeds.

DaVita Leadership Insights

The show is hosted by Dough Miller and Grace Berman of the company’s DaVita University team. They ran a miniseries of six 10-20 minute episodes about “Building Healthy Teams”. It’s a great topic for managers, and it translates really well to the podcast format. The hosts cover a good mix of key principles and content, while also having fun banter and bringing in their personal experiences. And it’s a smart choice to break the material into bite-sized pieces with teasers in each episode about what the listeners will learn next.

I’d love to see more companies trying out this approach. Audio courses give employees a more flexible format to engage in content around their own schedule. And making it a public podcast feed maximizes the adoption rate by removing barriers about how to access the content.

The usual concern raised is about external access to proprietary information. But there are often so many topics that don’t rely on company secrets, and are more about general business skills. In fact, there are benefits that go the other direction - when recruiting prospects and customers can learn more about the company and its culture, it can have positive effects on the hiring process.