Why employee onboarding often feels overwhelming
When someone joins your company, they face a long list of things to learn. New tools, new names, new processes and a new market. In many organisations, this becomes a heavy mix of documents, slides and back to back calls.
Managers try to help by scheduling more meetings. People from different teams join to “explain their part”. The result is a crowded calendar in the first weeks, with information that is hard to remember and hard to revisit.
For distributed or hybrid teams, the problem grows. Time zones make it difficult to schedule live sessions. New hires start before a cohort is ready, so you repeat the same onboarding sessions many times.
Most companies do not lack content. They lack an onboarding format that respects time, attention and different ways of learning. This is where employee onboarding with internal podcasts becomes powerful.
What employee onboarding with internal podcasts looks like
Employee onboarding with internal podcasts means turning key parts of your onboarding into a curated audio journey. Instead of sharing everything in live calls, you record short episodes that guide new hires through what matters most.
For a new colleague, it feels like following a friendly series: open their favourite app, press play and listen while walking, commuting or organising their workspace. They hear the voices of leaders, managers and peers, not just read bullet points.
Your episodes do not need to be polished like a public show. They need to be clear, honest and intentional. A ten minute episode on your origin story can replace a long presentation. A short interview with a customer facing teammate can teach more than a long wiki page.
When you deliver this through private feeds designed for internal use, you control who listens, in which order and at which stage of their onboarding.
How you can use podcasts in employee onboarding
You do not need to rebuild your entire onboarding to use audio. You can start small with a few focused use cases and expand from there.
Welcome and company story
Record a warm welcome from the founders or leadership team. Share why the company exists, what you are building and how you want people to feel when they work with you.
Culture, values and ways of working
Turn your values and operating principles into episodes with examples. Explain how decisions are made, how teams collaborate and what “good” looks like in daily work.
Product and customer basics
Create short explainers where product and customer teams talk through the problem you solve, your main features and who your customers are. New hires can revisit this content as many times as they need.
Role specific tracks
Add role based playlists for sales, support, marketing or engineering. Include episodes on tools, processes and common scenarios so each person feels better prepared in their first weeks.
Benefits of using podcasts in employee onboarding
When you introduce internal podcasts into your onboarding, you are not just adding another channel. You are redesigning how new hires connect with your company.
Faster understanding of culture and context
Voice makes it easier to feel nuance and emotion. New hires hear how leaders speak, what teams celebrate and how you talk about customers, not just what is written on a slide.
More flexible first weeks
Instead of back to back sessions, people can spread onboarding content over their days. They stay fresher and retain more because they are not overloaded.
Consistent experience across locations
Every new hire, no matter their office or time zone, receives the same core messages. Local managers can add their own sessions on top, but the foundation stays aligned.
Less repetition for managers
Instead of repeating the same introduction many times per year, managers record it once and focus live time on questions, mentoring and real collaboration.
How Brandscast supports employee onboarding with audio
Brandscast is built to make employee onboarding with internal podcasts simple and secure. You focus on the content while the platform takes care of delivery, access and analytics.
With Brandscast, you can:
- Create private onboarding podcasts for all new hires or specific roles and regions.
- Group episodes into tracks that match the first days, weeks or months of the employee journey.
- Invite new hires easily with private links that work in popular podcast apps or a web player.
- Control who listens to what so people only see the onboarding content that fits their role.
- Use AI transcripts so new hires can skim or search content when they can not listen with audio on.
- Track listening activity to understand which episodes new hires actually consume.
You do not need to build a custom system or manage public feeds. Brandscast gives you a focused tool for internal audio that fits modern onboarding.
How to add internal podcasts to your onboarding in four steps
You do not need a big project to test employee onboarding with audio. A small, focused experiment is enough to see how it works for your team.
1. Pick one onboarding moment to improve
Choose a specific part of your onboarding that would benefit from audio. Your welcome message, your company story or a product basics series. Start with one clear goal so you can measure the impact.
2. Outline a short series of episodes
Define three to six episodes that cover the essentials for that moment. Give each episode one main idea and keep them short. It is easier for new hires to follow and complete a clear path than a single long recording.
3. Record and publish in Brandscast
Record using a simple microphone and upload your episodes to Brandscast. Create a private onboarding podcast and invite the next group of new hires. Share simple instructions on how to subscribe and listen.
4. Collect feedback and refine the journey
After their first weeks, ask new hires how the audio helped them and what was missing. Combine their feedback with listening analytics. Use these insights to improve episodes and decide which other parts of onboarding you want to move to audio.
Frequently asked questions about employee onboarding with podcasts
Will new hires really listen to onboarding episodes
When onboarding content is relevant, short and easy to access, adoption is usually strong. New hires are motivated to understand their new company. Audio lets them do it in moments that suit them instead of adding more calls to their calendar.
Do we need a full studio to start
No. A simple USB microphone and a quiet room are enough to begin. For internal onboarding, clarity matters more than perfect production. You can always improve quality later if you need to.
How do we keep onboarding content private
With Brandscast, each new hire receives a private feed and you manage access from a central dashboard. When someone leaves or changes role, you can update or revoke their access quickly so internal content stays protected.
How does audio fit with our existing onboarding
Audio does not replace everything you do today. It complements your current onboarding by moving explanations and stories into a more human, flexible format. You can still use documents, training platforms and live sessions for practice and interaction.
Make employee onboarding more engaging with Brandscast
If you want new hires to feel informed, confident and connected from their first weeks, internal podcasts can become a key part of your employee onboarding.
Create a private onboarding podcast in a few minutes and invite your next group of new hires.