Employee Communication: Internal Blogs and Podcasts Analysis Report

This report examines the strategic use of podcasts and internal blogs as communication tools within an organization. It begins with an introduction highlighting the importance of internal communication and the growing interest in these digital platforms. The report then delves into the advantages, such as keeping employees updated, serving as a permanent knowledge catalog, and reaching remote employees. It supports these points with evidence from a case study and academic research. However, the report also acknowledges disadvantages, including policy control challenges and the lack of a 'push' mechanism for critical information. Recommendations are provided, emphasizing the need for clear policies and a comprehensive communication strategy to maximize the benefits of these tools. The report concludes by reiterating the significance of effective communication strategies for organizational success.

Running head: PODCAST AND INTERNAL BLOGS AS A MEAN TO COMMUNICATE TO THE EMPLOYEE 1
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Podcast and internal blogs as a mean to communicate to employee: 2
Podcast and internal blogs/vlogs as a mean to communicate to the employee
Introduction
In any organization, communication is very important both within and outside the
organization. In order to keep the communication going between the employer and the employee
and between the organization and clients, the organization must install tools of communication
because communication helps to build a bond between various stakeholders in an organization.
This report will focus on how the company can benefit from installing podcast and internal
blogs/vlogs. The main purpose of this thesis is to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of
employees sharing information through the podcast and internal blogs.
Advantages of using podcasts and internal blogs to communicate with the employee.
Firstly, the use of podcast and internal blogs helps the employees in an organization be up
to date all the time. It is important to keep the employee updated about the project or event that is
going on which is very difficult to communicate in time. Also, it will be a wastage of time and
resources to call for a meeting to communicate a minor chunk of information. The podcast and
internal blogs can help in the process of communicating this minor hunk of information to all
employees in the organization. Employees log in to the company’s site read the information that
is posted and can stream the video or audio message to watch later in his/her free time. In the
case study that was conducted in BT company, (2013) the results showed that the employee
benefited from the installation of podcast and internal blogs.
The results showed that this communication strategy was effective where employees
were sharing information among themselves. Also, the employees were also able to view the
content whenever they are online or offline and they were able to comment on particular

Podcast and internal blogs as a mean to communicate to employee: 3
information, rate the information and outline the information which was inaccurate. Finally, the
result showed that the employees who were willing to participate in sharing information
benefited in their job performance while those that did not participate in sharing idea showed low
performances in work.
Secondly, podcasts and internal blogs act as a permanent catalog for the organization
knowledge. Internal blogs and podcasts assemble and structure the organization information and
content hence making it easily accessible and available to every employee. The organization
knowledge that has been published by the use of internal blogs is posted in the catalog
permanently. This makes it easier for the employee to search for an answer concerning the
organization knowledge. The strategy enhances the internal employee communication and can
increase the productivity of the organization by allowing the employee to share their various idea
and experiences quickly and in an informal way.
According to Agerdal-Hjermind, (2014) argued that the employees in an organization are
brought together and represented by the blogs. He continues to argue that communication
continues to flow in either direction through the internal blogs and podcast linking the workers
internally, to the different level of management and to various outside resource holder of the
company. This linkage helps the company to come up with a strategy that will facilitate the
storage of its resources in a catalog in order to enhance the transparency in the organization. The
results of the case study showed that employees were using theses platforms access the resource
material from the company.
Finally, internal blogs and podcast can be used to reach the employee who are in a remote
area. When the organization is operating globally, many employees are widespread all over the
world and it is difficult to engage them in a face to face communication. Also, it will be more

Podcast and internal blogs as a mean to communicate to employee: 4
difficult to engage workers who are in a remote area to make sure they know what is the
company doing. To rule out challenge the company uses the podcast for workers can be a real a
good idea in order to engage the workers who live in remote areas. The podcast can be defined as
a technology that has been developed where the employee can listen during their own time.
According to O’Bannon, Lubke, et al, (2011) argued that podcast provides a way of showing the
company competency in their day to day activities. They continue to argue that a stronger
connection is created when the employees listen to the voice than when he/she read the message
on the company’s webpage. Also, to enhance communication podcasting was incorporated in the
internal blogs where the employee can download and listen later.
Disadvantages of using podcast and internal blogs to communicate with the employee
Policy control on the use of internal blogs and podcast is a problem for many managers.
The company policy specifies what kind of information is supposed to be posted on the
company’s blog. Therefore the process of scrutinizing the comments and also the posts can be
time-consuming. Deciding on the time the company can spend to make sure that the employee
adheres to the policy the company can decide to trust on employee bearing in the mind that
violation of the policy can occur anytime and power to punish the offender weaken
(Gibbs,2019). Gibbs continued to argue that kind of offense that an employee committee will
depend on the company he/she is working for.in order to reduce the violation the company
should induct the employees on the policies that are embedded with these new technologies.
The use of internal blogs and podcast lack push. Comment on the blog motivates the
workers to make their contribution to the conversation they want to participate and join in.
Nevertheless, there is specific information that needs to reach a specific group of employees. For
example, if you want to make a particular claim and your organization has some employee who

Podcast and internal blogs as a mean to communicate to employee: 5
are working outside the country, as a manager you need to push the information a little bit further
to make sure that the information reaches the target employee to the unintended employee. To
some extent, the manager may request for confirmation to certain that the message reaches to the
target employee (Attfield).
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it is clearly evident that for any organization to continue
maintaining communication it must put in places some strategies of communication. This is
clearly reflected on the advantages over the disadvantages of using podcast and internal blogs to
communicate to the employee. For instances the company keeps the employee updated on the
progress of the company, internal blogs acts a catalog to store the company information and
finally, podcast and internal blogs can be used to reach those employees who are in the remote
area. On the other side of the coin, the usage of podcasts and internal blogs has some
disadvantages which include; policy control and regulation issue where the company is reluctant
to follow the policy accordingly and strategy lack push.
Recommendation
Following the above problems the companies are recommended to do the following;
1. Make sure that policy is followed in order to minimize the cases of posting irrelevant
information in the company’s blog. The company should educate and create awareness to the
employee on the consequences of misusing the company catalogs.
2. The company should adopt a complete package of communication. It should make sure that
it can reach every employee and have a specific way to send information to particular locality
and division

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References
Agerdal-Hjermind, A. (2014). Organizational blogging: a case study of a corporate weblog from
an employee perspective. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 19(1),
34-51.
Attfield, B. (n.d.). Pros and cons of instant messaging in the workplace. Retrieved May 7, 2019
from https://blog.jostle.me/blog/pros-cons-instant-messaging-workplace
BT employees get connected with Dare2Share. (2013). Human Resource Management
International Digest, 21(6), 12-14. doi:10.1108/hrmid-08-2013-0059
Gibbs, W. J. (2019). Innovation, Programmable Media and the Human Computer Interface.
International Journal of E-Entrepreneurship and Innovation (IJEEI), 9(1), 30-46.
O’Bannon, B. W., Lubke, J. K., Beard, J. L., & Britt, V. G. (2011). Using podcasts to replace
lecture: Effects on student achievement. Computers & Education, 57(3), 1885-1892.