Audio on the intranet

Both text and image are staple content for any intranet. Video content has been more evident in recent years. The betting company Paddy Power uses video for internal communications. Head of Internal Comms, Rosie Valentine explains

Video is a new channel we are working with. It is working very well for our CEO comms where he gives a quarterly update on our performance. He also does some short videos for events in different locations. Embedding these videos in our emails are working really well and getting a lot of clicks. (simplycommuicate.com November 2015)

What about audio on the intranet? My observations are

1. Popularity of podcasts. The increased growth and awareness of podcasts like ‘Serial’ has put audio on the radar once again. Internally at work this can lead to increased experimentation with audio linked to or embedded on an intranet.
2. When an intranet promises podcasts. What exactly are you getting? Your intranet might be conning you with the promise of podcasting. When you click a link all that opens is Windows Media player. Worse, you cannot subscribe to a series or play back easily on your mobile device. If it’s an audio clip, just say it, no need to dress it up as a podcast.
3. Reality check. luke mepham wrote an excellent challenge back in 2015 “Video is not the answer to your internal communication problem”

If video is not the answer can we can ask if audio is?

Audio like video is not the answer. To deliver key messages you will still need to use text and images.

However like video, audio I would argue is part of the mix for certain use cases;

• Learning material. Intranets are as much about learning new skills than finding out what the CEO is up to. When a colleague does a masterclass in drafting they might choose to share this knowledge as a blog post or find it more comfortable to share it verbally to an audience. Capturing this on audio and sharing it on an intranet is one way to spread the learning. The challenge of audio is that it does not provide the visual cues that are essential when you delivering training that aims to show a colleague what to do.
• Wellbeing networks in the workplace. Sharing experiences is one way these networks communicate. In many instances members will share a blog post on the intranet. Audio offers a way for experiences to be shared using audio to capture the emotion of that persons experience. Whether they are opening up about an illness, disability or just sharing what works for them dealing with a busy work load.
• Corporate memory. This can be transferred to future generations of staff using a wiki, one to one conversations or through an audio legacy of staff interviews that share knowledge, tips and unique experiences. Could you imagine if companies recorded exit interviews and added them to an audio archive with the permission of the staff member.

These I would argue are better use cases than an audio recording of a conference call that comes with all the beeps and interruptions . Audio on the intranet is about finding ways for it to compliment the message rather than get in its way.

Audio has similar challenges to video inside the workplace in terms of hardware. For office music lovers headphones are essential. Reading text from a screen in many instances does not require any additional hardware over your ears or eyes (except if like me you need glasses or have a disability).

If you shift some content to audio you risk the reaction ‘if you want me to listen to audio at work the job needs to buy me headphones’. Fair enough but in all likely hood staff will be more than comfortable using their own headphones. If headphones need purchasing by the organisation, fine you can buy a pair for as low as 89 p. Then you need to break down the culture if it exists that suggests it’s rude for staff to wear headphones. This culture is I hope eroding but if it is’t what could be better than to have staff listen to audio on the intranet to learn new skills or hear about other colleagues experiences.

Perhaps the real problem with audio content on an intranet is the environment that it gets consumes. Sitting at a desk logged onto our PC or laptop with headphones plugged into to an audio jack is not ideal. Far better to have the audio on your phone so that you can listen to it when and where you want. Intranets are starting to become more mobile friendly but what would be good if intranets got their own podcasting platform.