Podcasting and HR...

The recent Social Media Newsletter on podcasting continues to draw a number of responses from different angles. Not least was this e-mail from Teresa Curlin at Human Resources Business Unit
City of Charlotte, North Carolina:

Hi Alex,

Just a fun note about podcasts . . . a little over a year ago we were recruiting for a database administrator. We put a recruiting podcast on iTunes. We didn't get our employee from the podcast, but staff sure had fun learning how to create one. You never know where you can use a podcast.

Through further e-mail exchanges with Teresa we had a short Q&A:

Q: Despite not getting your employee through the podcast, what were the perceived benefits of trying this idea for recruitment?

A: The recruiting podcast let us tap into a different recruiting avenue and a new applicant pool. Recruiting costs through traditional methods (newspaper, professional journals, online) are expensive; creating and publishing a podcast was cheap.

Q: What might you see as the perceived benefits of this "fun" exercise and has the knowledge or experience gained in the exercise been helpful in some way - either in a subsequent project, or in improving team morale or similar?

A: As far as benefits to staff, there were several. Our staff learned a new skill - how to create a podcast and post it on iTunes. Some folks learned what a podcast is. For a segment of the population, this is still a new concept. Producing the podcast took the collaborative efforts of the technology and human resources staffs, as well as the willingness of the client business unit to try something new. Camaraderie broke out over being the first in the organization to do this; these relationships grew and other new collaborations grew. Finally, we identified some really nice "voice talent" in the organization.

Lot's of benefits, very little cost. No hard and fast rules with what you can and can't do with podcasting and a great little example. Any other similar stories out there?