24 September 2017 - 4 min read
Podcasts have been around for a while now and are hugely popular. But what are they exactly? A podcast is an audio or video show, commonly a series of episodes. The term, coined by a BBC journalist back in 2004, is a portmanteau of ‘iPod’ and ‘broadcast’, but podcasts are not just restricted to iPod users. They can be downloaded from the Internet and listened to on any device that can play media files.
When they first came on the scene, podcasts were pretty amateurish on the whole. They are much more sophisticated now, however, with the major broadcasters and news outlets producing podcasts.
Podcasts can be great for keeping up to date with industry news and discussions, for seeing what your peers are talking about and gaining a fresh perspective on HR, work and the wider world of business. And because you can download them on your device of choice, you can do all of this while on the go.
With that in mind, we have compiled a list of the top six podcasts we think you, as HR and L&D professionals, might like to tune into.
CIPD
The CIPD has what it calls ‘the podcast hot seat’, enabling HR movers and shakers to share their thoughts, views and experiences. The latest podcast (number 128) featured on the website is ‘Coaching: it’s a culture thing’ and it talks about coaching as an integral part of performance management. Other podcasts streamed out this year include ‘Social Collaborative Learning’ and ‘Loving the Levy: can apprenticeships solve the skills shortage?’
XpertHR podcast
These are very practical, informative podcasts that are streamed out on a weekly basis. They cover all the big topics in HR, L&D and employment law.
All in the Mind
As the title suggests, these podcasts are all about the human mind. The programme explores the limits and potential of the human mind and includes podcasts such as ‘The Everyday Effect of Unconscious Bias’ and ‘Taking pride, Correct vocabulary in describing mental health, Green exercise’.
The View from Mayer Brown
Mayer Brown is a global legal services provider and its podcast service, featuring the organisation’s head of UK Employment Law practice, gives regular updates on recent developments in UK employment law and case developments. It helps HR and L&D professionals understand what legislative changes mean for businesses.
GoodPractice
The GoodPractice organisation runs a weekly podcast as part of its drive to improve leadership and management capabilities. The podcasts cover topics such as learning needs analysis and the impact of technology on work, with recent topics being ‘How can L&D use games in elearning?’, ‘What can L&D learn from deception research?’ and ‘What is the future of work?’
TED radio hour
We recently put together a list of some of the best TED talks for HR and L&D professionals to listen to. Well, there are also TED talks that have been turned into podcast series and they are well worth a listen as well. For example, there is a series on Quiet that explores ways for people to find quiet in the busy lives that we lead today. It includes these talks: ‘Pico Iyer: How can we find more time to be still?’ and ‘John Francis: How do years of silence change someone?’
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