Good old radio is making waves in modern companies such as Amazon and InfosysNSE -0.71 % that are now using exclusive radio streams to communicate with and entertain their associates and employees.
Ecommerce major Amazon India has recently launched radio exclusively for its associates across fulfilment centres, sort centres and delivery stations, while IT services major Infosys has been using radio as an entertainment and communication tool for its employees since 2011, company officials said.
Besides airing music and other content, the customised radio streams of Amazon and Infosys allow employees to come on air, request for songs and enter contests. Amazon India has launched radio streams in five languages — Hindi, Telugu, Marathi, Kannada and Tamil. “We have a set of five streams for fulfilment centres and sort centres and another unique set of five streams for the delivery stations,” a company spokesperson said. “This is because the nature of work by the associates in a delivery station is very different and hence the programme design for this audience is very different.”
All its 10 radio steams run 24×7. Each stream has a different music policy, driven by the employee demographics of that place, the spokesperson said. Radio partner on ground at each site can select the stream on the website given the type of site and region the site is located in. The initiative “was designed and implemented by Amazon India in partnership with a third party radio content service provider”, the Amazon India spokesperson said.
Infosys launched customised radio for its employees in 2011. “We realized to appeal to the Infoscions, we had to communicate with them in a medium that would hold universal appeal,” said Richard Lobo, executive vice-president at Infosys. Over the last year, the radio website of Infosys has been revamped for better user interface. “We also added in a few new features like archives, playlists, more information on the shows and RJs, etc.,” Lobo said. “Our experience of using radio as an entertainment and communication tool for its employees since 2011, company officials said.
Amazon India officials, too, said radio is an effective medium to communicate with associates. “Amazon Radio acted as a brilliant and energetic way of communicating important messages to the delivery stations,” said a training manager at one of its delivery stations. “All sorts of communications regarding correct scans, MPOS, MAPS, digital payments, delivery app, updates, etc. were creatively aired to the connected AMZL (Amazon Logistics) stations,” the person said on condition of anonymity.
Amazon operations consist of over 200 sites spread across the country with thousands of associates who speak multiple languages. The challenge was to find new and innovative ways of communicating to associates, keeping these factors in mind, said the Amazon spokesperson.
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