By Debbie Gregory.
Hiring an intern to help fill short-term work needs, especially during your company’s busy season, is an excellent way to gain some new insight, broaden your work force, and help those people who are new to the field gain valuable hands-on experience.
Internship programs are will provide hungry, capable, new recruits for your business too. Bringing onboard interns provides your small business opportunities to work with new potential hires without a long-term commitment from either party. If they fit with your company after their internship is over, you can discuss further employment opportunities; if not, you can both move forward with no potential issues.
If You are Considering Hiring Interns:
1.) Treat Interns as If They are Real Team Members:
No one likes to feel as if he or she does not belong. Every intern you take on should be made to feel welcome and as if they are a normal full-time and valued employee of your business. Include your intern(s) in meetings and make sure that they are able to have their opinions and ideas heard.
2.) Pay Interns Fairly:
Internship programs should not be programs to obtain free labor. Unpaid internships with for-profit companies trying to cut corners to save a few dollars are simply unfair to the intern. You want the best that the intern has to offer your company so you cannot expect their services for free. There are a few cases where college credit can be an acceptable form of payment for an intern’s services, but these are generally limited to non-profit organizations or volunteer-focused jobs.
3.) Offer Other Benefits:
Another way to attract good talent for your internship program is to offer them temporary benefits while they are working with your company. Which benefits to offer will depend on what you currently offer your employees and what makes sense for your industry.
Offer benefits such as:
- Paid days off
- Mentorship opportunities
- A business trip
- Flex scheduling
- Tuition reimbursement
- Remote work opportunities
4.) Recruit from the Right Places:
There are a few good places to find quality interns for almost every industry. Word of mouth is consistently an excellent method to find good people. You can also get in touch with local career counselors, community colleges, trade schools, and high schools. Don’t forget about the web! Here are a few good online resources for finding interns:
5.) Put Together a Plan:
Internship programs need to be carefully planned out so that the company and the intern both benefit from the experience. You do not want to hire an intern to simply run for coffee or file paperwork. The intern needs to learn and benefit from the internship. These are benefits they can carry on to another internship or actual job. You must make your expectations and their job duties very clear from the beginning. Also, there needs to be a designated person in your company to manage the intern’s work. Keep in mind that if this is a positive experience for your intern, he or she will spread the word and this will help you in securing new interns down the road.
Having a solid plan in place will go a long way to making your internship program valuable to both your company and any intern(s) who join you. Creating a comfortable environment for them to work in, where they are valued and treated fairly, can learn and prosper will go a long way towards helping your employees and your business grow.
