In the COVID-19 employed scramble, internships have been largely overlooked. According to a report on pandemic internships by CNBC, some 16% of employers were reported to have revoked internship offers in 2020. On the other hand, companies who were continuing their internships programs needed to adjust these drastically: 40% introduced virtual internships, 40% delayed the start date, and 20% reduced the number of interns for the summer.
It’s understandable that at the time, companies needed to rethink their programs for safety measures. Now that things are slowly easing into endemic mode, it’s critical for businesses to invest back into internships. Given the Great Resignation and its effect on global talent pools, businesses need to consider internships as part of their full-time recruitment process. After all, it would be more efficient to hire interns who are familiar with your company after a few months — versus applicants you’ve only interviewed for a few hours. Interns can offer valuable support for your existing employees as they take on lower-level tasks, and you may even discover future leaders in an internship batch.
Unfortunately, many companies don’t have a strong internship structure and miss out on opportunities to foster the next generation. In an earlier post by Sam Arnold called Bad video game industry internships are inspiring games, if not change, he discussed how aspiring game developers often found their internships to be beset with dubious management practices, unpaid extended contracts, crunch, misogyny, or low wages without a contract in sight. If you’re planning to take on interns and train them as future employees, then it’s your responsibility to provide a great experience. Here are three ways to do it:
Assign them meaningful work
Companies often bring on interns to handle grunt work or help with time-consuming, low-impact tasks. However, a feature on job-seeker internships from Fortune notes that a good internship should give an intern great exposure to the workplace, help build them skills, and provide opportunities to pad their résumé. People work as interns for job-specific training, and they really want to make good use of their time. As it’s not avoidable to assign tedious work to interns, managers should try to bring interns into bigger picture conversations. They should understand what they are doing and why they are doing it.
You can also allow them to attend strategy meetings, quarterly reports, and the like so they better understand how the company (and their role in it) works. One good idea is to let your interns “own” at least one long-term project that aligns with broader organizational goals. This sense of ownership will make it easier for them to come back as full-time staff.
Map out a career path for them
Interns join programs not only to become a better professional, but also to figure out potential career paths they’d like to pursue. Usually an internship is a college student’s first exposure to the real workplace, so it’s a chance to introduce them to various roles and specializations within a larger field. A write-up on retaining talent by LHH advises employers to communicate a long-term vision for the career and skill development of their employees.
Your interns should be able to articulate their interests, motivations, and career goals, while your company shows them the steps it would take to achieve those aspirations. Have broad discussions on what relevant skills would be useful to them. Illustrate a realistic career path in your organization, from entry level onwards to get them excited. It’s also helpful to introduce them to relevant figures in your firm and answer their career-related questions before the program ends.
Provide additional guidance and mentorship
Internships are about education and career development. Companies should invest in their interns not just as potential future employees, but also as growing professionals in their own right. Pairing interns up with a mentor can be a cornerstone of your program. Qooper Mentoring assists companies with running effective mentoring programs at scale with the help of its smart matching algorithm. Research on e-internships published in the Journal of Work-Applied Management found that working with mentors led to increased communication and strategic problem-solving skills among interns, who also had better opportunities to cooperate and gain new knowledge.
It’s also a win-win for your current staff, as finding patient and involved mentors among them indicates leadership skills — which primes them for management training. Have mentors provide guidance, feedback, and answers to questions so interns can become more confident and productive. Interns can similarly offer mentors a fresh perspective on the company or even the field you’re in, for mutual growth. Once the internship is over, your organization should stay connected with these interns as they move on in their careers, so they’re more likely to come back after graduation.
