Summer is coming - and with it, a new crop of interns eager to join your organization. You’ve conducted the interviews, selected the candidates - now what?
Interns can deliver a number of business benefits to suit department needs or larger organizational goals and also create an opportunity to mold the next generation of professionals in your industry. If you're just looking for cheap labor, then you might be missing out on the larger business benefits your company can receive by building a strong internship program.
3 Reasons to Have an Internship Program
How can a strong internship program benefit your business, you ask? Here are some great examples:
1. Interns Provide a Fresh, Outsider Perspective
Summer interns are not bound by the same restraints, obligations, or even fears that full-time employees are. This provides you, the employer with a unique opportunity to glean valuable feedback to challenge old-fashioned, inefficient processes and attitudes to drive greater organizational impact and boosted morale.
They might even school you on new ideas or tools you might have never heard or thought of. Therefore, internships should be an educational opportunity both ways in order to maximize value.
2. A New Generation of Talent
Leveraging your internship talent is a fantastic way to gauge the interests, potential, and future growth opportunities of the next generation of professionals in your industry.
It’s important to connect with them regularly, engage them, and have candid conversations about their interests, what they love (or don’t) about what they are doing - and how higher management can help them grow.
Learn More: Why Campus Recruitment Is a Crucial Step to Attracting Top Talent
3. Create Brand Ambassadors
One of the best ways to spread positive word about your company and its work is to hire and cultivate interns. Their experience working with your teams will lead to powerful first-hand impressions and testimonials that they will share with friends, family, and social media networks.
While the positive power of this is obvious, it’s important to consider the opposite - ensuring interns are exposed to positive experiences vs. negative ones they may share just as readily.
Summer interns are truly a gold-mine of opportunity and potential for you as an employer, and your larger organization. While most of the dialogue tends to center on the perspective and goals of the intern themselves, the benefits and impacts to you are clear - and often even more far-reaching.
Related Content: Tips to Maximize Productivity When Summer Interns Return to School
Building a strong internship program that features intern training, great opportunities, and enticing responsibilities is the first step to attracting great talent to maximize the value you derive from your interns - and summer is a fantastic time to start!
