Many businesses, no matter big or small, have begun hiring interns for the number of benefits they offer a company. Internship programs have become an excellent way for companies to attract top talent and recent college graduates to move from theoretical knowledge to a real work environment.
If you’re an internship coordinator or a recruiter, you may feel like there’s not enough content to help you set up and run a great internship program. That’s why I’ll try to give you step-by-step instructions on doing just that, effectively.
Let’s start by exploring the main advantages of hiring interns before moving on with tips for improving your intern recruitment process.
Significant benefits of an internship program
If you have been contemplating running an internship program, you may have wondered: why hire interns? What are the real benefits of having interns on board?
Here are a few:
- Higher employee retention: according to the internship statistics from the National Association of Colleges and Employers’ (NACE), the retention rate for hires who were interns at a company was 65.5%. For people who had previous internships at other companies, the retention rate was 52%. The retention rate for employees who had no internship experience, the retention rate was 46.2%.
- Access to a pool of talent: an internship program can be your year-round recruiting machine. Implementing an intern program means that you’ll have a never-ending pipeline of possible future employees, at a low cost.
- Evaluate before you hire: we’ve all been there before. You hire an employee who looked great on paper but later proved not to be a fit for the company. By setting up an internship program, you’ll get the chance to evaluate your interns before offering them full-time job employment.
- Enhance your social media strategy: if social media is part of your business, interns can help you take it to the next level. Recent college graduates have social media savvy and are informed about current trends, events, and culture. Don’t hesitate to involve your interns in your social strategy and ask for their feedback.
Tips for effectively recruiting the brightest interns
Hiring interns doesn’t mean taking advantage of cheap labor. It also doesn’t mean that you should place them in a corner without teaching them anything. Setting up an internship program requires careful planning. Your interns should go through an onboarding process, be assigned a specific project, and be guided through their internship experience.
To build an effective internship program, here are a few tips to consider:
1. Create a structured system
Before promoting your program, you need to answer the following questions:
- What’s the aim of your internship program?
- What is the timeline?
- Who are the interns going to report to?
- How many interns are you looking to hire and in which departments will you place them?
Planning beforehand is crucial for the long-term success of your program. The most effective internships have clear goals, timelines, and deliverables. They also have an internship supervisor who will meet with the interns often and to whom the interns will report directly.
A great idea is to have your team help you set up the program. Meet with your employees and brainstorm together. Decide on the types of projects you might want the interns to do.
And once you know the answer to the questions outlined above, you’ll be ready to share it with your potential interns. Give them details about the program, including what the program is about, what skills they will attain, and how the internship can help them with their future career.
2. Think about the duration of your internship program
I’ve met countless interns at different companies who didn’t have a clue of when their internship ends. There should be a clearly defined start date, evaluation day, and end date. If you’re planning on organizing various internships, it goes without saying that it requires careful planning.
As a recruiter or coordinator, you should outline when your summer internship ends, and when your fall internship begins. Think about your needs and when the company will need help the most. You want to make sure you have this calendar with all your dates locked.
The majority of internships last between 3-6 months. Several months should be enough to ensure that both your company and the intern have benefited from the arrangement. However, you may want to be more flexible with the working hours, as schools have strange course schedules. The more flexibility you offer your interns, the better.
3. Have clearly defined job descriptions
You want to make sure there’s an approved task list with clearly defined job descriptions. Does that task have a learning initiative associated with it? Your interns should be given tasks that they can learn from.
For example, if the intern will be posting on your Facebook page, it’s important for them to see how you’re promoting your business on social media. If the intern will be in charge of Google analytics, then that person should have the proper training to complete the job.
You want to give your interns valuable assignments, and also make sure there’s a learning curve associated with those assignments.
It’ll be nice if you can hire people who already possess some of the skills you’re looking for. Talk about their previous job experiences and extracurricular activities. What are they learning in school? How are their communication skills?
Don’t forget to mention the nature of your business, your company culture, and why working for you will be a rewarding and unforgettable experience.
4. Start advertising the internship online
Surely, your employees can spread the word about your internship program, but I’m afraid it shouldn’t end with that. Recruiting high-quality interns means advertising the internship program online.
Try posting at specific internship posting sites. The most popular are:
Apart from internship posting sites, several job boards might bring you a number of talented interns. Try posting on LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and Indeed.
5. Go closer to the source
A while ago, I talked about college recruitment and organizing a career fair. Well, for recruiting interns, nothing beats going straight to the source.
Visit colleges and universities in your close proximity. Contact the career development offices for the colleges in your area and ask if they can add your company to their database.
Offer to be a guest speaker for their classes or career programs. Or consider participating in campus career and internship events to connect with students looking for internships opportunities.
Conclusion
By following some of these steps, you’ll succeed at recruiting and hiring the best interns for your company. The benefits of having young and bright talent will be multiple. From innovative outlooks to creative strategies, these interns may become your most dedicated full-time employees. If you don’t have an internship program yet, start building one today and keep these tips in mind to help your business grow.
