How to Make Summer Internships Work

It’s that time of year when you may start to see a lot of new young faces at the office. Summer intern season is here, providing organizations with extra hands and students with the chance to gain real-world business experience.

The relationship between companies and interns may seem like a simple one, but HR experts say that companies should take great care to ensure that internship programs comply with labor laws, are beneficial to interns and are in line with their own talent recruitment goals.

Interns and Talent Recruitment

 “Advance planning is the key to a successful internship program,” writes the Sam W. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas. The college outlines six best practices for making internships a success. “Hiring an intern only to have that person sit idle, waiting for someone to assign a project, is not productive for either you or the student. Don't approach your internship program as an afterthought. Rather, consider it an important element of your staffing plan.”

A comprehensive report published by colleges in Rhode Island recommends that organizations take a thoughtful approach to internship programs and consider them part of their recruitment plan. After all, a good intern can often turn into a good full-time employee.

“Developing an internship program is an excellent strategy for investing in your organization’s future successes, often leading to discovering future colleagues and leaders,” according to the report, Good Internships are Good Business.

The National Association of Colleges and Employers notes that 67 percent of college interns received job offers following completion of their internship programs, with 51 percent converted into full-time hires. NACE offers 15 best practices for internship programs. One suggestion is to have interns meet with recent hires.

“Your interns get insight about your organization from your new hires — people who they perceive are like themselves and who they consequently view as credible sources of information,” NACE says.

Striking a Balance

HR experts say that organizations must strike a healthy balance between offering the interns valuable experience without treating them like full-time employees. On one hand, it’s important for organizations to provide work that is valuable to interns as they look to gain experience in their field of choice. On the other hand, it’s important not to use interns to mask a shortage of full-time staff. Moreover, it’s important that staffers view interns as helpful to the organization, rather than a threat to their own job security.

The Good Internships Are Good Business report says interns should never be used to replace a full-time employee, but also should not be tasked with doing “busy work” — such as filing or answering phones — more than 20 percent of the time.

For HR staff and department managers, bringing on interns can mean a good deal of additional work. Interns often have classwork or other part-time jobs, so devising flexible work arrangements may be necessary. Moreover, many young people accept internships in pursuit of college credit, so managers must be prepared to interface with academic departments when necessary.

In many cases, interns from out of town will also need assistance with housing and transportation. It’s not unheard of for organizations to house interns all in one location or provide housing for free. If your organization can’t take on that cost, it should at least be ready to assist interns in finding a suitable place to live.

Get the Most Out of Internships

You can get the most out of internship program by taking formal steps to ensure success. Best practices include designating a mentor to guide each intern, ensuring interns are provided proper training, assigning interns with projects that are achievable and soliciting projects suggestions from staff.

Google searches are full of stories about internship mistakes, both from the perspective or organizations and from students. Internships often are viewed as low priority. But with planning and forethought, organizations can make the internship experience valuable for everyone involved — infusing new talent, energy and ideas into the company