School is out. The days are long. And thousands of high school and college-age students are looking for summer internships. If your company will be hiring a summer intern, here’s what you need to know.
Avoid Hiring a Summer Intern Just to Fetch Coffee
It can be tempting for a company to view an intern role as nothing more than inexpensive labor there to assist with grunt work and coffee runs. Don’t be one of these companies.
Your company culture should inspire internships that allow interns to make a dent while learning from your experienced staff. Many of us have bad memories of being interns for ungrateful organizations when we were younger, so have some empathy and create internship positions that matter. This will attract talented candidates hungry to prove their value, and word will quickly spread that your organization has the hottest internship position in town.
Use the Intern Role to Fill Gaps in Your Organization
Is your marketing team swamped? Is accounting constantly playing catchup? Use an internship position strategically to help fill gaps in your organization.
Hiring a summer intern to pick up slack in the company is a quick and easy way to jolt bottom-line performance. Let’s pretend your summer intern joins a team of five full-time staff and works 40 hours a week. The 40 hours the intern works were previously split among the full-time staff, meaning each staff member is getting 8 hours (40 divided by 5) added back to their availability every week.
What would you get done with an entire day freed up each week?
Use Your Intern as a Swiss Army Knife
Interns can bring new skill sets and fresh vantage points not found anywhere else in your organization. Don’t be afraid to unleash this fact to your advantage and craft a flexible job position. For example, maybe the new HR intern took courses in videography and filming things in their leisure time. If you need a new company video, let them help the marketing team. They might spot something they overlook.
Or maybe your new accounting intern is skilled in the latest social media tools and practices. Let them meet with the social media team for a day. These interactions can be mutually beneficial, and they’ll lead to a more well-rounded internship experience.
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