Internships

This might take the form of a conventional orientation program or merely a walk around the office, depending on the size of your company. After all, even though they may not be permanent employees, they’ll be spending a great deal of time in your workplace. Give interns an overview of your organization; some companies give talks or hand out information about the company’s history, vision, mission, and services. Explain who does what and what the intern’s duties will be. Introduce him or her to coworkers and give them a complete tour of the facility. You may want to send out a company-wide or unit-wide email to introduce staff to the intern (including a photo so they can say hello!). Making your intern at home in the office is your first step to bringing them back.

It is important to be aware of the type of message you are sending to your intern through your preparation of their arrival. Try to avoid placing your intern in an out-of-the-way room or transferring them from desk to desk. Again think through the materials they may need, such as a laptop and charger. Show them where to find additional supplies. If your intern(s) does not feel comfortable in the space, you could miss out on valuable contributions to your projects. 

There are many ways to be supportive in a professional environment. We do not recommend watching your intern’s every move, but you do want to make sure you know what is happening day-to-day. Watch for signs that the intern is confused or bored. While silence can mean that an intern is busy, it could also be a sign that they are confused and shy about telling you so. Interns want to succeed, but at the same time are likely new to navigating a professional setting. Paying attention early helps you head off problems and foster an environment of positive productivity.

It is important to think through the internship as a talent development opportunity. If your intern(s) have never done this kind of work before, they’ll want to know if their work is measuring up to your expectations. No matter what the level of experience, they need you, as a more experienced worker, to let them know if their work is satisfactory. Periodically, examine what your intern has produced and make suggestions.

• Informal Feedback:
  Informal feedback is sometimes not perceived by the student as feedback. Informal feedback shows up as comments or a light-hearted nudge. When using informal feedback be clear with your intent. The more direct, the more likely the student will perceive this to be an area of focus. Positive feedback should be given freely. Areas of growth should be presented in a private setting where the student in not embarrassed. Feedback should be delivered as often as possible to encourage the student to continue to develop.
• Formal Feedback:
  Formal feedback should be prepared and delivered in a private meeting with the intern to discuss their strengths and areas for growth. It should be designed so the manager achieves his/her desired objective. Students should have clear objectives of what areas of growth need to be addressed. Use specific examples of student behavior whenever possible so students have clear ideas of what areas need improvement.

Remember those goals you outlined before? A few weeks after the internship begins, it’s time to see how well you and your intern are meeting those goals. Evaluation processes may differ. Yours might be as formal as written evaluations every three weeks or as informal as occasional lunches with the internship coordinator and/or the intern’s mentor. Some companies have the intern evaluate the experience and the company as well. Again, your structure is largely up to your corporate culture and needs. As a bonus, these evaluations will be handy later if you decide to interview a former intern for full‐time work, or to publicize how successful your program has been. Check out the forms found with the additional resources. Maintaining program popularity will require hard evidence that your organization is getting a return on its investment. Some organizations have adopted a process of formal exit interviews.

Through this process they can determine if interns are leaving the company having had a good experience, and it provides valuable feedback to managers for program planning in the following year. In addition to qualitative measures, several quantitative measures should be adopted. Some common measures include the number of interns that become full‐time employees; repeat requests for interns from managers; and growing numbers of intern applicants. In order to successfully measure your own program outcome, you should return to the stated program goals, and address those outcomes.

With the job market experiencing a talent pipeline issue, it is important to engage potential employees early. Investigate employing quality high school, community college, technical school and college students that you can expose to your company. Take on interns now and you’ll have a competitive advantage in recruiting the best workers ‐ you’ll already be known to the employees you want most. Your new workers will already be trained for your workplace and loyal to your company, lowering training time, recruiting costs and turnover rates. You’ll build a reputation that will pay off with students, colleges and the community. And your company will save money while benefiting from the input of talented, enthusiastic, innovative people. With all these advantages, you might find that you can’t afford not to do internships.