When it comes to business development, many brands are now turning to interns to help them with various tasks. Of course, hiring an intern is often a less complicated procedure compared with taking on a regular staff. However, it’s only of benefit to both parties with the right amount of motivation.
This article explores the role interns can have and the best ways to motivate them to aid your business. It’s certainly true that an internship program can be a straightforward way of ensuring the various roles within your company get the required attention. However, remember the better you treat your interns, the more you are likely to get out of them.
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Pay them
There’s always plenty of discussion about unpaid internships. It’s certainly a grey area in employment law when determining if you will pay your interns. Therefore, it’s easy to think you can get away without paying them and make the position fit the rules. However, remember internships were intended for college students, to act as class credit towards their degrees. The idea is merely to provide some experience in the workplace, complete with supervision and feedback. Therefore, there was a clear benefit to the student involved.
If you choose to pay an intern, they will at once see the benefit. In some ways, it doesn’t matter how much you pay them. Merely choosing to do so is showing you value them and lets the intern know they are respected. In turn, this acts as a great form of motivation.
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Give them real work to do
It’s a cliché that you bring in an intern merely to perform basic tasks that will provide work experience but doesn’t offer any real insight into the business. If you’re using the internship as a way of looking for new employees, it’s vital they can show you what they can do. Once you do that, they will be excited to work for you each day, and if a job opportunity comes up, they will know what’s involved.
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Ensure you provide training
The quality of internships can vary and sometimes an intern is used to perform specific tasks without much support. Therefore, ensure you’re giving support and an opportunity that has real value. Irrespective of whether you plan to hire the intern or not, you still have the chance to let them learn and develop their skills.
Remember, in the digital age people can learn things on their own, so it’s the interaction that your business provides that is key here. If the intern has an enjoyable experience, they may thoroughly recommend your scheme to others. As an absolute minimum, you should offer an intern a credible reference and ensure they have something to show for their time with you.
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Provide the best opportunities for the hardest workers
There are distinct types of interns, and it’s important to recognize this. Of course, you get out of something whatever you put in. Some interns will be prepared to grasp the opportunity and put their most significant effort into it, while others will be happy to do the minimum they can get away with.
Now think about your employees and which type you would want to hire. Most businesses will look towards the hardest workers, especially when they have the talent to match. Therefore, when you spot a hard-working intern, you should look to do more for them than the ones that are merely doing the minimum. How you do this is entirely up to you, it may be through a job opportunity, but equally, it could be more responsibility within the internship or a stronger reference.
It’s clear that many businesses are now using interns to fulfill specific roles. An internship can be a rewarding experience that can help young people establish their career. However, it’s crucial that the process works on both sides and the intern feels it was something worth doing. If you follow the points in this article, your business will create valuable internships. Therefore, you should pay them, give them real work to do, provide training and reward the hardest workers.
