Many people have very bad views when it comes to hiring interns. They prefer hiring interns just on the basis of cheap labor, free labor, etc. Everyone faces the stage when they pass out the school or university and eagerly looks for their first job. There are many interns who are hired by the best employers and challenged to grow in a better professional environment right after their university. On the other hand, there are many employers who abuse the actual intentions of the interns (to gain knowledge and kick start their career) and make them feel less confident. Nothing could be a worse than misspend of finite summer duration for a career oriented student who ends up being hired by a bad employer.
How to Hire Quality Interns for your Company?
If you are a company, looking to grow your business by hiring interns, then you must keep a few important elements in mind. These are not listed in the order of importance, but every point must be followed to assure success for both parties:
- If you offer an internship program and hire interns for filling the positions in your company, then take hiring process as an interview process. This is because you are going to fill predetermined positions in your company. If you hire interns but have no vacancies in your company, your internship activity would be of no use. The school or intern will not like it.
- An internship is the best opportunity to learn through practical work and in the real time environment. Make sure the student, you hire is eager to learn as much as possible. During the interview process, test their learning enthusiasm and capacity. A good student is always ready for challenges. If he has no assignments to do, he asks for more assignments himself.
- Feedback to the interns is valuable to them. Provide feedback to the students on a regular basis, be it negative or positive feedback on their performance. With this, they will improve and get better insight into the business world.
- Through this opportunity to work in a company, students feel growing in their experience. Companies must help them with this as much as possible.
- The additional and important responsibility of the employer is to give students’ feedback to the university regarding his/her performance.
- Intern has to be respectful and humble towards their employer or trainer. Undoubtedly, they may have energy and intelligence, but they are in the company to earn experience and cannot be arrogant to the employer.
Before launching your internship program for open jobs, make a clear job description. Clearly, define your expectations from the interns and vice versa. Mention start and ends dates, company description, stipend (if any), resources, working hours, future prospects with the company, etc.
Remember, it is beneficial to hire a quality intern from time and money perspectives. But, employers have to understand the purpose of a student’s training as well and provide them the best experience.
Summary:
Hire interns that are bright, energetic and enthusiast to learn new things. It is the responsibility of employers to provide a beneficial working experience for the students and give them feedback on a regular basis.