Internships are another great way to build your talent pipeline. They can be a superb source of talent, and they help build your employer brand.
But there are both right and wrong ways to do internships. Here are some great do’s and don’ts for starting and running internship programs that are highly valuable. Because highly valuable internships will help ensure you have a line of the best and brightest waiting for an opportunity to work with your company.
Do: Connect content to education and career path. Connect the internship to your intern’s educational focus and career path. It’s important for the student to be learning about what they’re studying in school. They will be more engaged, motivated and interested in their work.
Do: Create a defined role with structure. Structuring internships may require more work up front, but they ultimately create a more engaging environment.
Do: Provide adequate compensation. Highly desirable internships are not only connected with career paths and have a defined structure, they pay well! If you can create this environment and reputation as an employer, you will have the best of the best fighting for the opportunity to intern with you.
Do: Make the work meaningful and educational. Make sure your interns are truly learning something valuable in the process of their internship.
Do: Make the intern feel included. Include your interns in lunches, work outings, etc. Having an opportunity to build relationships with coworkers will help your interns feel like part of the team.
Do: Provide a dedicated mentor or manager. It is important to have someone whose solely responsible for ensuring their intern(s) will be engaged, productive and working on projects that they can learn from. Having a mentor is a critical part of everyone’s professional path.
