Interns are Great for Business—and You, too!

Here in Florida the kids are already heading back to school the first week in August. I began reflecting on an important group that you or your business should be targeting to support your business: #interns. Most college and university students are starting the transition process back to campus. As they do that, they are thinking about what companies they would love to work at temporarily as an internship—and permanently once they graduate. 

Making INROADS

During my career I had tremendous success supporting interns. My earliest interaction with an intern was while employed at Prudential Financial’s headquarters where the company sponsored INROADS, a program that helped businesses gain greater access to diverse talent through continuous leadership development of outstanding ethnically diverse students and placement of those individuals in internships at many of North America’s top corporations. INROADS provided three keys to success for its participants: selection, education and training.  

Later while I worked at Lockheed Martin, the company also hired some of its interns through INROADS. I was excited to have Faye, a Temple University communications student, who also was an INROADS participant, support me.  I quickly learned about Fay’s interests and passions. She was an outstanding and competitive tennis player.  She had a wonderful boyfriend and great sorority sisters. She was an only child. And, we had many wonderful meals together just talking about her future.

Fay pulled me aside one day. She said there was a big INROADS banquet in Philadelphia coming up and she wanted to invite me as her guest. I was honored!

At the event, I realized just how successful the INROADS program was—when I saw its reach into the Delaware Valley community. There were nearly 1,000 attendees supporting summer interns with a focus on learning and curriculum. My own internship wasn’t nearly as rewarding or fulfilling as Fay's experience, I thought to myself.

I don’t even remember how it happened, but I was introduced to my next intern Ailea over email. To say I was impressed with her would be an understatement. Not only was she an Ivy League student at University of Pennsylvania who traveled to dozens of countries—she was like a walking encyclopedia (but was not a geek). She radiated kindness but had this secretive sassy way about her and Ailea loved the dramatic arts, too.

She shined a spotlight on how to improve things in a very non-threatening way. Ailea also showed people alternative ways of doing things by being fun and charming. People often didn’t fully recognize she just corrected their oversights. 

For example, she took me on an outing to the dollar store and purchased what she called a magic princess wand. When she showed someone a faster, easier way of doing a task, she pulled out that princess wand with a bit of flare waving it said, “Voila!”   People were simply mesmerized by her wit and charm. 

Wise Investment??

Interns are a valuable relationship. If you succeed in building a successful two-way relationship that’s trusting, it will be an ongoing relationship that’s lasting. I attended my intern’s wedding. I’ve been to her home. I’ve met her children and husband. We’ve continued our relationship because it’s matured into a mutually beneficial friendship. I failed to mention that one former intern now lives on the left coast. We've actually met up while I was traveling on business so we could catch up.

After two of my interns were working professionally, they reached out to me individually. Would I be willing to write a letter of recommendation for graduate school? I was delighted and honored.  

This demonstrated trust, respect and confidence in me. I was happy to write a letter on two occasions. I was even happier to see them both complete their graduate studies! 

Interns Bring Real Value

????? Teach You. They will teach you and your team something new nearly every day.

?? Inspire You. Renew your spirit and love for your career. Reinvigorate the passion you once had when you started out in the field. Remind you why you should care about doing great work each day.

?? Help You. They will improve your processes, tools and workflows. 

?? Listen to You. They want to succeed and value this opportunity. Give them the time and communicate your expectations clearly.

?? Look Out for You. Interns are a second set of eyes. They see things with a fresh perspective. They also see things because of opportunity or circumstance. Sometimes they are exposed to things because people don’t expect an intern to understand, but they do pay attention. 

?? Talk on Social. Give them positive experiences that are valuable to their career path. Interns are active on many social platforms. They can be great brand advocates for your business.

?? Hit the Target. Give them an assignment and a work buddy – most interns will hit the target. 

? Support You, Even during Overtime Periods. Interns want to do great work because they want to have a great relationship with you—and ultimately a good recommendation down the line. They also want to learn on the job because they may meet someone who can help open the door to future opportunities. If that means working more hours or coming in early, they will.

? Bring a Can-Do Attitude that’s Contagious to the Workplace. Interns want to please and support you. That spirit of community often inspires co-workers to adopt that mindset.

??Bring your Next Intern.  Interns are college students. They are networked and quite resourceful. Treat your intern right and they will get you another top-rate intern who will deliver outstanding results. If you treat your intern poorly, chances are the school the intern was associated with won’t want to support your team or department again. 

Tips for Successful Intern Relationship

?? Advance Planning. Develop an outline or ‘curriculum’ of work for your intern’s time with you at the company.

?? Set Goals. Determine realistic targets to achieve during the intern’s time at your company.

??  Introduce a Buddy System. ????? Interns need to have a buddy or two to help them navigate the business. The buddy will help them with all the systems, corporate speak and questions they might have during onboarding and beyond. Encourage employees from different generations to work closely with the intern. This is where knowledge transfer and growth can grow both ways.

?? Identify Intern’s Key Strengths. Play up the intern’s key strengths. You might give them a variety of different tasks to see which area they excel in.

?? Communicate Daily. Set times to communicate with your intern daily. Check-in throughout the day via instant messaging, a visit to their desk or invite them to lunch. You want to ensure they are adjusting to the role and have the tools they need.

?? Invite Feedback. Encourage feedback from your intern and anyone who is interacting with the intern. This will help facilitate the development of the intern. If something goes off-track, it also helps to address those challenges.

?? Include Interns in Everything. Having a team meeting? Invite the intern to come and see how the team dynamics are at play. Someone’s having a birthday and cake is being served – bring the intern and introduce him. Going out to lunch? Invite the intern and share why this restaurant is a favorite of yours.

?? Be Friendly and Inclusive. A team that is friendly and inclusive is a welcoming environment. That means different team members taking a few minutes to have a one-on-one conversation with the intern. Sharing family photos or even saying let’s run to the corner café to grab an iced tea together.

?? Give Them Real Strategic Work. Don’t give interns fluff assignments. They are far too talented to do simple work. They want to be challenged and prove to you that they can do more complicated work.

???♀? Be Flexible. Interns are college students. They sometimes have other commitments they need to tend to like competitions or tests they might need to participate in—so be understanding as a manager.

?? Offer Something. Small businesses may not be in the position to offer interns a form of compensation, but there are other ways to support an intern. Interns are college students, so they appreciate “something” to help them defray their costs. A few ideas:

• Stipend to pay tolls
• Stipend for tuition
• Room and board for summer housing costs
• Free breakfast and lunch during internship
• A gift card to help cover their expenses at school

My nephew Dillion is a junior at a NY-Metro area university focusing on communications with video production. He happily accepted an unpaid internship in 2019. The experience was priceless. Besides he got to perfect his craft and contribute to his portfolio and the production company recommended him for paying gigs that he worked on this summer. So, something for nothing snowballed into a paying job. Even more work is heading his way. As he said, connections really count in this business.

?? Be Grateful. Any intern you host has friends at their university who could be your next potential intern. When you are grateful for the support you had, your intern will be happy to recommend you to others and likely become a mini brand ambassador for your business, too! This generation is very active on social media so be aware that they can and will probably share something about their experience on the social spaces.

?? Up the Game. As the intern demonstrates skill, you can increase responsibility and visibility on their projects and workload.

?? Celebrate Victories! Employees love to be recognized for their achievements and contributions—so do interns. Determine how you want to reward and recognize the intern for the work they perform.

? Keep in Touch. The key to any great relationship is being authentic. If you were a good leader and had a good relationship with your intern, you should want to keep in touch with your intern. So periodically reach out and check in on them. They’ll be glad you did--and so will you!

These relationships start out as leader and intern, but many come to enjoy mutual and lasting relationships for decades. 

And, if you are contemplating offering an internship to a more seasoned professional that is in vogue, too. Just check out how Anne Hathaway and Robert DeNiro tackled this topic in The Intern.  

Interns are truly a mutually beneficial relationship.

Credit: YouTube MovieClips Trailer

??LI Network: What have your experiences been with hosting #interns or participating in your own #internships? ???? Share your thoughts below! Lessons learned are appreciated and welcomed!

Susan L. Martin, MA is a communication professional with 20+ years of experience supporting leadership in corporate and public organizations with their greatest communication challenges and change projects. She's supported cyber security, defense, energy, insurance, Information Technology (IT), nonprofit, publishing and travel clients in her career.

She's the recipient of numerous industry awards and accolades for outstanding internal communication execution and planning, including "Best in Show" from the International Association of Business Communicators (NJ Chapter). She received Lockheed Martin’s Communication COMET Award (Cyber Security), the highest recognition provided to corporate communicators within Lockheed Martin.   She has been recognized by the Public Relations Society of America (Philadelphia chapter) and (N.J. chapter) as well as the Jersey Shore Public Relations and Advertising Association with JASPER Awards.