Making Virtual Internships Work!

Internships have become the most important method for organizations to attract new talent and identify future hires. This year, after a careful selection process, organizations around America were planning to welcome a new group of students for their summer internships – until things drastically changed because of COVID-19. While some internships were cancelled or deferred, many organizations chose a different route: virtual internships.

Business As Usual, But Not

“For us, everything will continue as planned except that now it will be a completely remote internship,” said Loren Metzger, University Relations Program Manager at Teradata during a recent webinar discussion facilitated by Graham Donald of Brainstorm Strategy Group. According to Metzger, internships will go ahead as planned at Teradata, with the full summer program managed virtually and a delayed start date to facilitate the necessary adjustments to plans. .

While many organizations are opting for this route during these challenging and very different times, others are doing things a little bit differently.

“At KPMG US, we have around 2,300 summer interns. We're moving them to a shortened virtual program that is focused on learning and development and was accompanied by a full-time offer,” said Kathleen Schaum, Executive Director, Campus Recruiting and University Relations at KPMG, on the chat section during the webinar. 

Having virtual internships is a great opportunity for organizations to be able to meet young talent while allowing students to grow and develop in the workplace, even if things are a bit different. However, remote  internships have their own set of challenges for both the interns and their employers. How are different organizations across America dealing with this?

“It’s not about recreating your internship experience,” said Graham Donald of Brainstorm Strategy Group, “It’s about creating a new one with what you’ve got and what you can imagine.”

Onboarding at Home

Micah Canal, Manager of Early Career Programs at Inuit, explained that they will be shipping fully equipped laptops to their 320 interns all over America. They will also dedicate two full days to orientation instead of one, giving them enough time to do the tech set up but also a chance to adapt and get familiar with Intuit from afar. Other companies such as Teradata, Eaton and National Instruments are also shipping laptops and even branded materials to their interns. 

Virtual Training

Another important aspect of internships is the training. Organizations are adapting to remote training at a very fast pace and realizing that it might not be so different from face-to-face training after all.

“It is important to let the interns know what is expected of them,” said Nicole Furnia, University Relations Manager at Eaton. Eaton has been declared an essential business, so they are still operating normally for the most part; however, their summer internship will also be 100% virtual. One big change they had to make is to shorten it from 14 to seven weeks. 

When it comes to training, organizations believe that in this case, the training goes both ways. This means that managers are being trained as well since this is a new experience for them too. Some of the ways in which they are doing this is by offering virtual workshops, summits and even networking opportunities such as morning coffee breaks and virtual events. 

Managing Interns – And their Managers

“Next week we’re starting our manager kickoffs,” said Canal. “This will apply to anyone who is getting an intern or a co-op to manage this summer.” These kickoffs will include everything from how to manage Gen Z employees to how to structure and scope a project with project templates and more.

Other companies are developing new training for managers as well since managing interns remotely could be particularly challenging for hiring managers who may have never managed interns before, even in person. In this process, everyone is learning together and as they go. 

However, this crisis also brings some possibilities that perhaps weren’t viable before. 

“This also opened up global opportunities for us,” said Tim Krenz, University Relations Manager at National Instruments. “With everything being remote, we can reach people globally instead of being restricted to just certain areas.”

Recreating the “Intern Experience”

A positive and impactful internship experience is critically important to ensure that interns are interested in returning for future internships or even full-time roles, if offered. It also can have a major impact on an employers brand when interns share their stories with others. 

When managing virtual internships, it is extremely important to be very clear about the schedule to create a cohesive environment and help interns feel welcome. It is important to understand that these are extraordinary circumstances that require a different approach. 

“We want to be able to give the interns a compelling experience despite the circumstances,” Canal said. 

An important part of internships is definitely the sense of belonging to a work team for what may be the very first time ever. With everything now being virtual and remote, organizations are finding different creative ways to allow this to happen even under these strange circumstances.

“We’re doing a remote pizza party,” said Tim Krenz. According to him, one of their core pillars is that sense of belonging and community. 

“It’s really hard to provide this while working so isolated,” he added “but we’ve come up with a plan to assign interns into smaller groups of four or five and do different projects together.” 

Krenz said that some of these projects include coming up with a team name and logo; doing a couple of virtual outings over the summer; working on initiatives together; and, at the end of the summer, doing a presentation in front of company leaders about their recommendations and views on remote work. 

With virtual internships being the new normal, at least for now, organizations need to offer interns a compelling and exciting experience that is adapted to the new circumstances.

“It’s not about recreating your internship experience,” said Graham Donald of Brainstorm Strategy Group, “It’s about creating a new one with what you’ve got and what you can imagine.”

In the end, it is all about change and evolution; creating a new program altogether that might even be better than the original one.  

This article is based on the discussion at our recent Campus Recruiting Forum Webinar: Making Virtual Internships Work!  A recording of the webinar and a registration link for future webinars can be found here: https://www.brainstorm.ca/crf-webinars.