So you are an Intern Manager, now what?

Are you excited that your Intern is going to be joining your team soon? I have been intern manager few times in my past at Microsoft and I am writing this as I have got a lot of interns and managers reaching out what it takes to give the best experience to your interns. This is first of series and I will write about how to be a good intern in my next one from management/organization angle.

"Intern Managers have multiple layers of responsibilities to make sure interns have the best experience. This time its even more important with most companies moving to virtual remote internship experience.???? Brace yourselves as your role just got way more important now. Switch to video calls on Microsoft teams/Zoon/Hangouts or whatever technology you use to give them the in person feeling and Viola..."

The top 5, but not limited to are:

1. Clear project goals and outcomes: If you are able to show them the clear impact of how/what/when their project aligns with the vision/mission of the organization/company, guess what - you got them engaged and hooked.
2. Engagement/connection with Manager/Team: They are part of your team now, just onboard them as you would a new team member in your team, literally, no difference there except for quicker onboarding and ramp up ?? depending upon their internship time. 1:1's, team meetings, morale events, mid week check-ins, daily standups, assigned onboarding buddy/mentor, you name it. They are required attendees now ??.
3. Ongoing 2 way timely and actionable feedback: Yes, not one way only! You want to provide them feedback to improve but take time to listen to theirs as well. During my first time as intern manager, I was given feedback by my intern (once we had built the relationship) mid internship that she couldn't ask for my help because she felt I was too strict and had high expectations of her. She couldn't come to me ad-hoc and had to wait for her 1:1 only. PLEASE NO. I make it explicit now, I have open-door policy (in these times, ask them to message you/email/slack etc..). If you are blocked, I need to know, so I can help.
4. Challenge the status quo: Give them opportunity to engage outside just their team, to understand the culture of your organization overall as well. Let them explore the fun/ opportunities outside your immediate team as well and come back to you with where they see them as best fit. Yes, this is key ????. Let me tell you, they will come back to you if you are doing 1, 2 and 3 right ??
5. Connection outside of Internship: Yeah!! They accepted the return offer. Good for you, congratulations ???. Your responsibilities are not over though! You are their connection to the company still, till they are back. Keep the communication line open. Guess what, they were not given a return offer due top multiple reasons or they decided not to come back, still keep the connection ??. LinkedIn is a great platform for that as well. Its a small world ????. If you have given them a good overall experience, they will come back in future. ????

Like it, please comment below! Have more to add, please leave me a comment or message me directly. lets keep building on each other!