As with any business trend, scepticism, pros and cons are bound to emerge and be talking points across the world of business blogging. Temporary hiring is no stranger to this. In the UK, it has been evident that many employers have become unwilling to pay interns or provide lack-luster experiences for them. In fact, the last British Prime Minister announced a crackdown on unpaid internships, sending warning letters to companies to tackle advertising for unpaid interns. This demonstrates evident scepticism about giving the full internship experience. So what are the reasons why companies reluctant to truly embrace the magic of taking on interns? How can those concerns be addressed?
‘I’ve got good enough staff, there is no point hiring for the sake of it’
It is often a scenario for companies that they feel no need for hiring interns due to either an already high demand from quality candidates, or they feel satisfied enough with the team they already have. In fact, Netflix has publicly stated that it has no internship program, with one staffer explaining that it’s natural flow of interest from senior level developers, it has no need to create career pipeline for training engineers. So why take a gamble taking on a less skilled intern when you can stick with the best?
To respond to this point, it is worth considering the inevitable life processes that can affect even your most loyal workers. Cases which require immediate and steady strategies to avoid disruption in your processes. With the taking of sabbatical years on the rise, and companies such as O2 increasing the time allowed for paternity leave, the old norms of working periods may change. Providing greater freedom for your dedicated workers to self-develop on sabbatical periods or to equalise their work-life balance on maternity leave is an increasingly recommended method for boosting morale and employee loyalty in the workplace. Rather than extending the JD’s of your staff to cover the roles of the on-leave worker, why not bring in interns to cover their work? That way your staff can continue to focus on their main remit whilst the duties of the on-leave worker are still covered – meaning disruption to your company’s processes are minimal.
‘A short term internship is pointless when our goals are long-term’
‘Not having time’ or struggling to find relevance in a short-term role for a company in terms of its lengthy processes can be regular excuses for not seeking interns. It’s true that in order to do the ‘intern experience’ justice, it takes training and mentoring for the intern – something which can take significant time and effort. In some scenarios, by the time the intern is trained to a competent enough level, the internship period may be over.
There are plenty of ways to address this issue. For starters, assessing your own structured training and evaluation programme can strategies methods in which an intern gains suitable, independent experience-based learning which can develop a worker in an intensive pace. However, the best way to address the awkwardness of the short-term internships is to base them around your companies short-term projects. Why not assign interns to temporal projects such as hosting an event, organising a conference, executing a Summer marketing campaign. This then can lead you to creating job descriptions for specific projects/campaigns in which you can get specialised profiles working for your company.
‘My managers aren’t mentors’
Supervision and mentoring are essential ingredients to make an internship experience worthwhile and purpose-fulfilling. Not every company is suited to help young interns develop professionally and having honesty about your interest in helping someone start their career is important. In some companies, they may be at such a position in their processes that they cannot afford to take their eye off the ball to train an intern that may not work at the office at the end of the day.
However, the long-term benefits from experiences of mentoring and nurturing leadership are evident. Recent surveys showed that mentoring was rated the most effective method of learning. It also has increased job satisfaction and creates a positive environment in which your staff members feel empowered and reminded of their own self-development and admirable position to others.mentors versus non-mentors were more satisfied with their jobs. Overall, the occasional burden of training and mentoring new employees is something with greater long-term benefits that will allow your mentees to grow and replicate their new leadership skills into their work.
Having now addressed the concerns often found with hiring interns, it may be worth exploring our opportunities portal for potential partners to see how we can provide your company with a countless amount of young, ambitious interns from around the world.
