How To Provide High-Quality Worthwhile Internships

How To Provide High-Quality Worthwhile Internships Internships and work experience can be hugely beneficial, not just for the candidate but for your company too! Although there has been bad stigma towards internships due to the underpaying and overworking of interns, there are many advantages. We want to present you with some  guidance to help you provide a high-quality internship. Rewards Interns are often expected to work lots of hours, sometimes on a full-time contract for little or no pay. If your company cant afford to pay, reduce the hours that you expect them to work or wait until you can afford it. You may feel as though you are rewarding them with experience, but expecting them to work without paying any expenses or wage can sometimes be impossible. You need to take into consideration their finances; how much does  travel cost? are they paying rent? do they need any equipment? All of these things cost and working for nothing may result in them falling into debt or just not being able to complete the internship. Although you may feel as though all of these things dont fit into your budget, if it wasnt for an intern, you may have had to pay someone to complete some of the tasks, whether it is an existing employee working overtime or taking on a temp. Now, we arent suggesting that you take on an intern and offer them a hefty salary but we are suggesting that you consider rewarding your intern perhaps with travel costs, food costs or even an unexpected pay slip at the end of the internship. Experience Make sure that the experience you provide for them is worthwhile and that your advertisement clearly and truthfully states what the internship entails. If you are advertising it as a digital marketing internship, make sure that the duration of the internship is filled with digital marketing tasks and activities. Dont wait until their first day to decide what to do with them and more importantly, dont assign them to tasks just because your permanent staff dont want to do them. These interns are taking time out of their studies or out of work to gain the experience that they need to take the next step in their career, make sure that you are helping them spend their time wisely. You could do this Make sure you schedule regular meetings and appraisals with your intern to make sure that its what they expected and that they are finding it useful.   The End Result Some internships are unpaid but the completion can result in a permanent job offer. This is a really good way of rewarding your interns and proving to them how much you appreciate their time and hard work. Its wrong to keep promising your intern a job but not acting on it. Making them work for a ridiculous amount of time without rewarding them will cause them to burn out and lose interest. No one wants to work for a company that dont recognise or appreciate hard work! Even if you dont have a position to offer them at the end of their internship, keep them in mind for any positions that do arise in the future. You can even help them out Remember: There are lots of ways for ex-employees to review your company, whether its a discussion between friends or even a bad review online, keep a good company reputation