Young workers make up a significant portion of the American workforce. However, they also tend to experience a higher unemployment rate than the rest of the workforce. With employers looking to hire veteran professionals, many business owners often overlook young workers, thereby underestimating their importance. One option for tapping into this critical segment of the workforce is to create an internship program. What are the benefits? There are a number of them, which this blog explores in detail.
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The Benefits of an Internship Program to Employers
If you are seeking to facilitate long-term success at your company, a program for interns is a great option to consider. Interns provide two immediate benefits to any business. First, they can help manage the current workload efficiently and relatively inexpensively, within their capacity. Many employers will find this appealing. Second, interns represent tomorrow’s workforce. Leveraging new ideas and perspectives in the workplace can help your business stay relevant. Below are five benefits for employers-offering internships:
- Interns Can Transition to Employees
- They Promote Employee Engagement
- They Can Share the Workload
- They Offer Fresh Perspectives
- They Can Become Valuable Assets
Let’s take a closer look at these benefits below.
Interns Can Transition to Employees
Whether you partner with recruitment agencies or facilitate communication with interns yourself, a productive intern can transition into a full-time employee with relative ease. You can mold a young intern into the perfect employee. A structured program can help you acquire candidates early on. Once you have assembled a pool of solid interns, you can teach them the skills they need for success.
To do this successfully, you must make sure they are involved. Encouraging them to attend team meetings, interact with coworkers, and meet with people from other departments will promote their proactive involvement. This helps your team of interns to develop both a familiarity with your business and employees in addition to refining the soft skills they will need to thrive.
They Promote Employee Engagement
Interns aren’t the only ones who stand to benefit from a summer internship. They can be a catalyst for the professional development of your existing employees as well. When you offer your employees an opportunity to mentor someone just starting their career, it enriches their job and makes it more fulfilling. They can also assist in passing on key business and professional knowledge as a result of this relationship. This can be of benefit to your company if the intern does transition to full-time employment
They Can Share the Workload
Work never stops; it can get overwhelming. Many employees find themselves swamped with work. One key benefit of hiring an intern is that it promotes a more even distribution of basic tasks and workload. For example, if you offer accounting internships, at the end of the financial year you can have your interns help you with things like bank reconciliations, etc.
This not only helps facilitate completion to regular to-dos, but it also allows interns a chance to apply their skills in a real-world situation. You may not even have to reach out to accounting temp agencies.
They Offer Fresh Perspectives
The intern pool is typically comprised of young people bringing fresh and new perspectives to the workplace. Recognize and encourage the value of a fresh perspective on your business projects. This can help many businesses enact the change they need to survive in the modern marketplace. If you feel your business is in danger of becoming stagnant, a motivated intern might be just what the organization needs.
They Can Become Valuable Assets
One of the biggest costs businesses face is employees leaving the company – employee turnover. Consider your interns as investments that can benefit your company over the long term. Hires who have interned at your company are more likely to begin a career with your organization.
Moreover, they are also relatively cost-effective to acquire, making internships a key part of hiring for small businesses. Build on the opportunity to grow their knowledge of your business, and help them acquire the skills they need. You will be able to mold them into a typecast of the perfect employee for your business.
