How to Hire an Intern for Your Organization [5 Easy Steps]

• Jul 24

All right – your business is finally running smoothly and you’re ready to take another step. You recognize the benefits of an internship, both for the individual and company, and it sounds like a great opportunity. But you aren’t sure how to hire an intern.

That’s the plight of various small business owners who want to offer helpful opportunities to individuals trying to break into their own careers. And fortunately, the answer isn’t too difficult. In fact, if you apply the same hiring principles you use for employees to interns, you’ll likely end up with a great candidate.

But if you’re still wanting that extra little help knowing how to take the first few steps, let our guide show you the way. We’ve broken it down into easy, manageable pieces. That way, you can move from wanting to hire an intern to getting that person started in your business.

How to Hire an Intern Easily

1. Figure Out Tasks and Responsibilities (Job Description)

Before you ever set out to find an intern, you need to know exactly what you hope they can help accomplish. After all, you don’t want to hire a person and then not know what to have them work on. Despite the long-lasting trope of an intern as a coffee-grabber, the position deserves much more thought and planning.

In fact, even if an intern isn’t an employee, the work they do directly impacts your organization or business. So, you want to make sure you aren’t bringing someone on to perform flippantly in a role that could harm your company. Determine whether they’ll work directly for another individual or perform responsibilities on their own in the interest of gaining experience.

Ultimately, come up with a job description, complete with detailed tasks and expectations. That way, when you do set out to find the right person, you recognize whether they’re a good fit for the work you want to accomplish. After all, it’s as much a disservice to the intern if you hire the wrong person. Because they need experience that will prove relevant to the career field they want to enter. And if you have no idea what they’ll be doing during their time with your business, it could be as wasteful as helpful.

2. Utilize Appropriate Recruiting Methods

Again, we can’t stress enough that the work an intern provides your company will impact it either positively or negatively. So, you shouldn’t necessarily pick the first person who passes your doors on the street. While internships exist largely to help people gain the experience they need at the beginning of their career, you can still look for someone who has the right interests and skills.

In other words, you need to make sure you utilize appropriate and legal recruiting methods – just as you would for employees.

For example, your search for an intern could lead you to:

• Job Boards
• Social Media
• Professional Networks
• Colleges and Universities
• Internship/Job Fairs
  
  

All of these represent appropriate methods of recruitment for new interns. Naturally, one might work better for your organization than another, and that’s all right. You should do what makes the most sense for your business. So, if relying on your professional connections helps bring in viable candidates better than social media, go that direction.

At the end of the day, you want to make sure your recruiting methods lead to individuals who can perform well and take the role seriously. That way, they get the most benefit from the experience while helping your company along.

3. Determine Compensation and Benefits

If you’ve ever tried to find an internship personally, then you know pay and benefits aren’t guaranteed. In fact, in the U.S., only around 60.8% of internships are paid positions. And while unpaid internships still provide plenty of experience and benefits in their own ways, you might opt to compensate them for their work.

You’ll want to have a good idea of the compensation and benefits an intern can expect by the time you sit down to hold an interview. Because that’s pertinent information that can help an individual decide whether to accept the position or find another opportunity.

So, analyze the tasks you expect the intern to perform as well as the company’s ability to provide compensation. Then determine what amount you can feasibly offer. If you decide an unpaid internship fits best, make sure that’s clear from the beginning whenever you list the role publicly.

4. Set Up Evaluation Procedures

If one of the core reasons for an internship is professional growth, then you need to have evaluation procedures set up before the opportunity begins. In that sense, you could treat it exactly as any other employee evaluation. Measure their performance with preset metrics, that way you can offer tips for improvement and praise what’s working well.

Of course, these evaluations might not carry the same weight as they would with regular employees. Because an intern only stays with your company for a limited amount of time. However, such procedures could also give you insight into whether you should offer that person a full position at the end of their internship. After all, you want to do everything possible to keep talented and passionate workers. And if one of your temporary interns proves to have those capabilities, you might want to try to hang on to them more permanently.

5. Design a Training Program

Finally, once you have all the other pieces in place, you can start looking more into the specifics of the training program itself. Decide what specific skills your company can help foster in an intern. That might include on-site training activities or supplemental third-party courseware. Ultimately, however you decide to do this largely depends upon factors specific to your context. So, we can’t tell you exactly how to carry it out.

The point it, stay aware of the skills and knowledge you hope the intern walks away with at the end of their program. That way, you can check in multiple times over the course of the training to determine whether it’s working. If so, great! But if not, you might need to change the training and development plan to better fit the needs of the individual as they move along.

Go Find an Intern for Your Business

Perhaps we’ve made it sound a little too easy with these five steps. But just remember, hire an intern the same way you would any other employee. Go through the right channels, look for driven individuals and ensure you’re a good fit for each other.

Knowing how to hire an intern is a great way to pass on information and skills vital to your industry. And at the end of the program, you might even find that individual fits your company culture perfectly.

And if you’re needing supplemental resources to help your interns learn once they’re hired, consider VTR Learning. We offer various online courses designed to help learners gain critical skills in everything from accounting and leadership to cyber security. And because these courses cast the learner as an intern at a fictional company, they’re perfect for those already filling that role in the real world. Check them out today!

Article written by Braden Norwood

Last updated July 24, 2024

• Business
• Career Tips