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Interns in the Workplace: Hiring, Managing, and Training for Effective Collaboration
Have you seen the movie "The Intern"? While it's a fantastic film, rest assured, today we'll be talking about traditional entry-level interns! You've probably read numerous articles highlighting how beneficial it is for a young person to gain work experience as an intern while still in school.
However, just as students benefit, companies can also gain a lot from working with student interns. Join us to learn why hiring interns is a smart decision for your company!
Why Hire Interns?
Interns Provide Help Where It's Needed Most
For students, the primary goal is to gain as much experience as possible in various areas. This means you can allocate valuable student workforce to where it's most needed. Comprehensive internship programs often rotate interns across different corporate divisions and work areas, allowing students to discover the roles they enjoy most while you can assess where additional support is beneficial.
Interns Are Ambitious and Enthusiastic
Members of Generation Y and Z are motivated to work, making them excellent employees. Their help makes work more dynamic, boosts productivity, and eases the workload of other employees. Young people adapt well to the work environment, the ever-changing demands, and challenges. They are independent, practical, and always open to new information and learning.
Interns Are an Investment in the Future
If companies recognize the potential in their interns and are willing to invest in their education, interns can become one of the most valuable resources within the organization. After training, you can assign them more responsibility and a wider range of tasks. This significantly contributes to relieving the burden on other employees. Internally trained staff are the most effective in the long run: they will know organizational processes well, understand corporate systems, and require much less time and effort than new hires.
Interns Are Cost-Effective
Hiring students can bring immediate financial benefits to your company. If you employ them through a student cooperative, the wages of students are exempt from social security contributions due to the favorable conditions applied to cooperatives. You only have to pay for the hours actually worked by the interns. Moreover, you are not burdened by their vacation or sick leave costs. The cooperative also takes over the administrative burden and costs: we handle advertising, recruitment, and interviewing potential employees.
Treat Interns as Full-Fledged Employees
Never forget that students feel most comfortable and can create the most value for you when they are appreciated. Treat them as full-fledged employees and give them the same attention as others! Introduce them to the team upon joining so they don't feel like outsiders. It's motivating for interns to know whom to approach if they encounter any difficulties, as they also put their hearts into achieving common goals. Organize team-building activities, a dinner, or a get-to-know-each-other game night after work, and allow existing employees to connect more directly with the new colleagues!
Here are some things you can do as a company leader to make interns feel more comfortable in your organization: check in on their well-being, monitor their academic progress, offer assistance with university or college projects, organize training sessions for them, respond to all their emails and questions, and most importantly, listen to their insights and express that you value their work and professional growth. If you want to read more about workplace incentives, we recommend this previous blog post.
Need Student Workers? We Can Help!
At Y Generation Student Cooperative, we work to connect your company with the best student workforce and provide young people with the best professional opportunities and growth.
