Cons of hiring an intern

 
Internships can be either paid or unpaid, depending on the circumstances. Keep a sharp eye on the current guidelines to stay in compliance, especially when trying to create an unpaid intern program. It’s now very difficult to create a compliant unpaid internship program. Here are a few of the cons of hiring an intern:
  • Hiring an intern takes time. The candidate search and the interviewing and screening process can take just as much work as a full-time employee hire. Plus, the intern usually only participates in the program for a few months, lowering the return on the hiring investment your team made.
  • Hiring an intern is usually not free. A recent flurry of political focus has clearly established that federal and state regulators are worried that companies are abusing internship programs and using them for free labor. In general, for an unpaid internship to be lawful under the FLSA, the intern must be properly classified as a "trainee" rather than an "employee." In the meantime, it may be safest to assume that all unpaid internships are unlawful.
  • Hiring an intern means your full-time staff has to expend effort bringing the employee onboard with orientation procedures and frequently temporary computer access and workspace.
  • Hiring an intern that is unpaid requires you to abide by a six factor check list produced by the FLSA, including your company receiving “no immediate benefit” from the work performed.
 
 
 Modern Business Associates frequently deals with designing internship programs.  As a Professional Payroll and HR outsource organization, our clients rely on us to help them effectively deal with these kinds of topics.