Designing an Internship Program

 
Designing an Internship Program can create a great way to pave the way to create relationships with local schools and pave the way to boosting your recruiting program. It’s not uncommon for over 20% of a company’s new-hires to come from its internship program.
 
Then designing an internship program, several factors should be considered:
 

Strategic Planning

  • Will your internship program be available year-round? Post openings at least eight weeks from the start date.
  • Will they need workspace?
  • Will they need computer access?
  • What kinds of meaningful projects will they participate in?
 

Supervising

Since internships are generally a training type of program, they will typically need a greater amount of supervision than the normal employees.
Each intern will need to be welcomed to the company and taken through many of the normal employee orientation efforts, like security, facility accommodations, punch in/out procedures, etc.
 

Compensation/Legal Compliance

Make sure you get advice on how to stay in compliance with federal and state laws regarding if your interns need to be paid. Generally, it is much harder to create a compliant unpaid internship program.
Whether the intern receives course credit for their efforts is also part of the equation when determining compliance. In an article by Patterson (1997), the author highlights information provided by the NACE general counsel on academic credit. Each local university will also have their own guidelines for internships taken for course credit.
 

Compliant Hiring of an Intern

 
Equal Employment Opportunity laws apply to the hiring of interns. You will want to check with your state to see if workers’ compensation laws cover interns. Just as you would a regular employee, it is important to provide interns with information on your safety and harassment policies, as employers may be held liable for intern safety and harassment issues.
 

Set and document goals for the Internship

 
Documentation is very important for effective learning to take place. It is strongly advisable that an employer and intern create mutually agreed upon learning objectives. Well documented learning objectives provide clear direction and targeted goals for the intern. This ensures both parties envision the same experience and reduces the possibility of misunderstanding and disappointment.
 

Feedback

Each internship program should include two-way feedback. The intern should be able to receive feedback on their performance. In addition, you need to get feedback on your internship program directly from the participants to understand if it is meeting the goals you have for your program. This feedback should come from the interns themselves, as well as your full-time staff that worked with the interns.
 
 Modern Business Associates frequently deals with employee and intern programs.  As a Professional Payroll and HR outsource organization, our clients rely on us to help them effectively deal with these kinds of topics.