A lot of college students are on the lookout for work experience. Many of them will seek out internships and skill-building opportunities, and chances are, at least one potential intern is likely contact your business.
You might be interested in hiring interns but aren’t sure if they’re a better choice than some of your other options, like hiring temporary employees, part-time help, seasonal workers, an extra employee or a contractor. In my 30 years of being a business owner, I’ve had great experiences with hiring interns. I hire talent from local colleges and meet young people who are eager to put their school lessons to the test.
Your business might also benefit from an intern. Here are some examples of situations where hiring interns for your small business may make sense.
1. You like to test drive before you buy.
Internship programs are a way for companies to bring in new and promising talent, see how well they do, and possibly extend a job offer to them. Internships have an expiration date, so if your intern is doing great work and you can afford to keep them, hire them. But, if your intern slacks off or isn’t needed at your business, you’re not obligated to keep them. Try hiring an employee, taking their productivity for a test drive and then firing them. It’s a lot harder to do.
When you hire an intern, they could learn the basics of your business. Or, you can have them dive right in and get their hands dirty like I do. My personal internship guidelines for employers involves a lot of hands-on experience.
At my company, Patriot Software, I often extend full-time job offers to the interns who show great talent. I wouldn’t get to know their true potential if they ran around getting me coffee all day. Instead, my interns do work that full-time employees do. How else are they going to learn the ins and outs of my business?
Interns may be your business’s best pipeline to the…