Interns: Goldmines for your organization

As more and more schools and colleges require internships to fulfill graduation requirements, the need for gaining practical experience is on the minds of almost all students pursuing a secondary degree. Luckily, many businesses offer these types of programs to give students real life work experience. At the same time, many businesses find they benefit greatly from having an intern on their staff. Paid and unpaid internship opportunities can provide new outlets for both students and your business. Read on to learn more about this mutual experience.

Fresh Ideas

Inviting in fresh talent helps to create a constant stream of interesting and modern ideas. “Bringing in students who don’t see your company from the inside every day opens up an opportunity for fresh perspectives on your business, strategies, and plans,” says Penny Loretto, a contributor Thebalancecareers.com. Make them feel part of the team by gaining their input. Once an intern has some time to get the hang of things, ask them for their thoughts and ideas. This can provide valuable insight on things you and your team may not have thought of before.

Encourages Technological Growth

It’s no secret, as younger generations begin to join the workforce, they bring significantly more technological experience than the generation before them. This can be used to your advantage. Give your interns opportunities to share their expertise with you. Having them take on a project that will utilize their tech skills, will build their confidence and add value in an area of your business that may be lacking. They can be helpful by doing something as simple as making posts on your business’ social media, or helping you learn something fun like how to navigate Tik Tok. Young people know what trends are popular because they set the trends themselves.

Extra Help

Interns are great for helping with simple tasks that would normally take precious time out of the work day. Giving your interns tasks to complete can help make your workload lighter. It can be very valuable when your staff is tending to important projects. Have files that need to be sorted or sensitive documents that need to be shredded? That sounds like a perfect job for your intern to handle. Sure, it’s not super interesting, but it keeps them busy while you continue working on your important tasks.

Mentoring Opportunities

Mentor relationships are something a lot of employees look for throughout their careers. Creating these types of bonds benefits both parties involved. When bringing on interns to interact and work with your employees you are providing everyone involved the opportunity to learn from each other. This multi-generational interaction also helps improve company culture and promotes an open dialogue amongst employees.

Potential for the Future

Interns will use their experience working for you in their future careers. However, if an intern does particularly well while working for you, there is always a possibility that that intern can turn into a future employee. If there is an intern that stands out among their peers, acknowledge their success. Express your opinions of how you think they would excel in your field. This can spark a future interest in working for your company or at least in your industry. Being a leader means encouraging those around you to seize every opportunity available to them.

Starting an internship program in your company or business is an important commitment to those who are looking for valuable work experience. A program like this will bring benefits to you and your team for years to come. Along with benefitting your company, you will also enrich the students that will appreciate the time spent learning from your employees. Building a strong internship program now will help you and your company grow in the future.