{"id":54643,"date":"2022-12-02T21:34:59","date_gmt":"2022-12-02T21:34:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shrm.org\/hr-today\/news\/hr-magazine\/winter2022\/pages\/how-internship-programs-help-small-companies-attract-future-workers-.aspx"},"modified":"2022-12-02T21:34:59","modified_gmt":"2022-12-02T21:34:59","slug":"internship-programs-help-small-companies-find-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/squarehr.com\/index.php\/2022\/12\/02\/internship-programs-help-small-companies-find-employees\/","title":{"rendered":"Internship Programs Help Small Companies Find Employees"},"content":{"rendered":"

?It\u2019s hard to believe a town of 14,082 people an hour\u2019s drive from Wichita, Kan., the nearest big city, would be a natural draw for aspiring young accountants. <\/p>\n

But that\u2019s exactly what\u2019s happened in McPherson, Kan., thanks to an 85-employee public accounting firm\u2019s internship program. This year, the company has roughly one intern for every five employees.<\/p>\n

Leaders at fast-growing Swindoll, Janzen, Hawk & Loyd (SJHL) are doubling down on internships as a way to grow their talent pipeline, cement relationships with local colleges, and boost the geographic and economic diversity of their staff. And so far, they have an impressive track record.<\/p>\n

The company has attracted interns from Japan, Africa and Russia and has watched former interns soar in their post-graduation careers. But perhaps the greatest testament to the program\u2019s success is that some participants stay long enough to take on full-time leadership roles.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo of our current partners were interns for us,\u201d says Tamie Prieb, SHRM-CP, SJHL\u2019s marketing and HR manager.<\/p>\n

Transitioning stellar interns into star employees is especially useful in today\u2019s tight hiring market. Many employers are struggling to find skilled labor, and while the rate of people quitting their jobs has slowed, it\u2019s still sky-high. In August 2022, 4.2 million people left their jobs, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics <\/a>reported. That compares to 3.5 million per month just prior to the pandemic.<\/p>\n

In 2020, the public health crisis caused more than half of employers to cancel their internship programs, according to a survey <\/a>by Glassdoor. Now, more than two years later, internships are making a comeback. When queried earlier this year, 200 large companies said they were planning to boost their intern hiring by an average of 22.6 percent in 2022, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers\u2019 (NACE\u2019s) 2022 Internship & Co-op Survey Report.<\/a><\/em> Internships can be an especially important resource for smaller companies that feel the pinch of staff shortages even more acutely than larger organizations do. <\/p>\n

Yet smaller businesses can face obstacles to attracting interns. After all, they don\u2019t have the huge marketing budgets of the bigger guys. They also might lack the bandwidth to run an internship program. But in most cases, it\u2019s worth trying to overcome these challenges to get a program going. <\/p>\n

\u201cSmall businesses may be surprised that they can gain a great relationship, hire their next employee and change the trajectory of their business with interns,\u201d says Stefanie B. Lomax, SHRM-CP, president and CEO of strategy at HRPro4You in Laurel, Md. \u201cIt\u2019s a great way to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Screen <\/p>\n

Build a Framework<\/p>\n

To get a successful internship program up and running, employers should first focus on two things: enabling slow, smart growth that gives companies time to train their interns, and putting a support system in place before the first intern walks through the door.<\/p>\n

Interns should be treated like any other new employee, which means they should take part in the onboarding process. That way, they can learn the basics, such as how to access the company\u2019s network and use their equipment, says Latha Ramesh, vice president of talent and culture at NetImpact Strategies Inc., a 300-employee IT services and consulting company headquartered in Falls Church, Va. <\/p>\n

Because this might be an intern\u2019s first office job, it\u2019s a good idea to be thorough, Ramesh advises. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo many of the processes and benefits are new and require explaining,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also important to designate a point person\u2014or point people\u2014to officially oversee the internship program. One mistake SJHL made early on was assuming that team members would ask interns directly to help with tasks when needed. That didn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone had access to the interns, but they didn\u2019t grab them,\u201d Prieb says. <\/p>\n

Once the leadership team realized it needed to have a formal process in place for assigning work to the interns, it assigned a staff member to be responsible for recruiting interns and overseeing the program. She matches each intern to one SJHL manager who assigns the intern work and takes charge of the intern\u2019s development. That match is based on an intern\u2019s skill set, interests and personality, as well as the needs of each department or manager.\"interns2.png\"<\/p>\n

SJHL also now pairs each intern with an onboarding \u201cbuddy\u201d\u2014an employee who doesn\u2019t assign them work. The idea is that after the two establish a connection, interns will feel comfortable asking their buddy small but important questions, such as how to fill out their time sheet or request a trash can for their workspace\u2014two real-life examples Prieb shared. <\/p>\n

Depending on how many interns a company has, and the size of the staff, it\u2019s also critical to not overburden any one employee with program oversight, says John Bates, SHRM-CP, talent supervisor for INTRUST Bank, based in Wichita, Kan. He recommends appointing several team members to take ownership of different aspects of the internship program. <\/p>\n

For example, recruiters can partner with hiring managers to work on intern selection. And internal marketers can help with recruiting tools and external communication about the program. It\u2019s also important to choose managers who have previously shown an interest in mentoring and career development coaching to work with the interns, Ramesh says. <\/p>\n

Be Creative<\/p>\n

To compete against companies with bigger marketing budgets, more name recognition and potentially more-attractive locations, smaller companies need to be flexible and creative with their internship outreach.<\/p>\n

At SJHL, that has meant thinking younger. While most companies target college juniors and seniors for internships, the company expanded its outreach to include college freshmen and sophomores and sometimes high school students. <\/p>\n

Being flexible with timing can also pay off. Few accounting firms look for interns over the summer months, so focusing its attention on its summer internship program gives SJHL a chance to snap up young talent sooner and train them ahead of the busy accounting season.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if they can\u2019t help us during that busy season, you keep in contact with them,\u201d Prieb says. \u201cMaybe they\u2019ll think of you later.\u201d <\/p>\n

Colleges can be powerful internship partners. In addition to having a steady supply of young talent, they\u2019re eager to place their students in quality internships. Forging partnerships with colleges can be done in many ways. <\/p>\n

NetImpact Strategies, for example, has relationships with university recruiting partners both near and far from its office. The company also posts internship opportunities on Handshake, an internship and entry-level-job recruiting app used by many college students and schools. Meanwhile, SJHL employees often volunteer to help local college students with mock interview training. One staff member even taught at a local college for an entire semester and then donated her stipend back to the school. <\/p>\n

\u201cTreat the college like you\u2019re building a client,\u201d Prieb says.<\/p>\n

Companies should also boast about what sets them apart from competitors. SJHL, for example, includes a mentorship program as a value-add to its internship program. In addition, each intern walks away with professional headshots. <\/p>\n

Highlighting the specific upsides of interning at a smaller organization is also a good idea, especially since many students intentionally seek out such opportunities, Prieb says.<\/p>\n

\u201cA true benefit of interning with a small business is you get to see more,\u201d she says. \u201cYou may get to do outsourced accounting \u2026 [and] work with a client. If you go to a big company, you\u2019re in a very specific department and don\u2019t get the full grasp of everything else.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"intern3.png\" <\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

Remote Internships: The Pros and Cons<\/span><\/p>\n

T<\/span>he pandemic prompted some companies to transform their internship programs to virtual experiences\u2014and there are advantages and disadvantages to doing so.<\/p>\n

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One of the big upsides of remote internships, especially for smaller employers, is a wider and more diverse pool of candidates to draw from. For students, eliminating the need to relocate can make an internship financially feasible. Otherwise, the expenses can be a sticking point, since about half of employers don\u2019t offer relocation assistance to interns, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers\u2019 (NACE\u2019s) 2022 Internship & Co-op Survey Report<\/em>. And an intern\u2019s pay or stipend often doesn\u2019t come close to covering living expenses in costly cities. <\/p>\n

Still, only 2.2 percent of employers surveyed earlier this year said they planned to offer fully virtual internships in 2022, NACE reported. Instead, nearly half (46.8 percent) planned on offering hybrid internships that blend virtual and in-person experiences. <\/p>\n

Fully virtual internships certainly aren\u2019t for everyone. Research from Glassdoo<\/a>r found that 70 percent of students with remote internships in 2021 didn\u2019t enjoy the experience. Many said they found it tough to communicate and connect with their employers, which is why it takes a lot of planning to make a remote internship program work. <\/p>\n

Latha Ramesh, vice president of talent and culture at NetImpact Strategies Inc., an IT services and consulting company based in Falls Church, Va., has worked with both hybrid and remote interns. To ensure that interns get the most from a remote or hybrid program, she recommends that companies:<\/p>\n