5 Ways Summer Interns can Boost your Small Business for Years to Come
5 Ways Summer Interns can Boost your Small Business for Years to Come
Even at a time when it is challenging to fill positions, internship numbers continue to rise and are viewed as more important than ever before. As summer approaches, students will become interns and bring benefits to companies everywhere.
This symbiotic relationship can mean low cost or free labor for your business, especially during peak times. If you are contemplating the value of having these students join your small business, these five reasons explain why they are worth the work and the benefits they bring to your business.
- Having extra hands to expand your workforce can offer returns beyond just additional help. These additional, temporary workers offer a chance for small businesses to get caught up, distribute the workload, and even have the resources to explore projects. These eager-to-learn, enthusiastic, employees can offer a boost in employee morale with their energy and assistance.
- There is a valuable opportunity for existing employees to develop and practice leadership skills as they mentor interns. This exchange allows employees to give back and teach others. Interactions like this offer existing employees a deepened sense of purpose, pride, and belonging. Furthermore, the employee/intern interaction stands to increase employee engagement, both as a team and with their work.
- While existing employees have plenty to offer interns, bringing on interns offers a fresh perspective for businesses. As interns enter the workforce, they bring new knowledge and skills with them.
Younger interns are often savvy in technology, programming, generating a brand, and how to best use social media to benefit your company. Generational skills offer a variety of approaches and perspectives, leading to creative ideation and new directions for businesses.
This could be the opportunity to take your small business into social media as a real marketing tool, refine your online presence, or explore new technology.
- In addition to potentially increasing your social media and online exposure, interns help establish connections in your community. These interns are essentially brand ambassadors as they share the experience of working at your business, offering further recognition and recruitment potential.
Internships are often a neglected opportunity for small businesses to weave in corporate social responsibility for positive publicity. Creating connections with local schools and colleges increases your small business’ visibility while giving back to the community.
- When it comes to the ROI of having interns, it is an investment that can continue to return for years to come. Interns offer the opportunity to develop a talent pipeline, even in the smallest of businesses.
Existing employees can develop and practice leadership skills by mentoring interns. This offers the ability to identify potential managers and key talent in action. Interns make up about 40% of entry level employees, and developing a talent pipeline helps limit recruiting, hiring, and training costs. As your small business increases its employee network, there is the valuable opportunity to try out interns as future employees.
Employee retention is a costly topic. The cost of a bad hire can total up to 30% of that employee’s salary. New hires without experience have a one-year retention rate of 42%, compared to 71% when an intern with internal experience is hired.
When you consider that interns make up about 40% of entry level employees, building work skills and a workforce can be a solid investment. When considering the benefits of summer interns for a small business, the numbers add up.
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Jen Jordan brings a wealth of life and leadership experiences to her writing. After 10 years creating a variety of content for a nonprofit, Jen decided to establish her own writing business. She specializes in creating high quality blog and website content for small businesses. When she's not writing, Jen is a competitive triathlete with a goal of completing a triathlon in all 50 states.