172896 Resource 149173 155860 149257 1182709350091 1183389490266 Controlled Small Business Opportunities: Hiring a Summer Intern

Tips for finding summer help and hiring college students for summer employment

Summertime presents unique opportunities for some small business owners in the form of an internship program. It’s often a win-win situation: college students need summer employment that compliments their area of study, and business owners need affordable and seasonal help. If hiring a summer intern is something that interests you, there are some specific things to consider as you approach the task. Here are some key points to keep in mind: Clarify the details. Make sure you have clear guidelines regarding the internship spelled out in writing, just as you would any other position. Include internship beginning and ending dates, job responsibilities and expectations, as well as payment details. Know what you need. Just because a student is eager and willing to learn does not necessarily mean they’ll be a good fit for your company. Be clear on the traits and characteristics that you need, just as you would when hiring a full-time employee. Explain the position. Just as you make sure you know what you’re looking for in an intern, you need to make sure that the potential intern is fully aware of the position’s offerings. Be certain that both parties are clear about what the daily duties will be. Many internships go sour when one party expects something completely different, or when the internship is made to sound much more glamorous or exciting than what it actually will be. Adjust your management style. Because an intern only serves your company for an extremely short amount of time, you will need to approach how you manage the internship differently than you might a full-time position. You’ll need to quickly identify the intern’s ability and level of skill, identifying tasks and duties accordingly, and get them performing those tasks as quickly as possible. Mentor your intern. Many times an intern is viewed as the absolute bottom of the food chain. Make sure other employees are respectful of the intern, and spend quality and productive time with them. Look at the experience as good business and community relations. Running a successful internship program is an opportunity to form positive relationships with young and eager future professionals. Be aware of evaluation expectations. Sometimes college students seek internships as an official part of their college curriculum. This means that there might be official paperwork and evaluations required in order to fulfill a college or university’s particular program. Make sure you understand any specific duties that you will be expected to complete for that program. In addition, some form of an evaluation process for your own records is a good idea in order to measure areas of skill that have improved over the course of the internship. Having a formal evaluation gives both the employer and the intern a way to review progress made and knowledge gained. It also gives company officials an opportunity to share parting wisdom and offer thanks or appreciation for the internship experience. Having a successful internship program can be a bonus for your company. You can increase community visibility and foster good will with others. If done well, everyone involved can enjoy the rewards. 10 application/xml false business opportunities hiring a summer intern hiring college students small business small business opportunities summer employment summer help summer intern tips for finding summer help Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30; .NET CLR 1.1.4322) 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 cmalmstrom false true false false true 189572 false false true false false false true 149173 blog blogsite/FreedomVoice/web