As summer reaches its peak, many employers find themselves wondering how best to take advantage of their new summer interns. Following is a list of recommendations and tasks that will help employers make the most of their summer employees, while ensuring they receive the work experience and professional development needed to flourish.
Setting Goals to Build Skills and Review Progress
Employers must take the time to define what the intern will be doing to help the most within a division or business. Effective managers should begin by asking these summer employees which skills they most want to learn, and then combine their input into a working document which both parties use and refer to throughout the summer.
To make sure these goals are met, the intern manager should keep an open dialogue. By making herself accessible at the beginning of each day so that the intern’s questions can be answered, the intern can be self-guided for the remainder of the day. Additionally, by talking with her at the end of each day, the manager can summarize progress and set goals for the next day.
Mentoring: Ask Questions, Acknowledge Strengths, Provide Feedback
As an intern's main company advocate, the supervisor is the most effective mentor on how to think creatively and be productive. Managers should challenge their interns by asking provocative questions which can help them understand the larger business issues at stake. By asking powerful questions, managers can sharpen themselves and their own thought processes while challenging their employee.
Effective managers cannot afford to forget to acknowledge the strengths of their employee! Managers should look for the things that interns are doing well and let them know that their contributions are appreciated. By championing an intern for hidden strengths, managers open the door to find ways interns can make even greater strides with their abilities. Feedback is also critical to an intern's development. Once they feel grounded in the things they do well, they will be more receptive to feedback on what they need to do to improve.
Real Work or Menial Tasks?
Most interns realize that they will be assigned many non-glamorous responsibilities. Managers should stretch themselves to think of ways in which an intern can truly think and contribute at a higher level. By assigning at least one task a day that will allow an them to use higher order thinking skills, managers ensure that their hires are engaged and feel both valued and valuable. As Ciara Truglia, a former intern with the Society for Human Resource Management, suggests in a March 2003 article from Business Monthly, managers must “find a small and manageable project that the intern can be in charge of deciding how to approach and complete.”
Modeling Behaviors for an Intern
As much as possible, employers should give interns a perspective on their department’s agenda and the company mission. The more they know about their coworkers' roles and how they fit into the larger structure, the more valuable they will feel, and the more productive they will be. Managers should also never forget to be positive role models for their summer hires: the more they exhibit patience, thorough decision-making, effective follow-through, creative thinking and enthusiasm for what they do, the easier it becomes for an intern to emulate these same qualities.
Give Feedback and Letters of Recommendation
By the end of the summer, an intern should have a concrete set of work that he or she has accomplished to share with future employers. Managers should offer to critique this portfolio, offering feedback on the content and overall presentation and providing suggestions to make it as effective as possible.
If the intern has met or exceeded expectations, managers should repay his hard work by offering to write him a glowing letter of recommendation. Interns may also be able to get a letter of recommendation from another employee with whom they worked. If the intern did not produce high quality work, managers may decide not to provide a letter, but must explain what could have done more effectively so that something valuable is learned.
Ciara Truglia writes, “When done right, internships can help employers to identify and develop future talent. Even if there isn’t a full-time opening at your organization, you have still done a great service to the student and your profession.”
When managers take the time to effectively supervise an intern by setting goals, being a mentor and providing valuable feedback, they don't simply create a better young employee: they also build their own critical thinking and management skills.
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