Competition for jobs has become more intense. This is to say that employers and recruiters will be drawn towards an individual’s employment history than towards another with little or no work experience.
One of the easiest ways to lay hands on the work experience which is so much sought for is through internships. In my book; Hello Intern, I dedicated one chapter to emphasize how internships increase your chances of getting career placement, especially in the organization you interned with.
Now to address this question; “What exactly is the role of an intern to the growth of a business?”, we have to understand that this may vary from industry to industry and the kind of internship you are taking on. Generally, any intern, no matter the organization, will have a primary role of providing support and or assistance in the day to day operations, at least in the beginning.
Every company’s goal is to encourage business growth. However, it is possible that you have not realized how beneficial it would be to take on interns or to run an internship program.
Among the many benefits of taking on, interns are a few highlighted below.
Fresh and novel ideas
It is an undisputed fact that every company seeks to minimize cost while maximizing profit and having fresh ideas on board is something desired by the management of every organization. Interns usually possess the ability to bring on fresh ideas.
It would be wise to not see interns as just an extra set of hands, but as people who have novel perspectives and as people familiar with the latest trends. In another expression, having a trainee on your team will cost you relatively less to get fresh business ideas that will increase returns for your company. For instance, young interns especially have insight and are better equipped with social media.
Allowing such an intern to come up with ways to improve sales through social media will not be far-fetched. Aside from the fact that they come with fresh ideas, they mostly come with a ton of energy and will jump at any opportunity to prove themselves to you, knowing very well that you could be their potential employers.
Higher employee retention rate
One way to assess how well an organization is faring is to take a look at their employee retention rate. A lot of businesses suffer loss or incur a lot of costs in recruiting new employees. It is no surprise that management does their best to increase workers’ satisfaction to reduce the turnover rate.
The 2015 NACE internship & Co-op Survey in the United States of America found that more than half of employers had a higher five-year retention rate from employees that were hired through internship programs. Another angle to look at this from is that having trainees in an organization reduces the workload on old employees, causing them to be more efficient. Companies like these will see better levels of production and happier staff while retaining them in the long run.
Encouraging and instilling leadership skills
As an organization trying to instill leadership in its employees, taking on interns could be a simple way to achieve that. With interns, your company’s old workers will be required to take on the responsibility to mentor and supervise.
Through this, they will gain leadership skills. This may be especially needful for a person being considered for a management position. You can look at this as a training ground for such a person since it is usually more challenging to supervise existing employees as compared to interns.
Tony Elumelu, Chairman of UBA, says “a true leader is one who remains committed to a higher purpose than most others do not yet see”. It is no secret that running an intern program may cause you to incur some costs, but it will be expedient to note that the benefits of having interns in any organization far outweighs and overshadows the cost that may have been incurred in recruiting them.
Take a risk now by instituting an internship program in your company if one does not exist already. A lot of companies today are reaping huge benefits from having one.
Samuel Agyeman-Prempeh is a corporate trainer and professional ghostwriter assisting busy executives to write and publish their books, articles, and speeches. He has worked as Head of Protocol at a diplomatic mission, Corporate Affairs Officer at a French multinational agribusiness and as Events and Media Correspondent for a digital ad agency.
Samuel’s initiative Role Model Africa has received mentions in Daily Graphic (Ghana), Daily Sun Newspaper (Nigeria) and Africa Rizing (an offshoot of VOA)for its commitment to human capital development.
