Summer is approaching and with it the time when companies take on an increased number of students for internships. But just hiring students as a cheap labour force is not enough, internships should be beneficial to both parties. Students expect to do something meaningful which will help them in their future career. Also nowadays it is not a problem sharing your bad experience of a company on social networks which is then very hard for companies to rectify. So before taking on interns this year go through the following list of warning signs to see whether or not your internship programme is well prepared. These have been compiled by the business2community.com website.
1. There is no room for fun and creativity in your corporate culture, and consequently nor is there in your internship programme.
2. You forget that students also have other activities and you don’t offer a flexible work schedule during an internship.
3. You don’t give students the opportunity to get involved in interesting projects. You just leave them to make the coffee and do routine administrative work.
4. You don’t offer any “employee” benefits, such as an occasional free lunch, participation at interesting industry conferences, etc.
5. You don’t include students in training where they would learn about your corporate culture and also the work they have to do.
6. You leave students unsupervised by superiors who could also be their mentors.
7. You don’t have an internship plan in which you would set goals for the students and prepare handbooks for them with practical information and advice.
8. You leave students to work in isolation without much contact with your other employees and managers.
9. You don’t conduct exit interviews or otherwise get feedback from students.
10. You don’t pay students any remuneration.
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