It’s the summer and that means one big thing for an MSP company: interns. As you’re no doubt aware, taking on interns offers a great opportunity for both the intern and the business but it does require a big investment in management time and resources. That’s why it’s great if the summer can end with you hiring the intern on a full-time basis.
The Strength of Interns
Hiring interns makes a lot of sense. After all, they’ve already worked in your business. They’ve already learned the basics of your organisation, built relationships, and how to perform at least one function. From your point of view, you’ve seen the intern at work in your company. You’ve had a chance to assess their abilities, suitability, and cultural fit.
Making the Most of Interns
By taking a few key steps, you can maximise the potential of your interns, especially those that transform into full-time employees.
Mentoring
Always assign a suitable mentor to interns. The last thing you want is for them to flounder about. They only have a short time to get to grips with their work and demonstrate their abilities. Investing in capable mentoring at this stage can really pay off.
Feedback
Build communication with your interns. Just because they’re young and/or inexperienced doesn’t mean they can’t offer valuable input. Sure, the academic world can sometimes be a bit remote from the ‘real world’ of business but students may be learning about, or even better, researching, new and more effective ways to get things done. Schedule in regular meetings to ask your interns how they feel, what they think, and any suggestions they might have.
Use That Work Ethic
Interns should be fresh and raring to go. Physically, they are primed for hard work and they should be energetic. Your MSP company can make great use of this. Increasingly, new graduates are prepared to put in extra hours. Build on this mindset to create fresh, hard-working employees.
Formal Training
Show your interns that the relationship is not a one-way street. Provide some formal training to help make the most of your intern’s ability to absorb new knowledge and skills. Explain how this training could extend into the intern’s career if they join the company full-time.
Maximise Your Intern Value
It’s not easy recruiting good staff these days. By making the most of your interns, you can use the opportunity to inject not just staffing headcount but valuable energy and skills into your MSP company. Take the steps outlined above, add some of our own, and implement a formal approach to building superstars out of students. The beneficial effects could spread much wider than just the new hires.
