Hiring new employees is one of HR’s vital aspects. When businesses grow and expand in the market, they demand more employees to take responsibility for the newly created positions in order to accommodate the market demands. However, hiring new employees is a costly and time-consuming process. Additionally, there is always a feeling of uncertainty attached to the process as managers are concerned about making bad hiring decisions. But if you are the manager of an SME or a startup, you cannot afford to make any hiring mistakes. You need to only hire energetic, motivated and flexible fresh minds to your business. That’s why our advice to you is to adopt a new recruitment strategy by hiring interns.
Many businesses assign minimal priority to hire interns, thinking that it is a waste of the company’s resources. In reality, interns, when carefully hired and well-trained for their positions, can be just as capable as regular employees are.
If you’re not too sure which steps to take in the hiring process, let us help you out with our free checklist.
Benefits of hiring interns
There are many benefits that you can obtain from hiring interns. In today’s blogpost we will be discussing the following benefits:
Long-term recruiting tool
Hiring interns is a very practical and reliable recruitment strategy on the long-term. The internship period is considered to be a test phase for interns to prove themselves to the company. More often than not, those interns who show personal growth and development get offers from their employers. The reason is that recruited interns are more familiar with the organizational culture and will not need additional training for their positions. Accordingly, managers consider hiring interns to be a safe decision.
Turnover rate and employee retention
Turnover rate and employee retention reflect the circulation of employees in the company. It shows the ability of the organization to attract and keep its workforce. According to a 2018 report by NACE (National Association of Colleges and Employers), the retention rates of intern hires were as high as 70.6%. The reason for this high percentage is that interns who get long-term job offers from their companies feel appreciated and significant to the company. As a result, they will be more inclined to stay longer in the organization than regular employees are.
Employer-branding strategy
Employer-branding is the reputation of the company as a workplace or the image that is portrayed to potential employees. Companies that are perceived to have a strong employer-branding can easily attract and retain the best employees in the industry. Hiring interns is one of the best ways to build a strong employer-branding image in the labour market. For example, if a company partnered with a university in an internship program. Students will perceive this company as a business leader that supports student development and participation in the workforce. Moreover, the hired students will be spreading the word about their new internship. This will draw attention to your company, allowing you to boost your employer-branding image.
Productivity and innovation
By hiring more interns and increasing the company’s workforce, it will be easier and quicker to finish the repetitive daily tasks. This will allow other employees to focus on the quality of more difficult work. Additionally, interns are usually self-motivated, highly energized, and passionate for learning and work. The company can take advantage of these characteristics by properly training and directing them to undertake meaningful tasks in the organization. New interns also enhance the levels of innovation in the company as they bring new and fresh ideas to the organization. Not to mention that students these days are “tech-natives”, making it easier for them to work and adapt to the new and ever-developing programs that are vital for any successful SME. Furthermore, New interns will have different perspectives and objective insights into the companies performance, problems and issues.
Lower costs
Although this should not be your only drive to hire interns, it is true that hiring interns and paying for them is less expensive to the company. Interns are usually more interested in the experience and they are craving for the learning opportunity. Even some students will be willing to undertake unpaid internships. However, it is always better to compensate them with wages and some financial rewards no matter how small they are. This will make them feel appreciated and significant to the company, which would motivate them to work harder.
