Four Steps To Virus-Proof Your Summer Internship

Summer internships are a long-standing tradition, for employers and young professionals studying in undergraduate and graduate programs. Done well, they can be fantastic win-win-wins, delivering valuable work product for the employer; formative experience and professional development for the intern; and ideally some output that is good for people or our planet. As so many things, many internship offers have been retracted, put on hold, or deferred in recent weeks as businesses’ needs and resources come into question.

This is one area of the economy that we can and should absolutely keep running. As we have seen in recent weeks, with great surprise for some of us, remote work is very do-able. Humans are largely keen to contribute to outcomes beyond their own survival. So with some direction, basic tools and technology, and management that is not toxic or destructive, people do their jobs even without a boss looking over their shoulder. While interns are earlier in their career, and in the case of undergraduates, have probably not yet held a full-time job, they too are evolutionarily inclined to do work that contributes to something beyond their own survival or pleasure.

Internships remain one of the best medium-term talent attraction strategies: a summer (or term-time) position is a low-risk way for an employer and employee to get to know each other and determine whether and how their needs and skills fit. Interns can be a great temporary resource to do research or gather information to make recommendations during times of change. Since they are early in their career and not yet fully embedded in your organization, they have the ‘beginners’ mind’ that is useful for designing creative solutions or comparing possibilities without the baggage of a seasoned professional. Because they are short-term and early in their career, hiring an intern can be a cost-effective way to get a discrete project done that might help with urgent changes or recovery strategies.

Coronavirus is creating major and varied challenges for all companies, and many are struggling to pay permanent staff and prepare to stay operational for as long as this shutdown must last. Interns are not a solution to those existential problems. But for companies that have stabilized or expect to shortly, proceeding with summer internships could be wise for the company, and a service to today’s students, who we all want to continue on their path to becoming productive professionals.

Here are four ways to ensure that your internship is a success for your company and your intern, regardless where we stand in the coronavirus response this summer.

1.    Start onboarding now.

If your intern does have to work remotely this summer, for any number of reasons, it takes longer to get to know someone without daily in-person interactions. Most internship managers under-invest in onboarding anyhow, given the short-term of the intern’s role. Set up a handful of video calls with your intern before their expected start date, ideally every two weeks, even if the calls are just 15-30 minutes each. Send them some background reading and videos on your company and the project they’ll be working on. Share LinkedIn profiles of anyone they’ll interact with over the summer and schedule a virtual lunch a week or so before the intern starts work.

Then, be sure to block out some time every day of their first week for onboarding: they deserve at least an hour of your time on their first day, and 30-90 minutes a day with some kind of structured activity for the rest of the week, even if it is pre-recorded training material or a (in-person or virtual) team lunch. These efforts do not have to be elaborate pedagogically or all-day, but starting sooner than later will ensure that you have a productive relationship with your intern to optimize the work product you get, as well as their experience with your company and industry.

2.    Design a clear project with regular check-ins.

Make sure that you identify a specific project that matches your intern’s background and qualifications, and is feasible within the 6-12 weeks that they will work for you. Put the project in writing, including a description of what success will look like, the resources they need to complete it, and a tentative week-by-week timeline they should follow.

Put a repeating calendar invite for a 30-60 minute check-in every week so that you are sure not to lose track of time and let the project go astray. The summer flies by, so it is particularly important to be in regular touch with your intern to ensure that they are spending their time in a way that is useful for your needs.

Again, these are best practices that are far too often overlooked in normal conditions. They will drastically improve the results for everyone involved no matter where the intern is working from. If your interns do have to work remotely, a clear project scope will avoid frustration on both sides and keep you all on track.

3.    Build in training and professional development.

Working remotely frees up time that we otherwise spend commuting and chatting with colleagues. But the amount of productive work any of us can reasonably do in a day does not expand. Provide training content for your interns to use during this ‘found’ time. Particularly since they are early in their career, and likely enrolled as students, they are well-positioned to take advantage of any educational content you can offer.

These training materials can be specific to your company or industry, or more general books, videos, or articles that you or your mentees have found useful at the interns’ stage in career. You can also ask colleagues to have (virtual or in-person) coffee chats with the intern to share their current role and career path. If you’re not sure what to offer, ask during your pre-summer onboarding conversations if there is a specific topic or skill that the interns are keen to develop over the summer.  

4.    Provide a cohort of peers.

Whether they are working remotely or in-person, your intern will benefit hugely from having access to peers who are also doing internships, with all of the accompanying adventures and challenges. There are a variety of Fellowship models [note: including one that my company runs] that provide interns with a peer cohort as well as training opportunities. If other departments at your company have interns, connect them together. If your intern is unique at your company, ask other companies in your building, co-working space, or social club; industry group members; alumni group members; or your own friends and colleagues from other companies. You will find other interns somewhere, and all you need is a group of about 6 to create valuable peer contact and learning. As a last resort, you can encourage your intern to share questions or resources you share with their classmates, but they are less likely to feel comfortable asking professional questions with people they know socially.

Once you find some peers for your intern(s), introduce them in a session that you facilitate with some basic ice-breakers and guided conversation about what they are hoping to get out of the summer, what anxieties they have, and what skills or interests they would like to share with or get from the group. Then provide time and space for them to gather regularly as well as more informally. You can provide unlimited-time Zoom rooms, articles and questions for discussion, or lunches, workouts, or happy hours (in the form of gift cards if they are working remotely). Facilitating these peer connections will save you and your colleagues from 80% of the questions your interns would otherwise ask you, since they will be able to ask each other and share experiences.

Internships done well are an excellent source of fresh-minded, cost-effective talent, particularly in times of disruption and evolution like now. Further, they are a critical element of professional development for tomorrow’s leaders. Hold on to your internship program if you are planning one. And if you weren’t, there’s still time, and some great candidates have been made available by canceled internship programs!