Why Internship Programs Are a Win-Win Your Company Can’t Afford to Ignore

Claire Burke, CPA CFO and Treasurer, Dearborn Group
Creating Value for Your Company

One of my earliest supervising experiences was through a former employer’s internship program. I was new in my career and had my sights set on the management track. The internship program provided me with experience in the hiring process, coaching, and performance management, all in a low-risk environment.

My department at the time, Financial Planning & Analysis, was the perfect setting for bringing in interns. We had a lot of spreadsheet and data compilation work, and the department offered exposure to many facets of our business, providing a win-win for both groups: The company benefited from cheap labor, and the interns got to build their resumes and gain business knowledge.

But I’d argue the benefits stretch well beyond that. After all, an internship program provides a multitude of benefits for both employees (interns and those managing them) and organizations. A few notable benefits include:

• Providing training grounds for future leaders: Leveraging the opportunity for your non-managers to get experience managing someone else can provide leadership development for the high potentials on your team. This is also an economical way to help develop future leaders within your organization. It’s perfect on-the-job training and a relatively safe environment for someone to practice their leadership skills. Many times, it’s challenging to break into the management level, but having supervisory experience can help build that acumen and open doors.
  
  
• Attracting new talent: The ability to attract talent is a common challenge in the accounting and finance profession, especially attracting candidates new to the workforce. Offering a formal internship program that provides an inviting, stimulating work experience can help attract young, soon-to-be professionals to our profession and your organization. The key is to make sure the experience is also enriching for the intern. Give them exposure to senior leaders, such as offering “Ask Me Anything” opportunities to learn more about the company’s leadership. Additionally, let them attend meetings so they can experience listening to discussions on real-life business matters. You can also give them an opportunity to work on a team project and join in on any team-building activities.
  
  
• Creating long-duration interviews for entry-level roles: During the internship, you can evaluate an intern to determine if they’d be a good long-term fit for your organization (and they can do the same). You’ll gain much more intel on an intern this way than you would during a typical interview process—you may even end up hiring them full-time upon graduation, saving both time and money on recruitment efforts and fees. And the best part? You’re hiring a known entity who knows the culture and inner workings of your organization.
  
  
• Injecting new ideas and fresh perspectives: Interns bring fresh perspectives and different ways of thinking into an organization. In fact, they usually can find better ways of doing things. Therefore, it would be wise to turn them loose on a project that deals with basic automation. If there’s a process involving spreadsheets and manual inputs, for example, turn it over to an intern with the direction to automate as much as they can. I have also used interns to help build databases of financial data and develop basic data visualizations—all tasks that my current team never had the capacity to pursue.

Over the years, I’ve had opportunities to experience different successful internship programs, including the one I previously mentioned with a former employer who hired interns who were college juniors and seniors, many of which acquired college credits for the internship. This specific program had a great track record too. Several of the interns were hired for full-time positions upon graduation and ultimately rose through the leadership levels in the company. A couple of them actually ended up in some of my former positions, which were proud moments for me.

My current company has previously offered a summer internship program that hires college students. While it was short, we did our best to have work lined up for the interns and make it an enriching and positive experience. We also hosted activities that involved all interns across the company.

While I’ve seen more success stories than failures, the harsh reality is the workplace is different from school, and some interns have a tough time adapting. Ensuring your interns understand simple business etiquette, such as expectations for the start and end times of the workday, how to schedule time off or call in sick, and composing business emails, can help set them up for success.

The most common reason I hear companies say why they don’t offer an internship program is: “We simply don’t have it in the budget.” Sound familiar? While internship programs can be seen as an added expense, having an appropriately sized program for your organization can reap benefits that outweigh costs.

Remember, interns generally earn much less than full-time employees do; the program provides opportunities for your staff to practice their leadership skills and develop into future leaders; and interns can spend time on initiatives, such as process automation, that your current team doesn’t have time for. Plus, you may be developing someone that becomes a permanent employee, which saves your organization even more time and money in the end. All this considered, offering an internship program is a win-win opportunity you can’t afford to miss.

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• Healthier Bottom Lines Start With Lowering Turnover: If we want to create lasting value for our organizations, we’ll need to embrace new mindsets and models.