How internship programs benefit employers
Article Type: HR at work From: Strategic HR Review, Volume 11, Issue 6
Short case studies and research papers that demonstrate best practice in HR
It can be difficult finding highly qualified, skilled employees –specifically in the fields of engineering and science. However, employers can use interns and/or co-ops – work experience related to academic programs– to gain the valuable experience they are looking for. It’s as easy to start as calling your local college and asking for the department head in any area you are looking to enhance or for the career services office.
Over the last 11 years, Fairchild Semiconductor’s manufacturing operation in Mountain Top, Pennsylvania has employed many interns. Out of those interns, approximately 30 percent have been hired full-time. However, 100 percent of them were put to good use, and earned valuable education, experience and college credits.
The students that Fairchild has worked with over the years have been eager to learn, energetic and a valuable enhancement to operations. Never assume that because you have an intern they cannot perform the same functions as your full-time employees. Interns are extremely eager to show they can perform right alongside your seasoned veterans. Internship programs offer employers a cost-effective option for recruiting highly qualified and motivated students to meet the company needs. The following article shares some of the knowledge Fairchild has gained on how to make the most of internships.
Get cost-effective access to motivated talent
Recruitment advertising can be very expensive. However, to recruit an intern,the costs are limited to your time spent working with the college and conducting interviews. Colleges can provide well-prepared short-term employees that meet peak or seasonal needs without a long-term commitment, and offer a low-cost method of training potential future employees.
Their salaries are significantly lower than your regular full-time staff, and you are not required to pay unemployment or a severance package should you decide not to hire them. Keep in mind that while their wages are modest, they’re among the most highly motivated members of the workforce. They have a lot to gain from being hard-working and successful.
Setting up an internship program allows you to take advantage of short-term support. The extra sets of hands help your employees be more productive and prevent them from becoming overburdened by side projects, as well as give them time to accomplish more creative tasks – this support also assists where higher-level, strategic thinking or expertise is required.
It’s not just the extra sets of hands that make interns advantageous. They provide your organization with fresh ideas. For example, one Fairchild Semiconductor intern worked on a project that redesigned a part in a manufacturing tool that saved the company money – that part is now a semiconductor industry standard.
Try before you buy
Internship programs help you create a recruiting edge. Colleges help you to identify potential future hires and provide a pipeline for future candidates. For example, the Fairchild Semiconductor site in Pennsylvania has three senior staff members, responsible for various aspects of plant operations, who started there as interns. For many companies, the process of recruiting and hiring is a drain on resources. But, the ability to appeal to tomorrow’s staff members today is priceless.
The best way to determine how a candidate will perform on the job is to watch them do it. Hiring someone as an intern is the most effective way to evaluate their potential as a full-time employee. When you get to try out a candidate through an internship, you make fewer mistakes when it comes to fulfilling your full-time staffing; you can avoid the pitfalls of training a new hire, only to find out they’re not a fit. Or, you may find that the entry-level employee does not like the field. Starting an internship program lets you benefit from added manpower, while more accurately assessing the candidate’s knowledge,skills and abilities.
Build your brand
You can help your company stand out on campus by developing strong relationships with professors and career placement staff. These relationships can be a real asset when it comes to evaluating internship candidates. Professors can be very honest about your interns’ strengths and weaknesses. They want your interns to be just as successful as you do. The success of the intern means that you keep coming back to the college, which in turn builds their reputation as an educational curriculum with some meat on its bones.
By building relationships you build your campus reputation; you fill your recruitment pipeline with strong candidates and honest references. Be sure to give feedback to the colleges about your experiences with their students. By communicating successes, or difficulties, you will help reinforce your network and build credibility.
As a business, it is important to rely on community support for a variety of reasons. Creating an internship program is an excellent way to give back. The program fulfills a civic and professional responsibility by providing students with real work experience and increases diversity. Hiring interns not only helps students in your community get started; it enhances the local workforce as a whole.
Fairchild Semiconductor Mountain Top has a program called Project Einstein,which was started in 2005. The program was created to provide a practical application of knowledge and skills for students as well as to develop relationships with local universities. Students are brought on site each year to assist with projects that help them earn credits for their senior year. The past projects have been very successful and are always directly related to the site’s operations. Fairchild Mountain Top’s success with the Project Einstein program has been seen in the areas of engineering, waste-water treatment,facilities, and cafeteria operations.
Grow your staff
Having an internship program provides an opportunity to get needed supervisory experience for developing your future management staff. Because interns may need a lot of direction initially, you can use that time and opportunity to help your employees gain valuable management experience. Rather than putting someone directly into a management position that they may not enjoy, trying out the position while letting them guide an intern is a win-win situation. New managers can focus on developing their skills in providing direction and feedback while not being overly concerned with performance reviews, compensation packages, etc. They only thing they need to do is focus on the management role.
Managing people – and doing it well – is one of the most challenging roles anyone can undertake. With the pressure to stay ahead of the game, and provide value to internal and external customers, you owe it to yourself and your organization to invest time and get it right. This indoctrination into management provides a great hands-on experience of essential management skills.
Recruit in industry downturns
Industries have lulls, but that does not necessarily mean that you should stop your internship programs. Traditionally, employers recruit in good times and freeze jobs and/or layoff in bad. However, in order to attract the best candidates, the best option is to keep your internship programs in full swing.
Recruiting in down times is extremely important because that is when similar companies will be tightening their belts and employees will be concerned about their professional growth. This is a perfect time for your recruitment strategy to target these individuals and make them a part of a successful internship program. Morale can get low in these times and these energetic, new idea types are exactly what you need.
When looking for full-time work, the top talent often goes for big-name businesses. But when seeking internships, learning is the leading draw. Many candidates feel they’ll get more hands-on training, real experience, and mentoring opportunities with smaller organizations.
Follow the trends
The following research studies and surveys give an overview of the current intern market:
According to a survey by Urbaninterns.com (2011), 34 percent of employers surveyed plan to have some form of internship staff in 2011.
In 2011, the National Association of Colleges and Employers reported that employers converted 58 percent of interns into full-time employees.
The National Association of Colleges and Employers says employers in a recent survey reported 39.1 percent of their entry-level hires from the class of 2010 came from their own internship programs (National Association of Colleges and Employers, 2011).
The National Association of Colleges and Employers annual Summer Job Forecast said 21 percent of employers plan to hire seasonal workers in the summer of 2012, about the same percentage as the previous year. More than half of these employers (57 percent) expect that some of the positions will be or could become permanent, making competition even keener than it might otherwise be.
Steven WillisonBased at Fairchild Semiconductor.
About the author
Steven Willison is a Business Operations Analyst at Fairchild Semiconductor. Previously he has held positions in Fairchild Semiconductor as a HR Business Partner, and Senior Production Manager. He is a veteran of the US Air Force– serving as a security specialist in the USA and abroad. Willison earned his Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources/Psychology from Kings College and a Master’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in finance from Marywood University, and holds a Professional in Human Resources certification from the Society for Human Resource Management. Steven Willison can be contacted at: steven.willison@fairchildsemi.com
