“What Are the Benefits of Hiring an Intern? “

You may have great employees working in your organisation but may not have seen anyone coming up with a new perspective to solving a problem that would not only require less time and funds for its implementation but also give you an edge over your competitors. Probably an intern is what you need to add that fresh perspective to your business, giving it a new and better direction to focus and build on. More and more companies today are ready to offer internship program for college students since they are discovering the benefits of doing so. Some choose to offer paid program while others stick to the traditional, unpaid internship program.

But what are the true benefits of bringing interns on board? Your company will benefit from this only if you offer a structured internship and provide supervision and resources for the interns to use and learn during an internship programme. Alternatively, investing some time in offering training to the interns before handing over the tasks to them gives you better results since they have a clear picture of what they have to do and are in a position to deliver the same. With a well-structured internship programme, you can identify the best interns for your business and train them as per your requirement.

Let us look at some of the major advantages or benefits of hiring interns for a business to get a clearer picture.

Benefits of hiring an intern

• Gives insight into an individual’s potential: Internship programmes are a great way of evaluating an individual’s potential since you can observe them closely on a day-to-day basis and understand how talented he or she is.  How the individual works and how he or she is able to handle different types of tasks gives you a good insight into their potential and interest. This will help the company to decide whether or not to hire them as it is a trial period both for the intern and the company.
• Helps to improve company brand: If the intern is able to complete your tasks and also is offered a job in your company, he or she will help in brand recognition for your company. Chances of roping in more such interns are high and these interns can also be your potential hire based on their performance during the internship. This will help in the company’s overall development and also give a positive brand recognition among its peers.
• Interns adapt to company culture quickly: It is easier for an intern to adapt or settle down in a company and adjust to its culture when they are offered a full-time role. This is because, visiting the workplace each day, they get to interact with other employees and understand the company’s culture, rules, policies, work structure, etc., which will be beneficial for them as they can fit themselves into it easily. In this way, they can work productively and not much time is wasted while working on an actual job or project.
• Saves time of hiring an employee: If a company has numerous short-term projects, hiring interns will do the job for them since they are able to fill the required manpower through this, instead of going for a full-time employee who may or may not perform well in the company. This saves a lot of time for the HR as they do not have to search for candidates with relevant experience, desired skills and a positive attitude for the job.
• College intern can be your future hire: The college of an intern can be targeted for future hiring since you are able to observe their performance closely and make a decision as to whether or not they can be a good employee for the company. If the interns perform well or exceed your expectations, you can very well give them the offer letter and onboard them into the teams without having to spend time and money in finding the right candidate for the job.
• Reduced training cost: Even when you hire fresh employees, you need to offer training for a considerable amount of time which will not only consume a lot of your resources and funds but also may turn out to be a time-consuming process since all the candidates may not have the same level of potential and may require extra assistance before they can handle tasks on their own. Instead, if you hire an intern and provide them with minimal training, they can perform better and may also turn out to be your future hire.
• Better choice for short-term projects: Interns can help an organisation with short-time projects or case studies as they are not burdened with other tasks that generally a salaried employee in the company should carry out. This way the employees can take care of bigger and tougher projects while the interns work on these short projects, all the while gaining some experience and knowledge about the work process.
• Good choice when company budget is low: When the company budget is restricted and there’s a manpower requirement, hiring interns is a good option since the interns may or may not be paid (based on what the company decides) while an employee hired into the firm has to be given a proper salary. The HR can also avoid going through the tedious process of screening candidates, identifying the potential ones, evaluating and finally hiring them into the organisation.

Key Takeaway
Hiring interns is a good option when you do not wish to spend too much in recruiting a salaried employee into the team or if the projects in hand are short-term and not very complicated. Having a structured internship programme will benefit the company because only the best candidates will be interning with you who can also be your future recruits, and the company brand will be positively recognized among your competitors and peers. These are some of the major advantages of hiring an intern for your company.  For more information about how Pod.ai can help you please visit https://pod.ai/employers.