While the debate over paid versus unpaid internship rages on, many companies remain sceptical about the benefits of hiring them.

“Free-labour” is a fallacious concept that’s been, unfortunately, ingrained in many corporations that are on a tight budget. The truth is, internship is a two-way street.

If you’re looking to hire someone to get things done without having to worry about recruitment costs, that person will also take up your offer just to fulfil their industrial training requirement.

Due to the fact that interns are (mostly) inexperienced, employers tend to assign them with mundane tasks (think errand running) that add zero value to their resumes.

Unless you want to jeopardise your company’s values, don’t exploit interns. In order to achieve mutual growth and benefits of an internship programme, you must give interns the jobs they deserve.

In today’s business landscape, no employer can afford to ignore an intern’s contribution.

Here are four reasons your intern(s) is also an indispensable employee in the company.

1. Interns are aspiring individuals with a strong desire to learn

If you have attended college before, chances are you were once an intern.

Do you remember the excitement of your first exposure to the corporate world?

Do you remember the anxiety when you picked up a customer call for the first time?

And do you remember how all of those first experiences fuelled your eagerness to learn new things every day?

Although an intern lacks experience, which seems to be their shortcoming, this is actually a strength that enables them to learn faster.

Driven by the desire to learn, interns are capable of handling the substantive work that they are taught in college.

As long as you ensure a steep learning curve and provide mentorship for your intern, you will see the rapid growth of both parties in a short period of time.

2. Interns are equipped with up-to-date knowledge

College textbooks may be the same as they were a decade ago, but learning materials are unlimited with Google’s assistant.

It is to say that today’s students are given more opportunities to think (and learn) outside the box.

Which is why offering an internship programme can help you gain greater insights into the current state of the industry.

Interns, the majority of whom are Gen Y, are also more tech-savvy than their seniors.

That is an advantage that you can’t ignore because technological understanding is the only way to move forward.

3. Interns are willing to do more than their peers

Let’s go back to the main objective of internships for students: to gain professional experience before they officially graduate and apply for jobs. While it seems to be an obligation, internships mean more than that.

Many people approach their internship as an actual career. Most interns never say “no” to tasks and even offer help to their co-workers.

It’s not because they have absolutely no bargaining power in the workplace, although they should be entitled to, it’s because they usually want to seize any chance to learn and to grow together with the company.

However, don’t take your intern for granted, be the mentor who can empower them to achieve greatness.

4. Interns are your stellar employee-in-the-making

You probably wouldn’t want to go through the hassles of employee onboarding and offboarding processes too often, even for an intern position.

As far as operational cost is involved, it is always a good idea to nurture your company’s talents right from the internship programme.

As most interns learn from on-the-job experience, they become more proficient when it comes to keeping up with industry innovations.

By coaching them from day one, you can assess your intern’s potential to work as a permanent staff as well as to ensure their cultural fit in your organisation.

To decide whether hiring an intern will be beneficial to your organisation, keep these principles in mind:

• If you need cost-effective recruitment solutions, look for freelancers instead.
• If you or the person in charge can’t offer the intern essential coaching and mentoring, hire an experienced employee.
• An internship should align with your company’s core values. Translation: an intern should enjoy the same benefits as other employees.

This article first appeared in jobstore.com

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