Interns Offer Low-Cost Help
 By Lee S. Shaffer

Small-business owners that need a helping hand around the office (or on the sales floor or in the manufacturing plant) might want to consider hiring an intern.

Interns are usually college students or high school kids on the verge of graduation. Many want part-time jobs during the school year. Others want to work during summer vacations and holidays when classes aren’t in session. Most will jump at a job that offers them real-world experience in business and a paycheck.

Here’s what you need to know about finding and hiring interns.

Benefits Of Hiring Interns
Interns can save you money on your payroll because you don’t pay them as much as you’d pay a seasoned, experienced employee. And some interns will work for a lower wage in exchange for college credits.

Interns also usually work part time or during holidays and summer vacations. So, they’re a perfect match for businesses that need seasonal labor or for businesses that don’t want to commit to a full-time employee.

Hiring an intern also gives you an opportunity for a test run. Many businesses that hire interns later employ them as full-time workers, after the interns graduate from school. The internship gives you and the intern a chance to get to know each other. You can watch work habits, motivation, interaction with your existing staff and other factors to see if the intern is a good fit with your company.

And interns can bring their own resources into your small business. If you hire an intern that’s taking college courses related to your industry, you can benefit from new ideas and fresh thinking.

Hiring An Intern
Approach hiring an intern the same way you handle hiring a full-time employee.

Create a detailed job description. Document items such as:

• The duties and responsibilities for the intern’s position

• The person responsible for supervising the intern

• Specific days of the week and hours during those days that the intern must be on the job

• What equipment or machinery the intern will be expected to use

• Salary or wages you’ll pay

• Raises the intern might expect and the performance required

• Performance measures and reviews for the intern

• Dress code, Internet access rules and other business protocols

• Bonuses, holidays, professional development and other benefits available to the intern

Finding An Intern
Resources abound to help you locate just the right intern for the job at hand.

Your first stop should be the career centers at local universities and community colleges. The centers generally list available interns by the student’s area of specialization or major. That makes it easy to match the right intern to your job needs.

Online internship job sites, such as InternshipPrograms.com, can be useful too. At that site, employers can advertise internship programs or individual internship openings to more than 100,000 job seekers every month. You can also search an extensive database of candidate profiles by state and by industry. The site requires registration, but it’s free.

Other online internship job sites, such as Internships.com and Internjobs.com, can help you locate interns. But you’ll pay varying amounts for searching candidate listings or posting your job openings.

Don’t overlook the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). Get in touch with a local SBA office to inquire about interns. Also check with your local Small Business Development Center (SBDC).

More places to look for interns:

• Trade associations may have or know about internship programs

• Local chambers of commerce sometimes know about available interns

• At local high schools, talk to guidance counselors about students available during their senior year

(Posted October 2006)

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