As the weather gets warmer and schools begin to get out for summer break, there’s a good chance that businesses everywhere have summer internships on the brain. The opportunity to bring on a couple fresh faces to teach, and also to lighten the workload, is generally a very positive thing for both the company and the intern, as they’ll most likely receive school credit for completing the internship.
It becomes a whole different ballgame when your company decides to add a dozen or more to the staff. There’s a fine line that needs to be tread when it comes to keeping staff members on track and concentrated on their own set of responsibilities, all the while working alongside the interns, but doing so without micromanaging every step they make.
Give the rest of your office a heads-up
If your office has 50 employees and one Monday morning, 10 new people show up for work, your team may be a bit shaken. Send a courtesy email out to everyone to give them a heads-up to the group of new people that will be making an appearance in the summer months.
Encourage them to be warm and welcoming. If you’d like to lay out some courtesy tips as well, go ahead (i.e., do not have the new intern get you coffee, and don’t use their new employee status as an excuse to have them do all the work you don’t want to do).
Let the managers do the managing
As the company’s CEO, you have enough on your plate to worry about and won’t have the time or energy to invest in analyzing every move your group of new interns makes. Have a meeting with the managers of the departments who will be hosting interns to go over goals and expectations for the internships.
Discuss plans and strategies for how things will be run, but from there, leave it to the managers. Make it known that you are always open and available for questions or concerns and will check in when you can, but you will not be looming over any shoulders.
This will put everyone more at ease and leave both managers and interns feeling more confident and capable in their ability to do a great job and make the most of the internship.
Weekly meetings are strongly encouraged
A great way to check in with the interns and see how your managers are handling them is to have weekly meetings with each department. Have everyone come prepared with information on what they’ve been working on for the week, what they plan to work on next week and cover future goals or any concerns.
Make sure you have your interns present their own work aloud too. Don’t let the manager brush over everything on behalf of the entire department. When you give the interns the ability to step forward and take stake in what they’ve been doing, this enables them to better gain a voice in your company.
