Consider appointing an Intern Manager
April 3, 2010 at 12:21 am 1 comment
by internships.com writer
Are you committed to having an intern at your company this summer? Consider selecting a junior employee to be the Intern Manager. Be sure to choose an employee who has great people skills and would be a positive mentor to an intern. This move, selecting an Intern Manager is a positive on many levels. It puts a system in place for welcoming and mentoring interns, it frees senior managers for other assignments, and it’s an honor for the junior employee who is selected to take the role of Intern Manager. Below are a few tips:
1. Appoint one junior employee to be in charge of interns as Intern Manager and point of contact and to mentor and monitor intern performance.. The junior employee also increases the intern’s comfort level since the intern will enjoy working with a younger employee closer to his or her own age.
2. Allow your Intern Manager time in his/her schedule to coordinate each intern’s schedule with the appropriate manager. Arrange for the intern to spend a certain amount of time either daily or weekly with the Intern Manager to review progress. Establish a clear chain of command, ensuring that your employees know if they have any concerns about the intern, they can get help from the Intern Manager.
3. Send a broadcast email to your employee distribution list that announces the intern, gives a sentence or two about him/her, and asks staff to extend a warm welcome. On the day that the intern starts, the Intern Manager should take the intern on a tour and introduce the new member to individual staff.
4. Arrange for the Intern Manager to meet with the intern on Day #1 and discuss expectations and outcomes on both sides. Set the intern up to succeed by starting with small projects and graduating to more complicated and lengthy assignments.
Entry filed under: developing intern program, intern management, summer internship program. Tags: employee, intern, internship program, manager, managing interns, summer internship.
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Dr. Janice Presser | April 4, 2010 at 2:02 pm
Our entire internship program was spearheaded and designed by our first MBA intern. We hired him, and now he manages the whole program. Since he assesses their ‘teaming characteristics’ with Role-Based Assessment first, he doesn’t waste any time having to train new interns in how to be productive team members but can just guide them through training and start giving them assignments. In contrast, so many of my CEO peers have gotten rid of their internship programs because they ‘cost’ too much senior management time. Our ROI is so high, we are expanding our capacity this year – all due to our very capable program manager!