Three Reasons to Hire Interns
There are numerous reasons to start an internship program, from increasing your company’s productivity to building team members’ leadership skills. While many businesses have designated internship seasons that coincide with college breaks, this fall might also be the perfect time to consider hiring additional interns, particularly because there are many qualified candidates still looking to gain on-the-job experience after canceled summer 2020 internships.
In these unprecedented and uncertain times, internship programs offer a number of practical benefits.
1. Build a pipeline of future talent.
Many employers have put their hiring plans on hold for now—understandably. But if you’re looking to grow your business in the future, hiring interns now can ensure a continuous pipeline of skilled talent to fill future roles. You get to increase your productivity, while at the same time evaluating and training future employees. Once you’ve made those connections and built those relationships, you’ll be able to ramp up your hiring quickly as soon as you’re ready.
2. Save money on recruiting costs.
The Society for Human Resources Management reports that the average cost per hire (CpH) is over $4,000. Overall, companies can spend anywhere from $10,000–$50,000 in tangible costs alone to replace and retrain someone when a single employee leaves the company.
Converting interns to full-time hires is one of the best ways to mitigate your hiring and onboarding costs. Interviews are great, but the fact is, they’re not always an accurate reflection of whether someone will succeed at your company. Hiring interns allows you to test-drive the talent before hiring them full-time, so you can evaluate a candidate based on how well they’re doing on the job.
3. Retain talent in the long term.
As another incentive, interns who convert to full-time hires are far more likely to stay on at your company. According to National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE,) the retention rate for full-time, entry-level hires who had internships with the employers that hired them is 66%, while that rate is only 46% for hires with no internship experience. Results after five years are similar: 52% of former interns are still employed with the company, while just 36% of hires with no prior internship experience are still around.
