8 Benefits of Hiring Interns for a Small Business
By Bonnie Ton
You don’t always have to hire full-time employees for your small business. Sometimes, it’s more beneficial to bring an intern to your company. Here’s a list of 8 benefits for hiring interns:
- Discover Your Future Employees
According to Leger Marketing employer survey for Universities Canada, 2014, four out of five employers surveyed said that co-op and internship students are a source of new talent and potential future employees.
Internship programs are a great way to be utilized as a recruitment tool. Having an internship program within your company means you get to discover a pipeline and be on the look-out for your future team.
- Trial basis
People now have access to multiple resources to bypass the interview stage of the recruiting process. However, one of the most crucial aspects is how well they get along with your current team and the corporate culture.
With the trial basis of an internship program, you get to evaluate the intern, save the costs and time of training a new hire when they might not have been a good fit to begin with.
- More Manpower
By choosing to add interns to your team, you’ll have access to short-term support that will increase your team’s overall productivity. Interns are ready and willing to help because they need a chance to prove their worth and skill. More manpower can also prevent your current team from becoming overwhelmed with current side projects or tasks.
- Fresh Perspectives
We’ve all heard the term “think outside of the box”, and sometimes all you needed was a fresh set of eyes. Not only will you have another set of hands to help you, but youth have an immense knowledge base that is unique to them because they grew up in the era of having access to information about anything at the palm of their hands.
- Cost effective
The process of recruiting and hiring is expensive; however, with an internship program, you can access potential talent for a fraction of the cost.
Salaries for interns are lower than the salaries of an average employee. You can take advantage of this low-cost labor if you’re on a tight budget.
- Access to global talent
By utilizing the AIESEC network, we’ll provide you with access to talent from all around the world. 124 countries to be exact. We have a global reach and diversity of over 20,000 qualified students and recent graduates available to you. This is possible because of our partnership with International Experience Canada (Government of Canada).
- Support the Youth of Tomorrow
Experience is everything. Before, it was much easier to get hired if you had a degree; but these days, a degree doesn’t hold as much prestige as it once did. It’s no longer about what you achieved in school, but also about the work experience you bring to the table.
This is why youth are hungry to find their next opportunity to better themselves, add skills to their resume, and increase their network. You can support youth by giving them an opportunity for an internship.
- Willingness to Work For Your Company
Students’ are noticing that bigger businesses aren’t always better. Although MNCs do offer internships, the experiences that student receives from them is usually sub-par.
Students understand that with smaller businesses, they are able to get actual hands-on experience.
Article originally appeared on AIESEC.
