Interns can be an asset to any HR department. About six months ago, Ben Eubanks wrote this post in response to a post about interns written by Matt Cholerton. I agree with Matt that interns can make your department more efficient while providing the intern with a great HR experience. This also gives you an opportunity to see their work in the event you would consider them for employment.
One area interns can make an impact is the talent acquisition team. Can interns be the talent acquisition secret weapon? I think so and here are a few examples:
Research Support
- Interns can conduct research on competitors. Who they are, capabilities, employee lists, alumni and contact information.
- Conduct key word searches on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or Boolean searches to surface contacts for the recruiter to network with.
- Identify local job boards, social networks and professional organizations applicable to the area you are researching.
- Capturing this data will create a good call and networking list for the recruiter. The intern can even help schedule calls for the recruiter.
Monitoring
- Join applicable online groups and monitor the activity in the groups.
- Hash tag monitoring on Twitter. This is a great way to get participant lists.
- Competitive intelligence to monitor competitor activity. Follow competitors on Twitter and Facebook.
When having an intern support you:
- Give them as much information as possible. Remember the support the intern provides you is only as good as the investment you make.
- Provide background on the project and insight into the goal. Afterwards, it is also good to let the intern know the end result and the role they played.
- Have regular update meetings to check progress. This is also a good opportunity to discuss any challenges the intern has run into.
- Listen and be open to the interns thoughts and ideas.
Remember, interns are hungry for information – so give it to them. A little investment will go a long way, as well as make the talent acquisition team more productive. Do you have interns support your HR department? What are they working on? If you do not currently have intern support – try it.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Very good focus for interns. I manage the internship programs for Longwood University’s College of business & Economics (Farmville, VA) and it’s good to see that qualified interns are being utilized in HR functions. They bring a fresh point of view to most businesses.
Thank you for your comment Bill.
As a former intern, I think sometimes our work goes unacknowledged. But I appreciate you shining light on the benefits of having a qualified intern onboard and aligned with the organization’s objectives.
Great article, Chris. I’m glad that you, along with more and more people these days, recognize the true value of an intern. Gone are the days where they only got coffee, did administrative tasks, and weren’t really managed.
If it’s done right, your intern can be your loudest and most credible voice when they return to campus. After all, their friends listen more to them than they do to recruiters!
I recently covered career preparation tips for students Freshman-Senior year on my blog, Campus to Career. Here’s the link: http://campustocareer.wordpress.com
I’d love to get your feedback on some of the posts! Keep up the great work.
Kirk
Kirk Baumann´s last blog ..Building Your Own A-Team
good article