For many of us who are in the managed print services industry, we may have an established and aging workforce in place, and that may work well…but sometimes it can be a great experience to bring in some interns from a local college or university to round out the workforce.
There are not only benefits to a company for hiring an intern, but it is also extremely beneficial to the interns themselves to be able to gain the experience and knowledge the company can provide them.
Some benefits to the company include:
Finding future employees. By hiring an intern, it creates the possibility of having them become a future employee if they perform well and fit the role. This saves time and resources for the company when searching for a new hire.
Increasing productivity. Adding extra help for a short term period helps to increase productivity in the company and allow more tasks to be completed.
Gaining perspective. Having a younger addition to the company helps to enhance your perspective and bring fresh ideas to the table. This can help change the way your employees think and your company moves forward creatively.
Giving back to the community. By hiring interns from a local college or university, it gives back to your local community and those students involved. Not only does this provide community support but also enhances the local economy.
The benefits it offers to the student include:
Gaining valuable work experience. Having the opportunity to receive work experience with a company is something students cannot learn in a college classroom. This gives interns the ability to learn specific skills of that field while also learning much-needed skills such as teamwork, time management and communication.
Building professional relationships. Being provided the opportunity to network and develop relationships with professionals in the field gives the intern connections to use in the future or someone to contact with questions.
The ability to explore a career path. Experiencing different career fields and determining which career they are most interested in before finishing college allows the intern an upper-hand, post-graduation, because they have experience and knowledge of what they would like to pursue in their career.
From our experience, the internship program we have created at our company has been a great addition and has benefitted our company, employees and interns.
