TM - April 2008 - (Page 48) recruitment & retention assessment & evaluation compensation & benefits performance management learning & development succession planning “If we have to hire 8,000 college grads, we know that we have to hire 2,000 interns and convert half of them to [full-time employees] to help us meet that overall hiring goal,” she said. “Our internship program identifies talent early and builds that talent pipeline for fulltime career positions.” That said, conversion is no easy task. The work attitudes and ethics of younger generations often are decidedly different from that of their more experienced counterparts. up with a core set of competencies for those availabilities. Since the intern program should factor into that planning, the first step is to determine what skill sets will be needed in the near future and what competencies will be important as the organization grows. “We’re always looking at, ‘How can we ensure not only that we give [interns] a great learning experience within our industry, but also that it pays off for us in the long run?’” said Suzie Rybicki, senior talent manager at GGP . The answer is to hire interns based on the organization’s core competencies, just like full-time employees. “We’re looking for the same type of person that we’re looking for for the full-time management training program,” Webster said of Enterprise’s intern search. Give Them Real Work Once you’ve hooked high-quality interns, you don’t want to risk alienating them. How do you make sure they have a positive affiliation with your company? A large part of developing a successful internship program is creating the right environment and having the right people around. “Employees are able to move from job to job without the kind of opprobrium that existed years ago,” explained Bernie Liebowitz, a certified management consultant and president of Chicago-based consulting firm Liebowitz & Associates PC. Despite the benefits, fully integrated internship programs can be expensive, and they come without an immediate payoff. But organizations may have to change their mindsets from thinking interns are simply seasonal help to realize their long-term investment potential. “It’s not about cheap labor because interns are not cheap,” Rothberg said. “They require a lot of training, they require a lot of supervision, they require a lot of hand-holding. In the short term, you lose money on them. Hiring an intern to replace Sally while she’s on maternity leave is a horrible mistake, but hiring an intern because five years from now you want him to be a manager is brilliant.” To create a fully integrated, succession-savvy internship program that ultimately produces a talent pool of high-qualified, entry-level workers, organizations need to address each of the following issues. Alignment With Key Business Goals Basic succession planning strategy involves analyzing available talent, performing a gap analysis and coming April 2008 “You can sum it up in two words: real work,” Rothberg said. “Gen Y employees are savvy. They appreciate transparency. If you wine and dine them but stick them in the mail room, and another employer does no wining and dining but gives them actual work — the same kind of work they would have upon graduation — you’re going to lose almost all of those interns to the employer that offers a real work experience.” At GGP the most successful conversion rates occur , when interns work on a major project where they can add great value and one that can be completed within the time frame of the internship, Rybicki said. For example, Williams worked on the grand opening of a shopping mall during her 12-week tenure as a Prodigies intern, a project that involved a lot of time-sensitive work and resulted in visible impact. Giving interns challenging work also can have indirect benefits for your company, Rothberg said. “Let them realize that they’re in over their heads and that they need to work with those around them,” he said. “Gen Y is amazingly good at collaboration, and by forcing them to work with regular employees, they’re going to teach your regular employees how to collaborate.” Also be sure to include interns in high-level meetings whenever possible. Otherwise, a disconnect can grow between the intern and the senior executives, that will make the intern feel insignificant and most likely prohibit him or her from identifying with the organization, Liebowitz said. 48 talent management magazine www.TalentMgt.com http://www.TalentMgt.com
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