The Interns Are Coming!

There’s an art to hosting a communications intern. Since most communications internships are experiential – meaning they don’t lead to a job directly with your company – much of the planning and management of the internship falls to you and your team. After hosting multiple interns in my career, I’ve learned a few things about what works. And I checked in with some former interns to hear their thoughts to create this bit of advice:

1) Make their presence a big deal. Will they work onsite or remotely? What does their first day look like? How will you introduce them to your team? Now that we’re adjusting to a hybrid world, be thoughtful about what this means for your intern. Ensure they have opportunities to regularly interact with their manager and others both in person and online.

2) Assign a variety of projects. It works best when interns have a mix of long-term, short-term and mid-term. Why not one big project? Well, interns aren’t going to as many meetings as the rest of us typically do—and they are FAST. What you think will take them 8 hours may only take 2. Plus, each opportunity lets them shine as they write an executive email; draft a story for the intranet; create the first draft of a press release. With only one or two projects, they’ll have too much downtime as they wait for input and approval. Bonus points if you can have a menu of options to discuss with them so they can help shape their work.

3) Make the work real. “I really valued the ability to work on real projects for the company. It was the best part of my internship, as I was able to work as part of the team and gain an understanding of what work would be like in a corporate communications environment,” shared one intern. Another shared that she appreciated having meaningful projects that “will have an impact even after they leave.” One best practice is having your intern present their big project to your team—giving them the opportunity put their presentation skills to the test.

Plan for them to have samples to take. It’s a huge boost if they have projects in their portfolio, so as you’re selecting projects, consider what elements/examples they can take with them.

4) Include them in meetings, video shoots, photo shoots, or other activities. As one former intern said, “This helps interns learn more about the work you and the organization are doing and helps them meet new people.” Plus, they’ll be more effective in supporting follow-up communications and tasks if they are part of the conversation. (And if you’ve never been to a video or photo shoot before, they can be fascinating and fun.)

5) Provide opportunities to network. If your company doesn’t have networking opportunities for interns to meet with each other and with executives, set up meet-and-greets and other opportunities for interns to connect with others and hear about their careers and their current responsibilities. Or look for other ways to help interns create community. For one communications intern, we were able to arrange two days of collaboration with interns from one of our agency partners – their interns spent a day with us; our intern spent a day with them.

6) Encourage transparency and communication. Make it easy for your intern to ask questions and to offer suggestions. Trust me, you’ll be glad you did! They have insights and experiences that differ from yours and encouraging them to be creative and problem-solve makes the result stronger.

Another tip is to make sure they have a mentor or buddy in addition to their day-to-day manager. It’s helpful to have someone who can be an additional contact for questions and advice.

7) Expand their business knowledge. If there are opportunities for your intern to get to know more about your business, help them fit it into their schedule. Does your internship program offer a speaker series? Lunches with executives? Tours of facilities? Several interns have commented that they loved the chance to be part of larger events, including volunteering and, in one case, signing on to be part of the welcome team when an office reopened after renovations.

8) Show your appreciation…and keep the relationship going. Provide regular feedback and thanks. Celebrate the end of their internship in whatever way makes sense for your company’s culture. Beyond that, connect with them on LinkedIn, and keep in touch. Even if you don’t hire for entry level positions, they may rejoin your team someday—or they may become an agency partner or a media contact.

And what’s in it for you?

It does take some time and effort to plan for and manage an intern, but the benefits far outweigh the effort. There’s the obvious benefit of another set of hands to do work. It’s also an opportunity for someone on your team to build their skills as a people manager.

Other benefits? You’ll see your work through their eyes (helping even the most jaded of us appreciate what we do again). You’ll learn as much from them as they do from you. You’ll add great new people into your circle. Plus, you’ll have played a part in coaching and guiding the next generation of outstanding communicators.

Thanks to Kayla Young, Nicole Herzog, Molly Cunningham, and Daniel Walzer for their input to this article.