Creating internships for college students has become such an important part of the recruiting process that Business Week has created a list of top 50 employers with best internships and their criteria. This can be found at: http://bwnt.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/internship_ranking_2008/.
The top 10 firms on this list include: Goldman Sachs, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, Deloitte, KPMG, JPMorgan, Microsoft, IBM, General Electric, and Disney.
One company that has translated this theory into reality is Estee Lauder, through their Estee Lauder Summer Internship Program, a 12 week intensive program offered to all college interns within varying disciplines. Each student is given a 12 week, hands on project which they are responsible for completing at the end of their internship. The student works a full 40 hour work week where they meet with the other interns in the program and work together on personal development. This can include "Resume Writing", "Public Speaking", "Business Etiquette," and others skills needed post graduation. The Summer Intern Group is also responsible for coordinating and executing the charity "Pink Ribbon Volleyball Tournament" in which all proceeds benefit Breast Cancer Research. This teaches the interns to become actively involved in charitable events in their community. During this program the Interns also have had the opportunity to meet the Estee Lauder executives and have even taken trips to Lauder Residence in NYC for a cocktail party. At the conclusion of the program there is a Cocktail Party in which the interns give a brief speech presenting their project and discussing their experience within the program. Many top executives are present during this ceremony and it gives great exposure to the young interns. Year in and year out there is very positive feedback from both the students and managers they are working with during this period.There are several reasons for the attention and interest with creating best of breed internships. Companies realize they are no longer competing for talent with their peers in the same industry. Rather, job candidates are routinely considering options from organizations as diverse as CIA, JPMorgan and Teach For America. So organizations think of the internship experience as a key way to attract and source top Millennial talent.
Companies are refining on-boarding strategies and key practices include:
Review and revise your on-boarding program for new employees
- Create an online program for new hires and combine with short initial face-to-face meeting where all new hires can meet each other and begin to form relationships.
- Develop a Web site where employees can go to quickly and easily find information about your culture and business.
- Consider creating a "Facebook like" social network behind the corporate firewall so employees who work remotely at client site or at home can be part of the new hire community.
- Automate new hire paperwork and processes as much as possible.
- Develop a new employee guide/checklist that employees will use to understand and keep track of their on-boarding activities.
Prepare leaders to assist in on-boarding new employees
- Develop a guide/checklist for the immediate supervisor to use to assist the leader with understanding and keeping track of their on-boarding responsibilities.
Develop an on-boarding program for employees of acquired businesses
- Evaluate current on-boarding
Develop on-boarding program for new international employees
- Evaluate your current on-boarding program for new international employees and determine what actions are necessary to achieve this objective.
Develop an integrated communication and training plan
- Create an integrated master plan that includes communications and training requirements over several fiscal years (spread out but keep visible on a quarterly basis).
- Evaluate approaches to develop training messages to better link concepts and terms together.
- Evaluate your current communications and training material, assess gaps and then develop solutions.
Provide employees with a clear line of sight into how they can become proactive in developing their skills and competencies for their current position and the next position. This means providing a link to the company's learning portal and links to university programs
- Assess feasibility of creating personalized training plans using a Learning Management System tool.
- Use the learning portal to host information about the company vision, goals and enterprise-wide initiatives as well as new areas the company will be investing in and new skills needed for success in the company.
Educate employees on how to utilize performance management and career development processes
- Provide training on performance management and career development tools to help employees see line of sight to company goals and equip employees with tools to manage their careers. Some tools to consider include Career One Stop, http://www.acinet.org/acinet/, and http://www.articlesbase.com/recruitment-articles/career-development-tools-930940.html
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Updated on: November 10, 2010