How to Implement a Successful Internship Program

How to Implement a Successful Internship Program

If you’ve been relying on job-ready candidates to acquire new talent, you’re missing some valuable opportunities. To widen your net, be sure to build a talent-sourcing and -training pipeline into your company’s DNA so you’re never strapped for qualified candidates when you need them most. That’s where an internship program comes in.

Benefits of an Internship Program

Steady supply

In today’s competitive job market, an internship program makes it that much easier to secure a good match: you’ll broaden your network of potential hires, and you’ll have a greater idea of their strengths and goals than you can get from a regular interview process. Once your internship program is up and running, you’ll have a steady flow of candidates to consider the next time you have an unexpected hiring need.

The price is right

Most interns view their position as a temporary yet highly valuable personal investment. Because they are just beginning their careers, they’ll be highly motivated to perform well in their roles even at a lower pay grade. Of course, you should pay your interns for their contributions – but because they’re still learning, you can pay them less than what you’d pay full-stack employees.

Many hands make light work

Interns can help check off some of the less complex, less skilled tasks on your company to-do list. With the smaller stuff taken care of, your full-stack employees can enjoy uninterrupted focus on larger-scale projects.

That said, don’t deprive your interns of hard-hitting projects: a good internship program builds the skills needed to take on greater challenges in the future. Nowadays, only 8 percent of interns’ tasks involve clerical, unskilled work. The other 92%? High-level skills. Bottom line, prepare your interns to become your employees.

Implementing Your Program

Consider your needs

Not all internship programs need to follow the same template. While considering how to structure your program, ask yourself the following questions:

  • What role will the intern have within the company?
  • What skills and qualities do they need to have to be successful?
  • Who is available to mentor them?

Finally, think big picture: what is your long-term vision for your company, and what skills will future employees need to make it a reality? This is perhaps the single most important aspect of developing an internship program. Say you’re looking to build a patient information website in the near future. This means you’ll need tech-savvy employees who can handle its creation and maintenance. If you train interns in these skills and they return to work for you full-time, they can hit the ground running.

Recruit and hire

To get your program off to a good start, begin recruiting interns several months before your program launches. Consider posting advertisements on job boards, asking around, and working with a university to begin your recruitment process. Schools like Northeastern University have co-op programs that supply interns to biotech companies.

As you consider who to take on, think of interns as future employees, not just temporary assistants. Even if they don’t end up working for you, they’re likely to tell their peers about their experience with you, which can make or break your reputation among potential hires.

Onboard and train

If possible, assign every intern a mentor at the beginning of the program. This helps orient the intern and gives your existing employees a built-in leadership opportunity. As your interns integrate into your company dynamic, include them in company brainstorming sessions. They’ll appreciate the gesture and you’ll benefit from their outside ideas and insight.

Also consider conducting exit interviews to ask your interns what they appreciated about the program and what you could improve the next time. If you’re serious about your internship program, the learning experience should go both ways.

If all goes well, make them an offer

Recent interns make great employees – they’ve already integrated into your company culture and know the basic ropes of the job, making the training process easier for everyone. Once your interns have wrapped up their programs, discuss their contributions with your managers, mentors, executives and program directors. If you were all generally satisfied with their performance and trust that they can continue to learn and grow, make them an offer. If they’re like 79.6 percent of interns, they’ll eagerly accept it.

Internships bring long-term value to your company

Implementing an internship program is a long-term investment that can cut down on a lot of hiring risk and training time later down the line. In the short term, it’s the classic win-win: they need the experience and you need the help. Over the long haul, it makes your hiring process more efficient and broadens your talent pool. Another big win.

If you plan to start an internship program, but would prefer to payroll them through a third-party company instead of adding them to your payroll, Sci.Bio is available to offer payroll services. Sci.Bio will manage the employee and employer liabilities associated with contract/contingent hiring. We offer payrolled contractors benefits to help keep them satisfied in their role so that they could turn into long term hires once they graduate! And our payroll fee is remarkably reasonable. Find out more here..

References

  1. 5 steps to a successful internship program
  2. 14 Benefits of Starting an Internship Program for you Company
  3. Hiring During a Biotech Boom: The Talent Challenges Facing Companies Across All Markets
  4. Want good hires who stick around? Make their careers your business (Sci.bio post)
  5. The Benefits of Hiring an Intern
Want Good Hires Who Stick Around? Make Their Careers Your Business

Want Good Hires Who Stick Around? Make Their Careers Your Business

Authors: Tara Smylie and Gabrielle Bauer

Let’s discuss good hires.  To attract and retain the best, most life sciences companies offer such benefits as flex time, remote or hybrid working options, and year-end bonuses. Far fewer capitalize on a perk that virtually all employees value highly: career development support.1 This can take the form of professional development (PD) opportunities or individual mentoring.

A push up the ladder

Climbing up the career ladder, whether reaching for that tenured professorship or medical director role, takes years of hard work. By offering PD services, you make the ladder just a little less steep for ambitious new good hires. Here are some options to consider:2

  • Career coaching services: These services are likely to attract ambitious and self-motivated candidates (i.e. people you want to work for you).
  • Leadership training courses: Such courses will allow your best good hires to develop the skills they need to take on new and more challenging roles. When developing or selecting these courses, consider the increasing importance of soft skills in the life sciences.3 Leadership and emotional intelligence are hot commodities in today’s world.
  • Support for further academic training: Your employees’ career ambitions may depend on pursuing further university education or other relevant credentials. There are different ways you can help with these goals, such as providing financial sponsorship, granting time off work to complete schoolwork, and offering educational guidance.
  • Research opportunities: For employees whose positions involve research, provide chances to practice and refine research-related skills. Find out if they’re interested in a particular area of research, presenting research findings to others, or something else—and offer opportunities based on their answers.

The magic of mentoring

The dictionary defines a mentor as an experienced and trusted advisor. Within the context of a career, a mentor is someone who shares their knowledge and expertise to help a less experienced employee (sometimes called a protégé or mentee) achieve success.4

Just how much do employees value mentoring? The numbers speak for themselves: Nine out of 10 workers with a career mentor report being happy in their jobs, while more than 4 in 10 workers who lack a mentor say they’ve considered quitting their job in the past three months.5 Given that happy employees consistently outperform the competition,6 it’s fair to say that mentoring benefits not only the mentored, but the employer. The mentored employee performs well, which makes them happier, which further increases their performance, in a positive feedback loop that raises satisfaction all around.

When developing a mentorship program, start by creating a profile for every employee who participates. To get a sense of your good hires strengths, weaknesses, and professional goals, you can give them a questionnaire with such questions as:7

  • What skills would you like to cultivate or improve on?
  • What skills do you feel proficient in already?
  • What are your long-term career goals?
  • What qualities are you looking for in a mentor?

Provide your mentors with a similar list of questions to assess the areas in which they have the most to offer their future mentees. Ideally, a mentor and mentee will have similar backgrounds

and career trajectories, but the mentor should be farther along and thriving in their current role.

Hot tip: to ensure your mentorship program achieves its objective, periodically solicit feedback from mentees and be prepared to make changes based on what they say. Maybe they would like more networking opportunities from their mentor or maybe they don’t feel totally heard. You won’t know what needs improvement unless you ask.

Broadcasting your PD services

Start by mentioning your PD and mentorship services in your job description. This shows that you care about your employees’ success and will pique ambitious candidates’ interest. By the same token, mentioning your PD and mentorship services during an interview will invite a candid dialogue about a candidate’s career goals. Through these discussions, you can identify which talent will fit best into which projects—and which candidates have the greatest interest in advancing within your company.

If you’re working with a recruiter, be sure to inform them about your career development services, as these offerings will help the recruiter pull in high-quality candidates. The recruiter may also suggest adding other offerings to your current list. That’s another reason to work with a recruiter specialized in the life sciences: they’ve talked to hundreds, if not thousands, of candidates, so they know what motivates the best and brightest to come around and stick around.

It’s hard to overstate the benefits of offering career development opportunities to your good hires — so don’t wait to get started!

Sources

  1. 4 Extraordinary Ways to Compete for the Best Talent in the Digital Age
  2. Professional Development Examples
  3. Soft Skills in the Life Sciences
  4. What is a Career Mentor
  5. Nine in 10 Workers Who Have a Career Mentor Say They are Happy in Their Jobs
  6. 11 Shocking Employee Happiness Statistics for 2022 That Will Blow Your Mind
  7. 4 Steps to Matching the Right Mentors and Mentees
How to Recruit for Biotech Startups

How to Recruit for Biotech Startups

Recruiting for biotech startups, especially in the first few years after its formation, presents several challenges. The main hurdle is your young company probably lacks the name recognition or legacy that drives recruitment at large pharma. Your dream candidates may not even know your start-up exists.

Fortunately, with savvy marketing you can attract prospective job candidates and raise company visibility.

Cast an SEO-friendly net

Most biotech startups use an inbound marketing approach to attract the right candidates, using SEO content to attract a large number of potential job seekers towards your company website or LinkedIn profile, before engaging with the smaller proportion of interested, qualified parties who explore further.

Build a brand that attracts your perfect job candidates

In today’s job market, the most sought-after candidates are free to choose positions at companies most aligned with their values. To attract these candidates your company website – one of the first things curious candidates view – should articulate your company values. A well-defined company brand and culture is the strongest recruitment tool you possess. Your website should also be intuitive for interested candidates to navigate, with careers information and openings displayed in a prominent location accessible from the home page.

Jobseekers respect transparency from recruiters, and you should be open and realistic about your company values when communicating with applicants. In a dynamic start-up where every employee contributes to the company’s success, an employee who isn’t aligned with company values is often more detrimental than a vacant position.

Personalize and streamline biotech startups recruitment process

Candidates see the job search and recruitment process with biotech startups as a preview of life as an employee…and with good reason! As mentioned above, your Careers website and application process should showcase your company at its best: can job candidates submit their resume and cover letter with one click, or do they have to copy everything on their resume into an online application program?

To overcome any disadvantage of poor name recognition your company might face, attend networking events to connect with potential candidates in-person. As a recruiter, you are the first and most important face of the company to prospective employees.

When recruiting via LinkedIn, don’t just share company content. Instead, engage with potential job candidates.

Author:  Claire Jarvis