Internships as a strategic pipeline of future leaders

The competition for top talent is fierce in many industries currently and internships are an excellent way of increasing your talent pipeline, helping you to secure new high potentials. Here are some interesting stats related to interns from NACE (the National Association of Colleges and Employers):

• $19.05 is the average hourly wage for an intern
• 56.1% is the average conversion rate from intern to full-time hire
• 71.4% is the average one-year retention rate for intern hires with internal experience

But, what can you do with these averages? Your program has its own goals. One of the things we are seeing in the new talent economy is that intern programs are changing from focusing on being a pool of temporary summer labor to a strategic pipeline of future leaders! 

According to this article from Recruitment Marketing (Why you need to build your intern talent pipeline), "Recruiting from universities and internship programs is such an effective talent strategy because you can integrate new talent more effectively, determine if candidates are a good cultural fit, and onboard them full time after they graduate." The article goes on to offer suggestions for successfully recruiting top interns:

1. Attend university events
2. Have a strong online presence
3. Help them connect with your purpose
4. Make their internship memorable
5. Create brand ambassadors
6. Offer interns events to socialize

Looking for some additional information on internship programs, try a few of our previous posts:

How internships replaced the entry-level job

Interns may be your key to filling roles with high turnover

Are you ready for your summer interns?

If your global mobility team has not been tapped to support the company's intern program yet, that may be just around the corner as more and more companies are tapping their mobility teams to help with the coordination of benefits that support interns in getting up and running in their new location.