3 steps to optimize intern onboarding and training
Internships are often used to help students form a decision of where they may want to continue their career, or what field they may want to pursue. Read this blog post to learn three steps on optimizing interns and their training.
HR leaders face myriad challenges in crafting a positive candidate experience and establishing a strong culture across organizations, and there's an added twist when it comes to internship programs: this must be achieved in an exceptionally short amount of time.
"As much as Facebook is evaluating interns for their long-term potential as future employees, we know for certain that interns are also evaluating whether Facebook is where they want to launch their career," Oscar Perez, diversity recruitment and programs manager at Facebook, told HR Dive. "Interning allows college students to make more informed decisions about the type of company they want to work for and helps them crystallize a vision for the type of employee they want to be."
The intern experience trifecta
Multiple academics and learning experts echoed Perez's sentiments to HR Dive, generally suggesting that HR can find success with three steps: a short, formal onboarding; building in mechanisms for continuous skill-building; and a focus on the value of exposure to the business world.
Some formal onboarding
While some experts suggest that employee onboarding plans should cover at least a new hire's first 90 days, that's obviously not feasible for an internship that may last only 90 days.
"Something on the order of 10 to 15% is not unusual," Brooks Holtom, a management professor at Georgetown University told HR Dive. "Two or three days of up front training, and then maybe two hours a week on a Friday helps to increase both the capacity of the people but also the probability that they enjoy the work and they come back."
Still, an employer's onboarding for traditional employees may provide a roadmap, especially when it comes to the early days. This should include administrative tasks, introductions and acclimation to tasks.
"For all interns [at Facebook], the first day of their internship is spent in New Hire Orientation," Perez shared. "Where you get to hear from employees around the company on guiding principles that we anchor in as a company, critical logistical information that you'll need to navigate your time as an intern, [and] get an understanding of the other interns that will be your ‘home-base' community during your time at Facebook."
From there, interns meet their teams and learn more about the scope of their internship project, Perez continued. They also attend role-specific training on tools, expectations and critical concepts for both their role and beyond.
It may help to think about onboarding in three parts — pre-boarding, orientation and ramping up to productivity — according to Leslie Deutsch, director of learning solutions at TEKsystems. Deutsch previously shared a model for onboarding traditional employees; a similar, albeit more streamlined, structure can help when thinking about interns, she said.
"You want to give them exposure to your organization," Deutsch told HR Dive in a February interview, adding that it's important to make clear company values, mission and vision. Although, if interns are there to support a specific project or initiative, it may need to be more detailed, she said.
Pre-boarding can also be valuable, both as a way to engage the intern as a high-potential full-time candidate and to ensure they are learning as much about the company as they can before their first day. "I've seen pretty commonly [that] the onboarding and training actually starts before they even formally start the job. It's about building the relationship," Nicole Coomber, a professor of management at the University of Maryland, told HR Dive. "There are a lot of smaller interactions that happen before they come on board so that they have a lot of clarity on what they're actually doing when they get there."
Continuous, experiential training
Following formal onboarding, HR will want to focus on continuous learning, according to Holtom.
He noted that such efforts are good for building capacity and making sure that interns feel they are gaining from the experience. There are a lot of ways to deliver this kind of training, however, and it does not need to be formal or in-person; it can be worthwhile, for example, to make learning opportunities experiential.
"[Students] want to gain the experience that prepares them for the next professional opportunity and the chance to build relationships with other professionals in their field. That really sets apart a positive internship experience from a negative one," Rachel Loock, associate director of career services at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business, told HR Dive.
For graduate school interns, experiential learning can be particularly valuable because they are already experienced professionals that may be making a career switch. They may need to get up to speed on certain software or business concepts to successfully make that switch.
"MBA internships are often used as a ‘bridge' to pivot from one industry or function to another, Doreen Amorosa, associate dean of career services at the Georgetown McDonough School of Business, told HR Dive. "Successful internships allow MBA students to demonstrate newly acquired academic skills which enable those career transitions," she said.
SOURCE: Kidwai, A. (13 April 2020) "3 steps to optimize intern onboarding and training" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.hrdive.com/news/3-steps-to-optimize-intern-onboarding-and-training/576014/
COVID-19 Changes Internships, Apprenticeships
As the coronavirus pandemic has put a restriction on many plans, it's also raised concerns for organizations with internship and apprenticeship programs for early career development opportunities. Read this blog post from SHRM to learn more.
Travel restrictions and social-distancing mandates prompted by COVID-19 are causing organizations to rethink their approach to apprenticeships and internships, which typically involve hands-on, in-person participation.
The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) is seeing a steady push toward moving internships online or limiting them in size and duration. A quick unscientific poll it conducted April 3 with 130 of its employer members provided insight on how members are adapting their programs:
- 35 percent are making no changes to their program.
- 35 percent are reducing the length of internships by delaying the start date.
- 29 percent are moving to a virtual program.
- 20 percent are moving events such as end-of-program presentations online.
- 15 percent are reducing the number of interns.
Some organizations are considering micro-internships that condense a 10-to-12-week internship into a one-to-two-week experience later in the summer, said Bruce Soltys, head of talent acquisition sourcing strategy at The Travelers Companies based in Hartford, Conn. It has a 450-person internship program at 25 locations throughout the U.S.
He was among speakers at a panel discussion on internships that NACE hosted April 2.
"Companies might put a little bit more of an emphasis on training and development where [interns] are really focused on the learning and development piece and not so much on a personal project," Soltys said.
"From a change management perspective, we've presented the case to our senior leaders to say, 'If we have to go down this path from a virtual-work standpoint, the main question is, can this work be done virtually?' I think a lot of managers are not comfortable with the notion of interns doing the work virtually because [interns] are so new to the organization."
SAS, a computer software company outside of Raleigh, N.C., has a seven-figure investment in its internship program, said Kayla Woitkowski, a university recruiter leader for SAS who spoke on the NACE panel. Her employer is "making sure that any internship that does go virtual … the students have valuable work" to perform.
She has found, based on phone conversations with other employers, that organizations are taking one of three stances toward internships in light of COVID-19:
- Turning their internship program into a virtual one, ensuring that any work interns have been hired to perform can be done remotely.
- Canceling internships.
- Pushing back start dates.
As organizations wrestle with what to do with their internship programs, it's important that they keep in contact with the students they selected, said David Ong, panel moderator and senior director of corporate recruiting at Maximus. The Washington, D.C.-based company is a health and human services provider for state, federal and local governments.
The organization met with all interns and program associates as a group to assure them that they would keep them up-to-date on the program's status.
"It is also just a chance to keep them engaged," Ong said. "A lot of these students have [other] options."
Online tools can be an internship program's friend, according to Renato Profico, CEO of Doodle, a Zurich-based online scheduling tool.
"They can translate culture into a digital setting to make interns and new hires feel included," said Profico, who has personally invited every employee to a 15-minute virtual coffee meeting over the next few weeks. "These little things are important at a time when employee engagement and retention could dip significantly."
Apprenticeships
Changes prompted by COVID-19 will likely cause companies to be more pragmatic in how they view the role of apprenticeships, said Jennifer Carlson. She is the co-founder and executive director of Apprenti, which operates in 12 states as a fully paid technology apprenticeship program for minorities, veterans and women.
"COVID-19 is going to force companies to be more deliberate and probably see apprenticeships as an equitable pipeline, equivalent with all their talent acquisition pipelines," Carlson said. "Not all jobs in the science, technology, engineering and math fields, for example, require a college degree.
"You can take people from nontraditional [areas] and train them and create a second pipeline [for talent] using apprenticeships."
One such example is the Youth Technology Apprenticeship Camp (YTAC) in Charlotte, N.C., a major technology workforce site in the U.S. Last year, for example, home-improvement company Lowe's announced the creation of a 2,000-employee global tech hub in Charlotte.
The demand for employees with tech skills "is off the charts for these companies," said Tariq Scott Bokhari, Charlotte city councilman and founder of the Carolina Fintech Hub. The Fintech Hub created YTAC and partnered with the city of Charlotte, the Charlotte Executive Leadership Council, the Bank of America Foundation and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.
Apprentices are high-school seniors who earn a credential after completing the four-week program. Those performing above a certain threshold are guaranteed acceptance into the local Workforce Investment Network training program. After successfully completing six months of training, participants are guaranteed a job as a full stack developer with a starting salary of $55,000.
The pandemic prompted a format change to the apprenticeship: It will be entirely virtual. Participants meet in small virtual breakout groups to work on their project, participate in labs, hackathons and livestream competitions and attend virtual training.
Bokhari thinks the altered format will continue in some way after the pandemic is over. With the virtual setup, overhead costs are lower, so more students can be accommodated. It also mirrors what he thinks will be the new reality for work.
"I think things will change forever after this, but it will probably be some mixture of physical and virtual [format]. We want this experience … to mimic the real-life workforce environment. I think the real-life workforce environment is going to change."
SOURCE: Gurchiek, K. (13 April 2020) "COVID-19 Changes Internships, Apprenticeships" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/ResourcesAndTools/hr-topics/organizational-and-employee-development/Pages/COVID19-Causes-Changes-to-Internships-Apprenticeships.aspx
Soft skills training is a priority, but lack of time and resources stands in the way
While soft skills training may be the number one priority for most HR professionals, allocating time and resources is one of the biggest challenges standing in the way. Read this blog post to learn more.
Dive Brief:
- Soft skills training is the No. 1 priority for more than a quarter of HR and L&D professionals in a Talespin study released in March. Nearly half of the 70 respondents ranked it among their top three priorities.
- But lack of time and resources stand in the way of soft skills training, reported nearly 70% of the respondents. Other challenges included difficulty measuring ROI and insufficient or ineffective training tools. Developing tech may make up for this, however. More than half of respondents said they are "actively implementing" e-learning tools, which allow employers "to offer personalized feedback and a safe learning environment."
- Leadership is the most highly sought soft skill; nearly two-thirds of respondents said it was "a key point of focus in 2019."
Dive Insight:
Soft skills have been in high demand for quite some time. LinkedIn declared soft skills the top training priority of 2018, and many reports since have heralded the demand for and importance of soft skills throughout job levels, job functions and industries.
The infiltration of AI-based technology at work has partly created the demand for soft skills, changing the way most work is performed, an MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab report concluded in October. In doing so, tasks that require soft skills — the tasks that cannot be automated — are increasing in value. And as those tasks gain importance, so do the skills workers use to complete them, the report said.
Perhaps ironically, the same tech that created the need for soft skills is establishing itself as the medium for soft skills training. In fact, Talespin launched a "virtual human technology" tool last year aimed at helping workers learn soft skills such as communication, empathy and leadership in "a safe, repeatable learning environment." Tyson Foods used virtual reality (VR) tools to conduct safety and hazard awareness training. And Walmart has used VR to train associates to cope with crowds ahead of Black Friday.
SOURCE: Clarey, K. (24 March 2020) "Soft skills training is a priority, but lack of time and resources stands in the way" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.hrdive.com/news/soft-skills-training-is-a-priority-but-lack-of-time-and-resources-stands-i/574779/
How to Build Your Youngest Employees' Skills
Work environments and employers are being introduced to the younger generation, Generation Z. In order to set this generation up for success, training and developing the expectations should be done with Generation Z in mind. Read this blog post to learn more.
Organizations committing to preparing their workforce with the skills they'll need for the future will want to keep the training and development expectations of Generation Z in mind.
Customized learning is something members of Generation Z expect from their employers, according to Jennifer Sanders, head of marketing, operations and administration for Barnes & Noble Education (BNED) Inc.'s digital student solutions segment. BNED is the parent company of Barnes & Noble College, a retail and learning company in Basking Ridge, N.J., that operates 769 campus bookstores and school-branded e-commerce sites.
A 2019 LinkedIn survey of more than 2,000 members of the generation born between 1995 and 2010 found that 43 percent want a "fully self-directed and independent approach to learning," while only 20 percent of 400 learning and development professionals surveyed said they plan to offer this level of personalized learning.
Sanders, who works with interns from Generation Z, spoke with SHRM Online about the kind of training and development this generation—whose oldest members are 24 years old—want from employers.
SHRM Online: Members of Generation Z are accustomed to having everything personalized. How can an employer adapt its training accordingly? Are we talking an emphasis on mentoring, for example?
Jennifer Sanders: Gen Z is a practical and entrepreneurial generation, and this means that members of this generation are generally independent self-starters. While these are great attributes, there are some workplace skills that are difficult to learn on your own, which is why I strongly believe in mentoring and one-on-one training when it comes to Gen Z employees.
Taking the time to sit with Gen Z employees to teach them about workplace nuances can benefit both employee and employer. For example, when onboarding our social media interns, I invest the time to talk about the voice of our brand, our social media channels, and actively solicit their ideas and feedback on how to better capture the interest of Gen Z audiences. Personalized training takes time and patience, but I have found this investment yields great returns with the employees and how they can really make a difference in the work they contribute.
SHRM Online: A recent Barnes & Noble report on Gen Z found that 51 percent of survey respondents said they learn best by being hands-on. Does this mean employers should place more of an emphasis on apprenticeships and team projects?
Sanders: From our research, we know that hands-on experience and using interactive devices is how Gen Z learns best. Based on this, I'd encourage employers to place an increased emphasis on learning and development programs that allow Gen Z employees to work together as they learn new skills or tasks. Because they learn best by doing, employers should consider live training courses led by managers or peers that incorporate small group activities throughout—a move that allows employees to get more direct, hands-on experience with new tasks than traditional classroom or online instruction allows for.
SHRM Online: That same report noted the importance of tools such as podcasts, gamification, online videos, for high school and college students. Looking to the workplace, what types of tools are likely to resonate for members of this generation?
Sanders: Gen Z employees are already engaging with interactive tools prior to entering the workplace so we have an obligation to adapt as we onboard these types of employees. We expect on-demand learning platforms to be a core way to engage Gen Z employees in the workplace. Specifically, platforms like LinkedIn Learning, Slack, GroupMe and pre-recorded videos produced by colleagues and managers are tactics organizations might consider integrating into their training and L&D programs.
SHRM Online: How can employers help employees of this generation develop soft skills, such as answering a phone and dealing with clients and customers?
Sanders: Organizations can help this generation develop soft skills by offering opportunities for job shadowing. Upon entering the workforce, young employees can observe their colleagues interacting with customers or even in internal meetings as part of the onboarding process.
Mentoring and personalized training take time, but the benefits are worth it. We've seen this with our interns time and time again. If you give them the opportunity to hear you on a call with a client or sit with them to explain what makes an effective e-mail, they will pay attention. You'll see them pick up on these soft skills fairly quickly and before long, these skill sets become second nature.
SOURCE: Gurchiek, K. (24 February 2020) "How to Build Your Youngest Employees' Skills" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/organizational-and-employee-development/pages/how-to-build-your-youngest-employees-skills.aspx
When Companies Should Invest in Training Their Employees — and When They Shouldn’t
Do you invest in training and development activities at your organization? According to an industry report, U.S. companies spent $90 billion in 2017 on training and development activities. Read on to learn more.
According to one industry report, U.S. companies spent over $90 billion dollars on training and development activities in 2017, a year-over-year increase of 32.5 %. While many experts emphasize the importance and benefits of employee development — a more competitive workforce, increased employee retention, and higher employee engagement — critics point to a painful lack of results from these investments. Ultimately, there is truth in both perspectives. Training is useful at times but often fails, especially when it is used to address problems that it can’t actually solve.
Many well-intended leaders view training as a panacea to obvious learning opportunities or behavioral problems. For example, several months ago, a global financial services company asked me to design a workshop to help their employees be less bureaucratic and more entrepreneurial. Their goal was to train people to stop waiting around for their bosses’ approval, and instead, feel empowered to make decisions on their own. They hoped, as an outcome, decisions would be made faster. Though the company seemed eager to invest, a training program was not the right way to introduce the new behavior they wanted their employees to learn.
Training can be a powerful medium when there is proof that the root cause of the learning need is an undeveloped skill or a knowledge deficit. For those situations, a well-designed program with customized content, relevant case material, skill-building practice, and a final measurement of skill acquisition works great. But, in the case of this organization, a lack of skills had very little to do with their problem. After asking leaders in the organization why they felt the need for training, we discovered the root causes of their problem had more to do with:
- Ineffective decision-making processes that failed to clarify which leaders and groups owned which decisions
- Narrowly distributed authority, concentrated at the top of the organization
- No measurable expectations that employees make decisions
- No technologies to quickly move information to those who needed it to make decisions
Given these systemic issues, it’s unlikely a training program would have had a productive, or sustainable outcome. Worse, it could have backfired, making management look out of touch.
Learning is a consequence of thinking, not teaching. It happens when people reflect on and choose a new behavior. But if the work environment doesn’t support that behavior, a well-trained employee won’t make a difference. Here are three conditions needed to ensure a training solution sticks.
1. Internal systems support the newly desired behavior. Spotting unwanted behavior is certainly a clue that something needs to change. But the origins of that unwanted behavior may not be a lack of skill. Individual behaviors in an organization are influenced by many factors, like: how clearly managers establish, communicate, and stick to priorities, what the culture values and reinforces, how performance is measured and rewarded, or how many levels of hierarchy there are. These all play a role in shaping employee behaviors. In the case above, people weren’t behaving in a disempowered way because they didn’t know better. The company’s decision-making processes forbid them from behaving any other way. Multiple levels of approval were required for even tactical decisions. Access to basic information was limited to high-ranking managers. The culture reinforced asking permission for everything. Unless those issues were addressed, a workshop would prove useless.
2. There is commitment to change. Any thorough organizational assessment will not only define the skills employees need to develop, it will also reveal the conditions required to reinforce and sustain those skills once a training solution is implemented. Just because an organization recognizes the factors driving unwanted behavior, doesn’t mean they’re open to changing them. When I raised the obvious concerns with the organization above, I got the classic response, “Yes, yes, of course we know those issues aren’t helping, but we think if we can get the workshop going, we’ll build momentum and then get to those later.” This is usually code for, “It’s never going to happen.” If an organization isn’t willing to address the causes of a problem, a training will not yield its intended benefit.
3. The training solution directly serves strategic priorities. When an organization deploys a new strategy — like launching a new market or product — training can play a critical role in equipping people with the skills and knowledge they need to help that strategy succeed. But when a training initiative has no discernible purpose or end goal, the risk of failure is raised. For example, one of my clients rolled out a company-wide mindfulness workshop. When I asked a few employees what they thought, they said, “It was interesting. At least it got me two hours away from my cubicle.” When I asked the sponsoring executive to explain her thought process behind the training, she said, “Our employee engagement data indicated our people are feeling stressed and overworked, so I thought it would be a nice perk to help them focus and reduce tension.” But when I asked her what was causing the stress, her answer was less definitive: “I don’t really know, but most of the negative data came from Millennials and they complain about being overworked. Plus, they like this kind of stuff.” She believed her training solution had strategic relevance because it linked to a vital employee metric. But evaluations indicated that, though employees found the training “interesting,” it didn’t actually reduce their stress. There are a myriad of reasons why the workload could have been causing employees stress. Therefore, this manager’s energy would have been better directed at trying to determine those reasons in her specific department and addressing them accordingly — despite her good intentions.
If you are going to invest millions of dollars into company training, be confident it is addressing a strategic learning need. Further, be sure your organization can and will sustain new skills and knowledge by addressing the broader factors that may threaten their success. If you aren’t confident in these conditions, don’t spend the money.
SOURCE: Carucci, R. (29 October 2018). "When Companies Should Invest in Training Their Employees – and When They Shouldn’t" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2018/10/when-companies-should-invest-in-training-their-employees-and-when-they-shouldnt
