Interns: Strategic Pipeline or Extra Resource?

Internships are all the buzz these days in the recruiting world. A lot of companies have told us that they are using their internships programs as feeders to their full-time hiring. Makes sense, doesn't it, especially if you are a large company and have one of these programs already up and running.

But what if you're a small company without a lot of resources to create and manage interns? Well, I never would have believed it myself until this happened at our company (we have about 100 employees).

We hired two interns in the fall of 2006 and they worked with us for most of the academic year. And this February, when we had a entry-level position open up, one of them naturally got the job. (1) We had already worked with her and thought she was great. (2) She is graduating this May so timing was good for both of us. And (3) we knew that she would get up to speed so much faster since she had already spent nearly a year with us.

Never in a million years would I have predicted things would work out so nicely. So yes our intern was a extra set of hands when our projects blossomed but having this pipeline (albeit two) of solid, tested talent really did make the urgent task of recruiting so much easier.

Download some tips that we gathered on how to recruit and manage an effective internship program.

Photo by Yodel Anecdotal

The USA Needs Help...!

During last week's Future Workforce Solutions Summit, hosted by ITT in Orlando, I was expecting to hear "the usual" from employers -- they are having a difficult time recruiting skilled talent, they have far more jobs than appropriate candidates, they're not sure how to use Web2.0 tools to their advantage, etc etc etc...

What I didn't expect was the eye-popping, red-flag-raising, three-alarm emergency that is facing our country's major employers: the lack of science, technology, engineering, math & manufacturing (STEM) talent coming out of US schools.

For a real wake-up call, check this out...

I also wasn't expecting the incredibly creative ways that our country's leading organizations are putting aside competition, and are instead choosing to collaborate to solve the problem together. The FutureWorkforceSolutions coalition is harnessing the power of Boeing, Schlumberger, NASA, Intel, AT&T, Dell, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and others are organizing mentoring networks, funding education programs in high schools, finding ways to highlight role models for women interested in science, and lobbying our government to shape legislation that will invest in our education system -- and reduce the large-and-growing gap between the skills that our students are acquiring and those that our employers need.

These leaders realize that today's struggle to recruit skilled talent is just the tip of the iceburg... and that it's a much bigger issue than any single organization -- or government -- can solve on its own.

I'd love to hear your ideas for how schools, employers and the government can work together to give the next generation the experience needed to be successful... Thoughts?

Workforce Development Needs Experience

Once upon a time, Bill Gates was a young entrepreneur. And as a man with a knack of combining technical expertise with business savvy, he knows -- very well, mind you -- this simple principle: success comes when opportunity meets preparation.

Last week, Gates gave a speech on Capitol Hill addressing the future of innovation, U.S. competitiveness and the need for improvements in science education.

Here's an excerpt:

"Although IT skills are in high demand, it can often be difficult for qualified job seekers with limited experience to connect with potential employers. To address this challenge, Microsoft recently launched the Students to Business (S2B) program, which is designed to help companies connect with and hire talented university or post-graduate students for jobs or internships in the technology industry. Through the S2B program, Microsoft collaborates with universities and businesses to provide students with specialized IT training and internship opportunities and helps match qualified job candidates with open positions at thousands of Microsoft partner companies so that students are able to find the right job for their IT capabilities. Microsoft S2B also helps match students to internships. Because IT professionals who have had one or more internships as students tend to secure better jobs when they enter the workforce, the S2B program provides IT students with a range of opportunities to build their experience and strengthen their resumes.”

The bottom line? Finding candidates who have practical work experience is a challenge in the technology sector. As professionals in career services, we need to ensure that we match our standout students with the best opportunities possible. Doing this will ultimately strengthen our nation's competitiveness and world position in the development of emerging technologies.

Check out the Microsoft S2B microsite, developed by Experience, for more information: http://s2b.experience.com/.

Photo by Esparta

One Salad Does Not Fit All

I was standing in line yesterday at my favorite lunch place where you can order just about any kind of salad you want. On one side of me stood a tall guy (who I will from now on refer to as "tall guy") and his friend was on the other side (to differentiate him from his buddy, let's call him "short guy", even though he wasn't really short). I offered to let the two of them stand next to each other, but they were happy just where they were. They then proceed to talk over my head so there was no way I could possibly avoid eavesdropping on their conversation:

Short Guy asks Tall Guy, "What are you getting for lunch?"

Tall Guy responds, "I am freestylin', I always freestyle" (which in the lingo of this salad place means he will tell them what ingredients to put into his salad).

"Not me," says Short Guy. "I always mess it up. I end up mixing blue cheese with eggs, and it comes out tasting terrible. So I just order the chicken caesar all the time."

I walked away from this interchange thinking - wow, here's place specifically for people to create their own lunch and this guy chooses not to, he prefers a "packaged" lunch.

This is the case with recruiting as well since it involves people, and people have unique tastes, needs, values and preferences. It points to how diverse we all are, that there is no exact solution that works for everyone. If something as simple as a salad is this complex, what does that mean for recruiting?

What it clearly tells me is we need recruiting programs (structured interview processes, formal training, mentoring) that meet the needs of the majority, but that we also need to be flexible and add small touches or flourishes that are personalized (special coaching sessions, training outside the formal program) to address both types - the ones that want the pre-packaged job solution and those that want to "make it up as they go".

Photo by double.reed

Music Lessons

As a big fan of pretty much all things related to music, I like to keep tabs on the industry itself. And as most of you probably know, the music industry has taken a beating with the increasing popularity of new media including online downloading and file sharing.

Instead of falling back on the traditional way of doing things (and suffering with the rest of the industry), artists like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have effectively embraced the web. Check out this Washington Post story on Radiohead and this TechDirt article on Nine Inch Nails for some interesting insight on how they're leveraging innovative online methodologies to not only engage their fans (the majority of whom are in their 20s and 30s) but stay "competitive" in a changing landscape.

As Generation Y makes their way through college and ultimately out into the workforce, we could learn a thing or two from the evolving trends of the music business. Experience recently issued a report outlining the top five trends in 2008 for managing Gen Y, and a key takeaway to stay relevant in the eyes of 20-somethings is the significance of evolving hiring and retention strategies. Millennials are the most technically savvy group of workers that organizations have ever seen. And if employers evolve as their employees evolve, the end result will be a more dynamic and competitive organization where knowledge is shared, action is taken quickly and new avenues are opened.

It's time to face the music.

Photo by Bob Jagendorf