Internships can be used as a pipeline for hiring future employees if handled properly. To achieve this, you should treat interns with respect, assign them meaningful work and offer the necessary training and tools to help them succeed. More importantly, let them see through your actions that you care about their work and always show them how their work fits in the overall picture of your company. I have first had experience about the long term benefits of internships. At my current start-up, GiftCardRescue.com, three of my key employees started out as interns and were brought on-board as full-time employees after successful internships. That has saved me both time and money.
Article originally appeared on theyec.org. Reprinted with permission.
Kwame Kuadey is an entrepreneur, startup advisor, and public speaker. Kwame started his first company, GiftCardRescue.com on a shoestring and bootstrapped it into a profitable, multi-million dollar business.
YEC Urban is an initiative of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of the country’s most promising young entrepreneurs. YEC promotes entrepreneurship as a solution to youth unemployment and underemployment and provides its members with access to tools, mentorship, and resources that support each stage of a business’s development and growth. YEC Urban’s members are successful minority business owners, entrepreneurs and thought leaders.