As an entrepreneur and CEO , I often feel like I have too many ideas and too little time to follow through on those ideas. That is where an intern comes in. Every summer, I design an internship program with meaningful internship projects to follow through on my ideas and concepts from the past year. For my thoughts on how to design an effective internship program , check out this video:. I believe in paid internships.
My moral and business obligation is to treat my employees with fairness and to compensate employees for their work.
Not only do paid internship programs lead to higher quality internship candidates, but they also lead to more motivated, loyal, and hard-working interns. There are many competitive paid internship positions available. The FLSA defines the term "employ" broadly as including to "suffer or permit to work" "suffer" is a synonym for "allow".
Technically speaking, the FLSA does not define or explicitly recognize the existence of "interns. In January , the DOL provided updated guidance to reflect the following seven criteria to identify the primary beneficiary in determining whether an employment relationship with an intern or student exists:. According to the DOL, "courts have described the 'primary beneficiary test' as a flexible test, and no single factor is determinative. Accordingly, whether an intern or student is an employee under the FLSA necessarily depends on the unique circumstances of each case.
The simple solution is to just pay the intern a legal wage. Doing so will save the for-profit organization a lot of risk and concern about whether a particular internship program complies with the FLSA or comparable state law. In addition, paying interns helps teach them the realities of mandatory withdrawals from paychecks, gives them a tangible benefit for their labor and probably improves the quality of their work. Clearly, an internship should not be used to displace a regular employee or to take advantage of a person seeking KSAs as a way to obtain free or low-cost labor for the organization.
Ideally, an internship is a symbiotic relationship. Communications can be an area in which employers can benefit, but also an area in which they can make mistakes. They should pay careful attention to drafting policies and procedures, as well as public announcements, regarding internships. An organization will not want to be seen as reneging on promises made to interns or as taking advantage of them. Clearly identifying what the program offers and how interns will benefit will help attract great candidates.
At the outset of any internship program, it is important to establish a framework for determining whether the internship program has been successful. This is the realm of metrics. Here are possible goals of an internship program:. The return on investment of an internship program will depend on the criteria the organization states and the integrity of its data.
A human resource information system—HRIS—or a generic spreadsheet computer program may be useful in establishing the metrics needed. In affluent countries such as the United States and Australia, it is common for young people to reside temporarily in another country, sometimes by means of an internship.
Such international internships are particularly popular with young interns. They can gain the benefits of a domestic internship while also exploring another culture. Occasionally, the internship may result in a job in the other country.
Sometimes, however, the temporary residence involves persons from other countries coming to the United States on temporary visas; those who overstay their temporary visas become "undocumented workers. Compliance with federal and state immigration laws is a key requisite of employing interns from other countries. Additionally, SHRM offers a service to sponsor an employer's Exchange Visitor Program under the Department of Labor which provides highly educated foreign employees and students the opportunity to visit the United States for a short amount of time to receive on-the-job training and engage in cultural exchange.
Employers with unpaid internship programs should develop standard disclosure forms to be signed by prospective interns acknowledging, among other things, that no job is being offered in connection with the successful or unsuccessful completion of the internship. The internship should have specific start and stop dates. In addition, the employer should obtain the intern's signature on a document stating the intern understands that he or she is participating in a valid internship and therefore will not be entitled to wages or only to minimum wages for the time spent in the internship.
On this matter, the employer should probably consult with legal counsel, and legal counsel will probably want the document to include much more detail. The greater the number of interns involved, the greater the risk if the details are overlooked. Misclassification of interns as trainees rather than employees could result in the interns being deemed employees eligible for Social Security withholding and matching, unemployment insurance benefits and workers' compensation.
The tax ramifications for an organization having "employees" for whom FICA taxes have not been withheld and paid can be substantial, including a percent penalty for FICA withholding not actually paid by the employer.
For large-scale and ongoing internship programs in which the employer wants to pay less than the applicable minimum wage or overtime, legal counsel should be consulted.
Internship: Intern Evaluation Form. Internship: Student Evaluation Form. Intern Hiring Policy. You may be trying to access this site from a secured browser on the server. Take your time with the process. Think about the pros and cons of making each decision. The internship series Paid or Unpaid Internship? Read This Before You Decide. The benefits to working for experience, or for pay, at your next internship.
When to consider an unpaid internship While the benefits may not be as obvious, an unpaid internship at the right company can offer significant value. When to consider a paid internship The first benefit is obvious… Pay. Find the right jobs for you. Doing this also saves time and resources in the hiring process.
Interns who become full-time team members are already on board and up to speed with our processes, goals, and mission. Oh yeah, how about not being the next target in stories like this one? Taking advantage of unpaid interns is coming back to bite employers after the U. Department of Labor laid out the framework for unpaid internships.
Employers need to have a structured internship program to avoid conflicts down the road. The experience is best when both the employer and the student get as much — if not more — out of the program than they put into it. Sign up for our newsletter, and make your inbox a treasure trove of industry news and resources.
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