Intern Hiring Expected to Increase 12% This Summer

Employers expect to hire more college students for summer internships this year, according to a new study conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). Employers taking part in NACE’s 2012 Internship & Co-op Survey report plans to increase internship hires by 8.5 percent over last year and nearly all expect to pay their interns.

“This reflects the focus of these internship programs,” says Marilyn Mackes, NACE executive director. “Employers taking part in the survey use their internship programs to feed their full-time hiring efforts; as a result, they pay their interns to ensure the best talent pool possible.” Continue Reading

Tools and Tips for Hiring Great People in Any Economy

In a previous post, I wrote about the importance of hiring great people during a recession. Every expert who repsonded to my query agreed that it’s important to hire great people whether the economy is up or down, but that during a down economy, companies are less able to afford the costs involved in replacing candidates who fell short of employers’ expectations.
One of the experts who responded to my query was Dr. Robert Kinsel-Smith, author of “Discover Your Blind Spots,” a book that “provides tools and advice on how to find great people.”
Here are a few tips Dr. Smith offers for finding the highest quality entry level job candidates:
A. Have your interviews put the candidates to the test – don’t have them be controlled environments but ones where how they perform under stress is demonstrated.
B. From the person’s past determine if this is a person who attracts successful people – great people attract successful people, weak people attract people who are mediocre.
C. Use a tool like ZeroRiskHR‘s hiring tool – which helps direct the interview process and uncovers potential pitfalls for each candidate.
Finding great employees is a difficult task, but starting early might help a little, regardless of what the economy is doing. Companies that offer internship programs can stack the deck in their favor by hiring the best interns and making sure they have challenging, rewarding and interesting internship experiences. By cultivating great interns, the companies increase their odds of hiring great recent graduates for entry level jobs.
Since not all the jobs that companies offer are entry level and employers still need to know how to discern great candidates from average candidates, Dr. Smith suggests looking for the following characteristics:
A. Great performers want to work with and for this person
B. They are teachable and continually growing
C. They don’t confuse words with actions – realizing that actions and outcomes are the basis of success
D. They have their areas of responsibility under control, they secure desire results, and they make their bosses’ jobs easier.
The economy won’t stay bad forever, but having the best possible employees on staff while it is will certainly make getting through it a lot easier to manage.