How-to-guide for employers who want to hire diverse students for their internship programs

The Office of Disability Employment Policy within the United States Department of Labor published an excellent how-to-guide for employers who want to make their internship programs more inclusive by hiring diverse students for those internships.

According to the guide, “‘public and private employers of all sizes can recognize many benefits from implementing inclusive internship programs. From hosting one intern to hiring 100, these benefits translate regardless of scale. In particular, internships allow employers to:

• Access a pool of motivated individuals who bring fresh thinking and innovation to the workplace
• Promote an inclusive workplace by hiring interns from diverse backgrounds, including those with disabilities
• Meet recruitment needs by providing a risk-free pipeline of potential candidates to access for permanent positions
• Provide leadership and management growth opportunities to existing staff who direct or mentor interns
• Encourage existing staff to diversify their workload and skills by pursuing new projects with assistance from interns
• Increase the productivity and retention rate of employees
• Extend visibility of their business, organization, or agency through positive public relations associated with hiring interns
• Help develop the work experience, skills, and career goals of the nation’s future workforce”

The Guide continues:

Well-structured internship programs benefit both interns and employers. By participating in these valuable on-the-job learning opportunities, interns augment their work experience, hone important work skills, develop their career goals, and establish connections that may prove useful throughout the span of their careers.

In turn, internships give employers access to a pool of motivated individuals who bring fresh thinking and innovation to their workplaces. Internships can also serve as a risk-free pipeline to meet the recruitment needs of the business, organization, or agency. Allowing employers to assess prospective candidates prior to making a permanent hiring decision improves the efficacy of the decision-making process and increases the likelihood of a successful match. Internships also provide leadership and management growth experience to the businesses’ existing staff members who oversee the internship program and its participants.

Building an inclusive workplace is a major facet of the modern workforce. Companies no longer view diversity and inclusion efforts as separate from their other business practices. They also recognize that a diverse workforce can differentiate them from their competitors and can help them capture new clients and increase market share.

As the topic of diversity appears throughout this guide (PDF, 60 pages), it signifies any number of experiences or characteristics that people bring to the workplace. Race, ethnicity, and sex are common factors in diversity initiatives, but it is also important to consider sexual orientation, gender identity, age, and disability when striving towards inclusion because they are often overlooked. As employers strive towards full inclusion in the workplace, they should incorporate a comprehensive definition of diversity that applies to all hiring practices, including internship programs.

https://www2.CollegeRecruiter.com/InclusiveInternshipProgramHowToGuideForEmployers