Why employers want to hire more diverse students for their internship programs

There has been plenty of discussion around the benefit of students successfully completing at least one internship prior to graduation, preferably with it being a paid internship.

In a nutshell, students who successfully complete at least one internship prior to graduation are far more likely to find career-related, entry-level employment upon graduation. Furthermore, students who complete a paid internship prior to graduation are even more likely to find career-related, entry-level employment upon graduation.

There has been far less discussion around the importance to employers of hiring students for internships, particularly the importance of hiring diverse students for those internships. As noted by Forbes, “diversity leads to better work environments, fresh ideas, and new ways of looking at old problems.” If you’re more of a data-driven person, then consider that study after study demonstrate that the more diverse a workforce is, the more productive that workforce is.

Employers who want to diversify their workforce rarely terminate existing, non-diverse talent and replace them with diverse hires. Instead, employers who want to diversify their workforces typically include in their list of preferences for new hires — and sometimes even requirements — that the new hires be people of color, military veterans, people with disabilities, women, etc. For many employers, particularly those which are large, one of their primary sources of new talent is their internship program. So, if you’re trying to diversify your workforce in order to help that workforce become more productive, then you’re going to want to focus on hiring more diverse college students through your internship program.

So, how do you go from wanting to better diversify your internship program to accomplish that goal? One way is to increase the number of diverse candidates who are likely to be qualified for your roles. Let’s say that your organization is in a geographic area that has very few women who are enrolled in science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) programs. The answer? Increase that number by encouraging female high school students to enroll in STEM majors, perhaps by offering scholarships.

Another way to increase the number of diverse college students you hire for your internships is to better communicate to students that you want to hire diverse students for your internships. As stated by Forbes, “a reason minority students feel discouraged from pursuing certain career paths is because they look at the field and see no faces like their own. It’s hard to imagine yourself succeeding in a certain industry if professionals with similar backgrounds are entirely missing from the picture. To attract the right intern candidates, stress how seriously your company takes hiring diversity. If underrepresented interns know your organization sees diversity as important, they’ll know applying for your internships isn’t a waste of time. Use your career site, internship hub, and social media profiles to tell the story of diversity at your company.”

It is unrealistic for any employer to transform their workforce overnight from one which lacks diversity to one that thrives, in part, because it is diverse. There are no silver bullets: no one tactic or even strategy will solve this problem. But if you begin to plant a lot of good seeds today, then you’ll be in a position in the long-term to reap the benefits of your investments by having a diverse and, therefore, more productive workforce.