With so many eager school-leavers looking for employment opportunities, hiring an intern can seem like a good way to offer work experience to someone without the risks of a long-term commitment of a regular employee. However, you should consider whether hiring an intern would be the best move for your business. Here are some pros and cons you may run into:

Pros:

Extra help: It can be handy to have some extra assistance over busy periods in your business. This also ensures that the intern isn’t bored and gets hands-on experience taking on real-world tasks.

Potential employment: If you feel that the intern fits into the workplace well, you could offer them employment later on. This is often a smoother introduction to employment as they are already trained and familiar with the business. However, you are not obligated to offer them a job if you don’t feel they are a good fit.

Fresh perspectives: Interns can often offer new perspectives to work that you may not have thought about before. Having someone who hasn’t sunk into the routine of your workplace yet can be useful in offering new ways of thinking that could potentially improve your business.

Social media insight: Most interns are young and tech-savvy and could offer important insights into the world of social media for the new generation. They could help you devise relatable, trendy content for your social media that you may not have considered.

Cons:

Time commitment: Taking on an intern means that you will need to filter through applications and conduct interviews, as well as providing them with supervision and training. If you’re too busy to dedicate time to take care of an intern, it may not be the best move for your business.

Inexperienced: If you’re looking for some to take on roles that require knowledge and experience, an intern may not be the right choice as they often have limited work experience in career-based roles.

Less flexible: If an intern is still studying, then the hours they can offer you can be limited and variable depending on their timetable. As well as this, when exam periods arrive they could have an exam on a day they would normally work or may ask for time off to study.