Five Reasons to Hire Summer Interns – and Why You Need to Make Your Mind up by January

For students, seeking meaningful employment during summer vacation has taken on greater importance in a time when a disproportionate number of students will find it difficult to find a job in their field upon graduation.

Nonetheless, with the intense competitiveness of acquiring top talent, it might seem antithetical to divert attention from this important undertaking to seek out short-term help. Upon closer examination, there are also some very real opportunities for businesses to benefit from summer internships. Here are the top five:

1. Interns Inject New Energy into Your Business

While employees settle into a routine it is easy to slip into a malaise of mediocrity, because there is little that’s new or exciting  Even going to Disney Land can get tired, if you visit it every day in and day out for years.

Here is where interns can help: just like how bringing a friend to a place they haven’t visited before can renew the enthusiasm of a regular visitor, interns can inject new excitement and energy into your workforce. So if you would like to give someone on your staff a boost, assign them a summer intern to mentor.

2. Interns Can Handle Special Projects and/or Backlog

Of course, you are not going to actually tell your staff that you are assigning them a summer intern to help pull them out of a rut. Another great reason to hire on a summer intern is to help handle special projects that have been side-tracked and/or to get caught up on a backlog of remedial work.

Sure, there are people out there to take on a temporary position any time in the year, but students will be returning to school in the fall so there is no feeling of guilt for releasing someone who would much rather stick around once their assigned work is complete.

3. Internships are a Great Way to Trial Future Prospective Employees

There is a chance that after the sun sets on your summer internship experience, the next time you hear from them will be to ask for a reference letter.

But even before summer interns graduate they can become a casual employee that your business can have at its disposal in time of need—whether it be to cover for someone’s spring vacation or to carry out small projects from time to time. And once your summer interns graduate they can become a source of talent that requires significantly less training.

4. Interns are Committed and Eager to Learn

The latter attribute almost goes without saying. Younger people are curious, and a summer internship is a fantastic opportunity to bridge a student’s knowledge and passion for their field with meaningful work, so you can bet that interns will take a profound interest in their summer work experience.

But while interns are typically brought on for terms of between three to six months, it can also be said that they are fairly committed. After all, it’s not likely that a summer intern will flee half way through the summer because they found something better.

5. Receive up to 100% in Funding to Hire Summer Interns

Invariably, one of the most compelling reasons a business owner will find to hire student interns on each summer is a generous funding program called Canada Summer Jobs. Canada Summer Jobs business grants for hiring student summer interns will pay up to 50% of the minimum wage of students employed by a for profit firm, and up to 100% of the minimum wage for not-for-profits.

Learn more about the Student Summer Jobs program today, as the deadline for applications is January 31, 2014 for students employed in the summer of 2014.