The real deal on interns

By Andy Levy-Ajzenkopf
July 12, 2010

Interns are the great cavalry of any organization. Though some, unfortunately, view them as slave labour — those who do the tasks no one else could find time for, or the work others just don’t want to do — most recognize the crucial importance of having hired (and oftentimes volunteer) temporary help to buttress the company mission.

Love thy interns

But whether paid or not, Sarah Gayer, a Toronto CHRP, says interns should be prized and treated with respect above all else.

"Treat the interns as you would your employees. Have a proper onboarding program laid out for them, an agenda and calendar of how they would spend their first week, etc.," she says. "Make sure that their manager understands their role is to coach and mentor this intern and provides regular ongoing feedback. These interns can become a full-time employee at some point and if not maybe a future customer. See how this person works out [and] fits in the organizational culture."

It’s a sentiment favoured by the management at Toronto’s Luminato festival as well.

Laura Barron, the festival’s manager of communications, says her nonprofit, after trolling for interns, embraces them into all aspects of the operation.

"Each department requiring an intern posts the internship positions on culture and not-for-profit-based websites, such as workinculture.ca or charityvillage.ca, and we often contact university and college programs as well," she said. "Each department provides their interns with an intern guide, which includes detailed information about all of the intern's responsibilities and projects. Each intern is also provided with one-on-one training for at least one full day and then the training continues as needed."

"They are treated as a member of the staff. All interns are compensated with a bi-weekly honorarium."

Barron adds that interns are also included in all Luminato departmental and full staff meetings, and are "given significant projects and responsibilities" during their time with the festival. "They are treated as a member of the staff. All interns are compensated with a bi-weekly honorarium."

According to Barron, Luminato has no specific source for intern funding.

"It is just part of our administration budget. At the end of each fiscal year, each department lets the finance team know how many interns they will need for the upcoming year, so the honorariums are budgeted at that point. Generally, the internship timelines are the same each year," she said.

The benefits of the intern to your nonprofit business model

While it’s true that interns stand to gain a lot out of their work in terms of experience and skills in whatever organization they work with, the positive impact of one on an organization are also significant.

On its website, Career Edge, a national nonprofit dedicated to providing university and high school graduates with paid internships across the country in a variety of industries and sectors, points out three pragmatic business reasons why interns can help an organization achieve its business mandate.

1. They’re a cost efficient HR solution: Interns gain valuable experience and employers benefit from their fresh perspectives, flexibility, expertise, and skills at a cost-effective rate.
   
2. They reduce hiring risks and increase flexibility: Interns allow for contract flexibility with no commitment to hire permanently, allowing an organization to "assess candidate performance before any long-term hiring commitment."
   
3. They help leverage career development opportunities for staff: Mentoring and coaching is an integral part of the internship process. This can provide valuable professional development opportunities for your current staff, which can be beneficial in their career advancement.

Applying for the employment grant

Though many sector organizations make judicious use of interns, those that have to budget for them as hired, temporary staff often have to make more calculated decisions on how best to use them. A lot of the time, the money used for this comes from government employment grants.

This year, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) posted the following information on its HRSDC Service Standards for Grants and Contributions webpage:

"A service standard is a public commitment to a measurable level of performance clients can expect under normal circumstances. Effective April 1, 2010, HRSDC will implement the following service standard for all grants and contributions programs within the department: Acknowledgement of Application — Under normal conditions, we will acknowledge receipt of your proposal within 21 calendar days of receiving your application package. Please watch this space for additional service standards being launched this year."

As of last week, no more messages had been posted since that last one. Still, the government provides a thorough list of obligations it expects an organization to follow once grant money has been, well, granted.

The list is too lengthy to go into in detail here, but some of the criteria managers and executive directors should be aware of include the following (found in section 1.3) of HRSDC’s A guide to managing your contribution funds:

1.3 Your responsibilities as a recipient When you receive funding, you enter a formal agreement that entails these responsibilities for you, the recipient:

• meet the objectives stated in the agreement by the negotiated deadlines;
  
• report on your progress and accomplishments;
  
• keep accurate financial and activity records, in compliance with your agreement;
  
• apply good management practices that allow you to maintain and submit accurate progress reports and financial records;
  
• practice "generally accepted accounting principles," which means you make sure that the funds are being used for their intended purpose, that the objectives in the agreement are met, and that your payment claims come with appropriate supporting documentation; and
  
• adhere to all applicable Canadian laws.

The formal agreement is the tool that allows us to actually support your activity; that's why adhering to it (producing the results and outcomes in the time allowed and on budget) is essential.

Suffice it to say, any nonprofit (or for-profit, for that matter) that intends to apply for federal funding would do well to read through HRSDC’s entire guide to truly understand what they’re getting into and whether adherence to the grant terms is achievable or reasonable for one’s organization.

Of course, you don’t have to go all the way to the top. Provincial funding options are also available. Most provinces have grant programs accessible to nonprofits as well.

Plan for your interns

Allison Bain, vice-president of human resources and planning with the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), tells CharityVillage® that her interns are treated like any other employee and that budgeting for them is now part of the routine line items for the fest.

"Over the past year, TIFF has created a formal Internship Programme. As we value the work of interns as highly as those of fulltime staff, the hiring process is identical. Internship opportunities are posted on our website — candidates are interviewed and selected by a cross-departmental hiring committee," she says. "A key component of our Internship Programme is a consistent rate of pay to ensure that each intern is compensated at the same level."

Liked this article? Check out the following links: Tips for training your short-term volunteers The compensation question Human Resources Q&A

Bain says TIFF receives $5,000 annually from the federal government program to hire interns. She advises sector colleagues to check into this and other funding methods as well.

"We have received great value from procuring general grants in support of organizational development, at both the federal and provincial level. Although not specific to the hiring of interns, they have allowed us to build infrastructures and programmes such as the Internship Programme, which definitely add value to our employment practices."

All told, interns are a very valuable resource for any organization and budgeting for them makes good economic and mission sense.

[NOTE: For sector organizations seeking a comprehensive list of funding sources, CharityVillage®’s Sources of Funding webpage has an excellent list of options; both governmental and via foundations, among others. Another great source for interns and employers is the website Nextsteps.org, which lists a bevy of internship programs available to Canadians. Additionally, many university career centres offer intern resources for nonprofits as well. One example is the University of Calgary’s JobLink system, which, according to Martina Payette, the university’s director of career services, has helped more than 200 nonprofits and charities recruit students for summer, co-op/internship and full-time work through its JobLink system since September 2009.]

Andy Levy-Ajzenkopf is president of WordLaunch professional writing services in Toronto. He can be reached at andy@wordlaunch.com.

Next week: An update on the Not-for-Profit Corporations Act.

Click here to learn more about upcoming cover stories.

Please note: While we ensure that all links and e-mail addresses are accurate at their publishing date, the quick-changing nature of the web means that some links to other web sites and e-mail addresses may no longer be accurate.