Operations | by Nick DiUlio
Burger King’s 30 interns act as brand ambassadors on their college campuses after they’ve returned from summer internships with the company.
Kristen Blando considers herself quite fortunate. At 25 she is a full-time operations specialist at Subway’s corporate headquarters in Milford, Connecticut, coordinating the release of new products and promotional materials for the sandwich chain’s franchise locations. It’s a rewarding and worthwhile position—and none of it would have been possible if not for her internship experience with the company six years ago.
After a six-month stint as a Subway communications intern in the summer of 2002, Blando, while still attending college at Southern Connecticut State University, was hired to fill a part-time opening in the operations management department. She quickly seized the opportunity and worked on a part-time basis until her graduation in 2005, when the company promoted her to the full-time job she has today.
“Before that internship I had always worked typical teenage jobs: camp counselor, waitress. I knew nothing about corporate culture, and I had no idea what to expect,” she says. “But when the internship started I was pleasantly surprised by how useful it was. So I worked really hard in public relations and gave it my all, and I think that showed because eventually I got the position I wanted.”
Internship programs have long been valuable assets to college students looking for a foothold in their field of choice, but with today’s souring economy and bleak employment landscape, internships are becoming increasingly valuable commodities, both to the students as well as the companies that hire them.
“Interns bring a lot of new enthusiasm and an obvious quest for knowledge,” says Les Winograd, spokesman for Subway. “And they help us with a lot of work that sometimes is not practical to have a full-time person doing.”
As Americans face an unemployment rate of 8.5 percent, teens and college students are going to find a tough job market this summer. According to a recent survey of 1,000 hiring managers, almost half (48 percent) of those polled intend to hire at rates between 10 and 50 percent below 2008’s hiring levels. The survey, which was conducted by IPSOS Public Affairs, also showed that 73 percent of hiring managers expect significantly more applicants this summer compared to last.
These figures emphasize the need for companies to pay even closer attention to the possible advantages interns bring to the table, says Matthew Zinman, president and founder of ZUniversity.org, an online resource designed to help students and employers maximize the potential of internship programs.
“This economy and the lack of a need for full-time workers is also masking the gap of skilled workers that’s widening. The baby boomers are retiring, and the workforce is not there to replace them,” Zinman says. “The other side of that equation is you’ve got college graduates and displaced workers looking for new job training, and they have a high motivation and high skill levels that they bring to the table that would provide cost-efficient labor and productivity to an organization. And employers can, in effect, try before they buy.”
Some employer surveys, however, suggest the economic difficulties are actually resulting in fewer internship opportunities this summer. According to a recent survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), it is expected that internship hiring will be cut by 21 percent this year. Andrea Koncz, NACE’s employment information manager, says these cuts are the result of a decreased workload, budget cuts, and downsizing. Still, she says the results are somewhat perplexing.
“You would think [this economy] would result in more internships because you can get interns to do the same amount of work as opposed to hiring someone full time,” Koncz says. “And I think internships have become more powerful recruiting tools over the last 10 years because it’s a win-win for both parties involved.”
But only if employers are prepared to utilize the interns for all they are worth, Zinman says. In his 20 years of observation, Zinman says interns are often an afterthought to a company’s efficiency goals. Instead, the modern internship should involve thorough project planning from the outset to determine all of the productivity opportunities for the business. Then, based on those defined needs, employers need to recruit the right students and have an ongoing pipeline of projects throughout the internship.
“It keeps the interns as productive as possible,” Zinman says. “And productivity is really the key. It’s about getting past the stereotypes that interns are only there for menial tasks and to really fully utilize their talents and skills.”
Burger King implemented its summer internship program four years ago with this very perspective in mind. Lisa Fisher, director of talent acquisition, says the company understands the value of a productive pool of skilled interns, which is why each of the 30 interns it hires every summer must deliver a presentation at the close of the summer, outlining his or her responsibilities and accomplishments throughout his or her 10 weeks with the company.
Moreover, Fisher says interns provide an invaluable presence on college campuses that perpetually spreads enthusiasm for the Burger King brand. “You really do get a buzz on some of these campuses when these students come back in the fall and they’ve had a great internship with us,” Fisher says. “I think it’s one of the biggest components of why we do it.”
Eric Chester, author of Getting Them to Give a Damn, is a motivational speaker and expert on recruiting and retaining young talent. He says the current economy should force employers to look at the bigger picture of an internship program’s possibilities.
“Most employers today look at an internship as seasonal employment they can just churn and burn,” he says. “What they should see is that they have the opportunity to court a potential high performer. And if they’re doing it right, they’re proactive. They’re out there on campuses recruiting the cream that rises to the top, not just waiting to see who will submit a résumé.”