Employers that want to access top talent fast and develop leadership skills among existing employees should consider implementing an intern program, says Ernst & Young managing partner and people leader Lynn Kraus.
Ernst & Young's largest and most successful intern scheme is its "vacationer" program, which has an annual intake of more than 300 students across Australia, Kraus says. University students can apply for either a summer or winter placement ranging in length from four to 12 weeks. "We get approximately 80 per cent of our graduates from our vacation program," she says.
Applicants are often the top students in their year, and the quality of the candidates who are thinking about their career a year and a half before graduating is likely to be much higher than those who leave it until graduation, Kraus says.
Prior to acceptance, vacationers undergo pre-employment screening. "Once that's done, the best evidence is how they fit in and how they work in this environment, and that's better than any interview will tell you," she says. "It's one thing to do a great job in your studies but translating that to work can be quite a challenge."
At the end of the program, a roundtable discussion held with managers and partners determines which participants will receive an offer of employment. "We make [a decision] right then, without going to the next step - there is no going through the grad recruitment process, they don't have to do any of that," she says.
Even though vacationers must return to university for up to a year and a half to finish their studies first, Kraus says she can tell when a new employee has been in the program, "because they clearly know the ropes and how to get around the business and can really just start to be productive at a faster pace".
The vacationer program is so successful that the company has to invest relatively little in recruiting, says Kraus. Although graduates are paid an hourly rate, overall the program provides a "huge cost saving" and "saves time down the line".
(Kraus notes that when she was a partner in Ernst & Young's financial services practice, for two years running every graduate it hired was from the vacationer program, "so we did not even do graduate recruitment in our service line".)
When it does come time to fill the last 20 per cent of roles through grad recruitment, vacationers who have had a "real experience" have usually spread the word already. In a sense, the interns become "ambassadors for our brand on campus", she explains. "That's a real positive; you can't really pay for that kind of advertisement."
Benefit your interns, your graduates, and your brand
Vacationers are placed in a "buddy system", where first-year graduates show them the ropes, says Kraus.
The buddy system functions as a leadership development tool for first-year employees who are yet to lead and supervise others in the workplace.
"You don't actually understand how much you've learned and how much you know until you are asked to teach someone else," Kraus says. The program allows grads that have been working for a year to pass on their knowledge for the first time. "It helps to build their confidence and it helps groom them to be supervisors and reviewers in the years to come," she says.
Employers considering a vacationer program must ensure they can provide real work, Kraus says. This does not necessarily mean doing client work "every day for 12 weeks", she says - "but they need to have something meaningful to do to get a view of what you will be like as an employer".
Although it can be difficult to determine the right level of work to give vacationers, "if they come in and do photocopying and administrative things, that's clearly not going to be meeting their appetite for what they want to get out of a career".
To ensure their experience is a positive one, "you really have to plan how you will utilise these individuals" and spend a lot of time "in the service line", she says. It is important to ensure supervisors who put their hand up for any number of vacationers can explain exactly how they will put them to work.
One thing that works well at Ernst & Young, says Kraus, is getting vacationers involved in one of the company's community efforts. "I think that's a big part of our brand as an employer, and it also is a good team environment for them. We might take them on a day where they go to Habitat for Humanity, and so they develop relationships as a peer group but also get to experience how working in the corporate world doesn't mean you don't actually connect with the community."
The aim is to show them as many facets of the organisation, and give them with as many experiences, as possible, she says.
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