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With today's tight labor market making it more difficult than ever to get talented workers to notice your company, smart employers are seeing internships as a high-payoff recruiting tool. "You're getting a student in the door to see your company and get a feel for the culture," says Larry Penley, the dean of Arizona State University's business school and the chairman of AACSB, the International Association for Management Education. "You're getting a chance to sell your company to them." By cementing a relationship early—before other companies come searching—you are more likely to land top talent at graduation. "I hear from students that if they turn a company down after they've interned for them, there is a certain level of guilt," Penley says. "They almost feel indebted to the company because of the opportunity." How to Structure a Meaningful Internship Program For the best results, think of internships as short-term, highly focused work experiences that add specific value to your organization. Determine your company's needs: "We encourage employers to designate a specific project," says ASU's Penley. "A specific project is likely to be more engaging and challenging for the student and can meet a company need." Identify the specific steps required to complete the project and what skills the intern must possess. It's helpful to determine early on which skills the intern can learn on-site and which he or she must possess beforehand. Treat an intern the way you would a new full-time hire: Make sure the intern has adequate workspace and tools necessary to complete his or her project, such as a phone, computer, and, if necessary, Web access. Assign a qualified person to supervise the intern and show him or her the ropes. The supervisor should give feedback on how the intern is performing during the project and provide a formal evaluation upon completion. "Everyone wants feedback to gauge how they're doing," says John Challenger, the president and CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., a Chicago-based workforce consulting firm. "If you treat an intern cavalierly, you may damage the relationship with the intern or the school that sent the student to you." Provide meaningful work: Because of the tight labor market, interns are getting more challenging assignments, from designing pages on company websites to conducting research on the floor of a chemical lab. Avoid using interns for such things as a quick fix for clerical shorthandedness, advises Challenger. "Only giving them grunt work means you'll have someone who isn't very engaged with the work and the company and who will be less likely to stay with the company or want to come back to work there later," he says. Word travels fast about internship experiences. Go to InternshipPrograms.com to read write-ups of various internship experiences. Pay well: Attracting top talent means paying competitive wages. "We're seeing fewer and fewer unpaid internships," Challenger says. He says he's seen a lot of companies offering $3,000 to $4,000 for summer-internship positions. Charles Schwab & Co. pays interns $600 to $800 a week plus stock options, a benefit the company added this year. Federal Express pays a monthly salary of between $3,000 and $4,000, and offers such perks as corporate housing, paid travel expenses, and assistance with finding social events, either at the company or within the local community. Cast a wide net to find candidates: Contact the internship coordinator at the career center of one or more colleges or universities. Expect to fill out paperwork detailing skill requirements, time frame, pay level, and the experiences you'll be offering. Keep in mind that you'll get more applicant inquiries if you create a broad internship description. Rather than specifically looking for Web-page designers with strictly technical backgrounds, a search for people interested in Web design may yield talented journalists, graphic artists, or photographers who have dabbled in Web design but who chose not to major in it. - Lori Postman Lore Postman is a business writer and editor based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Top of Page