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Intern orientation is an important time for setting expectations and
ensuring interns have all the information they need to be effective in
your organization. Orientation actually begins before the intern's arrival
with a few key steps:
 Prepare
your staff for the intern’s arrival. Be sure that staff members understand
the intern’s role and how the intern will fit into the office. Have
people suggest projects for the intern and volunteer to help with orientation
to the office and/or to the city.
Have
the intern’s workstation planned and adequately equipped for the
job to be performed.
Develop
an orientation program for incoming interns. A good orientation includes:
a tour of the site, introductions to co-workers (including a brief description
of their responsibilities in the organization), identifying how assignments
and delegation of responsibilities will be handled, clarifying to whom
the intern will report, and emergency procedures.
Send
the intern and/or regional director materials or resources that will be
helpful to his/her preparation. These might include articles, annual reports,
websites, or the contact information of previous interns.
Once the intern arrives in the office, hold the orientation you planned
and discuss duties with the intern. Creating a workplan with the intern
can help avoid confusion later. Click here
for guidelines on outlining a workplan.
Should
the intern supervisor be away from the office for several days, notify
the intern of an interim supervisor to report to.
During
the internship, meet with the intern periodically to discuss job responsibilities,
performance and progress, and areas for development and improvement.
Take
responsibility for ensuring that the position offers diverse and challenging
projects. Be sure that the intern is not excluded from meetings, tours
or introductions to people, places or procedures that relate to projects
and assignments the intern is working on. Treat the intern as a professional.
Have
the intern develop a handbook to be passed on to subsequent interns. The
handbook could include information on how to handle routine responsibilities,
a list of facility staff, a diagram of the office or facility layout,
organizational chart, standard department protocol and procedures, and
corporate policies and services. In addition, the handbook could include
non-work related information such as a local map, housing options and
recommendations, suggested sites to visit and recreational activities
available nearby, as well as other logistical information.
Understand
that interns want to prove their ability to do the job. The sooner you
integrate them as useful and contributing members of the work group, the
sooner their confidence and level of productivity will rise.
Ask
the IE3 Regional Director for advice and insight
related to your use of the intern and to deal with any problems or concerns
you have before, during or after completion of the internship.
If you would like handouts for your staff on the above suggestions or
on creating a workplan, they are available below as Word documents.
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