When you plant an acorn, you don’t expect to see a full-grown tree the next year. Similarly, creating an internship program will not suddenly flood your company with new employees.
However, if you invest in creating a strong internship program, this can strengthen your employee pipeline and brand over time.
“A company like EMI, we wouldn’t have built ourselves without people who helped along the way,” says Josh Chalfant, associate director of training and development with Environmental Management, Inc. (EMI), based in Plain City, Ohio. “Mark has been very passionate about helping others because of how they were helped along, and that’s something you do with interns. You’re helping them find their career path. An internship is an excellent way to do that, and it also builds future partnerships that could be employees or other networking possibilities in the future, whether that’s another contractor you’re working with or whatnot.”
Brad Stephenson, co-owner and CEO of New Castle Lawn & Landscape, based in Birdsboro, Pennsylvania, says when they started their internship program, it came from a desire to give back and help youth in the community.
“I struggled in high school until I got into vo-tech, and I was in the horticulture program, and that changed my whole trajectory,” Stephenson says. “So how do we do that for other kids in high schools and in college?”
Start By Connecting with Schools
One of the keys to a successful internship program is knowing where to source students.
Taylor Anderson, systems development and growth manager with Sunline Landscapes, based in Bluffdale, Utah, says because they have good colleges in their area, an internship program was a natural way to connect more with the universities. She says they mainly recruit from Brigham Young University – Provo, Utah Valley University, Utah State University and Brigham Young University – Idaho.
“We have been doing a lot where we are trying our best to create connections with the students, but also the professors who are there,” Anderson says. “One of the largest ways we have found is we use Aspire pretty heavily here, and we have started trying to teach in classrooms.”
Anderson says they’ve also used their current alumni on staff to connect with the different schools’ students and professors.
“We do a lot of sponsorship at NCLC, so we sponsor a couple of different programs that go there as well,” Anderson says.
Stephenson says he’s found high schools and local vocational schools with horticultural or landscape construction programs often have individuals who are interested in their internship. He recommends using outside-the-box tactics to let students know you value them. In one instance, they held a signing day for a vocational tech student who was becoming a full-time employee with New Castle.
“How do you make somebody feel the warmth and that you really want them?” Stephenson says. “Because a lot of times they don’t have that. And it’s not fake. It can’t be fake.”
Chalfant says they make a point to stay involved with their high school career centers like Knox County Career Center, Upper Valley Career Center and Delaware Area Career Center, as well as different colleges near them, such as Columbus State.
“It’s networking that makes the world go round,” Chalfant says. “When you’re in front of the students on a regular basis, they get to know you. They’re comfortable with you. They’re comfortable talking with you, and when it comes around time to make those decisions, it helps because the connections are already made.”
Kennedy Auker, an intern with EMI, says she was attracted to the company because of their investment in both Knox County Career Center and her landscape club at Ohio State ATI.
“They’ve invested in me, not only as a student, but they’ve invested in organizations that have helped shape my life,” Auker says. “Truly, it’s the impact of the people who are in EMI, the values that they have as a person, and their support, and their kindness. Kindness goes a long way, and so just being kind and being encouraging and supportive. That’s what really drew me here, is that they’ve cared about me, and they continue to care.”
Structuring Engaging Internship Programs
A quality internship should provide participants with a well-rounded view of what your company offers. For instance, Sunline’s program lasts 10 to 12 weeks, and interns spend one to two weeks in each of their departments before rotating. They also spend time with crews in the field.
“Then from there, depending on what they’re liking and interested in, we have a buddy in each department that they can choose and be with the rest of the summer,” Anderson says.
“That way they can be like, ‘You know what? I ended up really liking maintenance. Let’s do that,’ and then they can focus in for the last half.”
Chalfant says their internship program is structured similarly, where for 10 weeks interns rotate through the different departments.
One benefit of rotating interns through departments is it helps them discover career paths they may not have considered.
“We see a lot of students get pulled into the industry because they like design without realizing there’s a lot of time that they spend when they’re a designer behind a computer, when they realize they want to be in the field a little bit,” Anderson says. “What we see all the time is they go, ‘Oh, there’s design in every department,’ and they don’t realize that until they get to work. I don’t think they realize how much of what they like is intertwined in every department that they’re in, and so being able to rotate really gives them the opportunity to have a bit of an above- view of what it will really be like if they want to do design or maintenance or construction.”
Stephenson says they opt to work through an agency that structures their internships. He says depending on the individual, they will either cycle them through the different aspects of the business or let them focus on one specific area they’re interested in.
“We set up an interview with the kid, and then we go over goals and criteria,” Stephenson says. “If they’re going to college, what are they going to college for? We’ll sit down with their guide and talk through everything, and we set goals for them throughout the internship. It’s not just they’re showing up, and we’re going to have them lick some envelopes.”
Chalfant says one way their program has evolved is by adding more deliverables to make sure the students are learning and reporting back, and ensuring there is someone on staff to help them and answer questions.
Balancing Responsibilities with Production Needs
One element of internships that may have you reluctant to create a program is sacrificing efficiency from time to time.
Just like how a brand-new employee will have a learning curve, interns aren’t going to be the most productive individuals right out of the gate.
“You just have to understand that they’re not always going to hit the times that you want them to, and you go in knowing that and planning for it,” Stephenson says. “A lot of business owners just look at this one-year period instead of the future. Where are we going, and how do we grow? You have to have a bigger mindset as far as the future in order to take some of those hits on efficiency, but that happens with any new employee as well.”
While interns may not be as skilled as your veteran employees, Chalfant recommends setting your expectations early on with them.
“Let them know this is going to be difficult work,” Chalfant says. “There are going to be long hours, and you’re still expected to work. You’re here to learn, but you’re also expected to work. They just have to know we’re paying you to work. Most people don’t want to disappoint. They want to do a good job. They want to have a good reference in the end, and you want them to have a good experience, so they’re a good reference for you.”
Anderson notes that the best rule of thumb is to match the responsibility to the intern.
“If you’ve got freshmen and sophomores coming in who don’t really know a lot, use that more as a learning experience for them,” Anderson says. “We had an intern last year who was a super go-getter. He was really good at the job. He was a senior. He was about to graduate in December, and he was like, ‘I want to do more.’”
In this instance, Sunline promoted him to working as an assistant account manager for half the summer.
“If you give more responsibility to an intern who doesn’t want it, efficiency is going to go down,” Anderson says. “If you give less responsibility to an intern who wants more, you’re going to see efficiency go down. You want to make sure that you meet them where they’re at, and if they think they’re at a place that they’re not, then you can have a conversation with them. They’re an employee, essentially, and it’s good for them to practice that.”
Ask for Feedback
One way to continually improve your internship program and your organization as a whole is to seek feedback from your interns about their experience.
Chalfant and Stephenson note that while interns tend to be shy and hold back, it’s still worth asking for their input.
“We do ask them a lot, ‘Hey, how would you do it? How would you do it better?’” Stephenson says. “A lot of times they have a way easier way of doing things because they’re used to working with computers and AI and everything else. So it’s been a benefit to us to understand how we can do things quicker. We have learned from them just as much as they probably learned from us.”
Stephenson says one recommendation they received was to promote their community service efforts, as younger people often want to work somewhere bigger than themselves.
Anderson notes that because they interview their interns just like they would any other full-time employee to ensure they are a good cultural fit, they naturally get good feedback from them. Aside from touching base each week, they also send out a longer survey at the end of the internship.
“We talk about it at the beginning; we’re like, ‘Okay, you’re going to get this survey, as we want to hear feedback,’ like, Where can we improve in each department?” Anderson says. “Where can we improve in our internship program in general? How can we get better so somebody else has a better experience than you even had? We let them know from the get-go that’s what we want.”
Anderson says past interns have pointed out gaps in their processes that she has passed on to the leadership team as they make continual improvements.
Measuring Success
The most obvious sign of a successful internship is converting interns into full-time employees. Chalfant says with their program, about 50% of their interns have joined the company.
Stephenson says they’ve had five of their past interns become team members since the program started eight years ago. In some cases, an intern may not join the company right away but will return later on in their career.
Anderson says they’ve converted a handful of interns into employees, but this isn’t their main goal with the program.
“Our core purpose is to create environments that inspire and bring people together,” Anderson says. “If students leave having that as something they want to do in the future, that’s also a win. If they have really taken to one of our core values, they’re like, ‘Passionate about people, I love that, I want to take that to my next job or internship or class.’ That’s also a win for us.”
Anderson says other wins are when interns leave feeling that was the best experience of the summer and when they finish with a better idea of what they want to do career-wise.
“Sometimes it’s hard to look at internships as not just like a hole of money, but it is important,” Anderson says. “So keep going and find what works for you and really grow it. Because even though it may not be direct ROI, to be a company that people can rely on, that’s going to go a really long way for these professors and students.”
Chalfant adds that another metric that matters is positive word-of-mouth, as this can help strengthen your rapport with schools and encourage other students to apply for future internships.
Stephenson says he measures their success by their community impact. He views internships as an opportunity to give back and to provide students with some experience and life wisdom.
“It’s not just the work, but how do you help them in life as well,” Stephenson says. “Ask them good questions and listen and learn and change what they’re doing. As you ask the questions, can you change and modify what they’re doing to get it to something that they really love and enjoy?”
Internships aren’t just a form of additional summer labor. They’re a chance to introduce future generations to the landscape industry and strengthen your company’s reputation in the community.
This article was published in the Sept/Oct/Nov issue of the magazine. To read more stories from The Edge magazine, click here to subscribe to the digital edition.
