How Great Workplaces Measure the ROI of Internships

Developing,  Training & Development

ALKU shares lessons learned from its internship program, comprehensive training efforts, and the value of mentorship.

What is the real business value of training interns for your organization?

Interns are capable and work-ready young adults, and they deserve the same training, professional respect, and inclusion in their employer’s corporate culture as their full-time counterparts. Regardless of any plans to hire these individuals after their term is up, the value of a well-equipped candidate cannot go understated — for both job seeker and hiring manager.

In recent years following the COVID-19 pandemic, internship availability and the overall job market have experienced turbulence. Last May, ahead of the year’s biggest internship term, Forbes reported severe barriers to entry for college students seeking this crucial professional experience.

Are fewer companies hiring interns?

With an unpredictable economic landscape before them and in the wake of layoffs, many companies were unable to onboard interns. Combine that limited supply with a massive uptick in applicants, as reported by RippleMatch, and business leaders are missing an important opportunity.  

Investing in interns, even during uncertain times, has proved beneficial at specialized staffing firm ALKU, where we recently onboarded more than 250 interns for the summer 2024 term. Our internship program methodology is starkly different than when our company first began in 2008, and what we’ve learned since then about the impact of comprehensive internship and employee mentorship programs has been pivotal to our growth as a firm.

With the support of our interns — many of whom go on to make up more than half of our entry-level employee population and grow into fine leaders — we’ve developed 23 divisions of industry specialization, from healthcare IT to pharmaceuticals to enterprise resource planning and more, generating over $600 million in revenue annually.

ALKU’s first interns performed entry-level tasks in our standard processes when identifying and placing candidates for the highly specialized senior level roles that our firm staffs. Over the years we’ve observed eagerness, competence, and capability from our interns to do much more. Today, they’re trained in the staffing process from start-to-finish, and after building trust, some interns have even independently placed candidates before they’ve completed their internship.

A good return on your investment

Good internships are good business. Within the last five years, employees who first completed an internship at ALKU generated 21% more revenue at six months and 14% more revenue at 12 months than those who didn’t.

We immediately realized the incredible operational value brought by our interns, and that they were more prepared to succeed immediately upon becoming a full-time employee than most external candidates applying to our entry-level roles. So, we’ve made it our mission to establish a program that recruits a diverse pool of interns year-round from the regions surrounding our seven offices nationwide.

As we’ve grown to a company with over 500 full time employees, a dedicated team in our talent team has taken ownership of the intern program, keeping us organized and holding us accountable for the success of our interns and their immersion in ALKU’s culture.

Part of that culture is providing access to the same mentoring and coaching resources that their full-time counterparts receive. This ensures that each intern benefits from their time at the company, just as the organization does from their hard work — whether it’s practical experience, a new skillset, exposure with industry leaders, or a budding connection with a career-long mentor.

As a result, we’ve observed higher employee retention rates and an internal promoting process that has spanned nearly 15 years, with interns yielding 17% better retention rates after their first six months and 33% better after their first 12 months at ALKU compared with entry-level hires who didn't come through the internship program.

A path to leadership

Our leadership team is a testament to this fact: ALKU’s president started out as the company’s first intern in 2010. And he’s not alone, more than a third of our leadership team started as interns.

At ALKU, our internship program practices are largely intertwined with our overall employee development and mentorship philosophy. Feedback from employee surveys has shown overwhelmingly that those who work at ALKU feel our training and development program has been integral to their ongoing success. On a smaller scale, we meet regularly with small focus groups to hear and implement feedback quickly.

We also look at indicators like sales success and professional advancement. Here, the proof is also in the pudding: Those who have been interns before becoming full-time employees are promoted at a faster rate.

Regardless of industry, a robust intern support system is imperative to the health of the next generation of the workforce. We hope our industry peers will join us in continuing to learn and update programs to navigate a changing landscape. We all know young people can accomplish so much if we just take the time to invest in them from the beginning of their time in the workforce.

Leah Bourdon