{"id":721,"date":"2013-06-05T15:04:25","date_gmt":"2013-06-05T15:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/?p=721"},"modified":"2013-06-05T15:04:25","modified_gmt":"2013-06-05T15:04:25","slug":"how-to-hire-and-manage-interns-for-your-small-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/how-to-hire-and-manage-interns-for-your-small-business\/","title":{"rendered":"How to hire and manage interns for your small business"},"content":{"rendered":"
It can be a win\/win for your small business to establish an internship program if you don\u2019t already have one. You gain extra and enthusiastic help while giving a student a great opportunity to get invaluable work experience to help land a full time job \u2013 maybe even at your small business.<\/p>\n Whether or not you pay your interns is something to consider. You may get more qualified candidates when your internship involves compensation; plus it sends the message that your small business values having an intern on board. However the biggest reason for paying interns is that the U.S. Department of Labor puts limits on the work un-paid interns can perform under the Fair Labor Standards Act.<\/p>\n The Act stipulates that unpaid interns cannot do any work that contributes to a company\u2019s operations, such as answering emails, filing, running a social media campaign<\/a>, and so forth. On the other hand, unpaid interns can perform duties that don’t have a business need. Specifics of the law are available at: The Truth Behind Unpaid Internships<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/a>With school out or soon to be for most colleges and universities, there are many students looking for summer work as well as graduates who have yet to line up full-time employment.\u00a0 Many companies are planning on hiring interns, if they haven\u2019t already.\u00a0 In fact, a survey <\/a>released at the end of last year by Internships.com<\/a> indicated that mong 300 companies, 53 percent plan to hire more interns in 2013 than they did in 2012. Plantronics has an active internship program and participants share their experience on the company\u2019s \u201cA Fresh Look\u201d blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n