Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic there has been a huge rise in the number of remote workers. Students are still finishing college and the chance to have an in house intern is low so we need to adapt and use the technology we have to hire virtual interns. Managing a virtual intern will come as a new experience for most but it is extremely advantageous, you are reducing the spread of Covid-19 by not having more people in the office, your talent pool is unrestricted by location so you are open to a more diverse workplace also your interns are provided with more flexible hours leading to a better work-life balance.
It is very important to set out clear expectations and goals; this will provide a roadmap for the intern but will also help you to stay organised. The intern will not be successful if you are not clear with them, this can especially be the case when they are working remotely as you cannot have a proper insight of how they are working throughout the day.
There are a large number of communication tolls out there that will be needed to be take advantage of for a successful remote internship. These will also help to make your intern feel more part of the team. Depending on the type of chat you are having should depend on what tool you use, if it’s just a quick question
Google Hangouts or WhatsApp can be used, but if it is an in-depth or more personal conversation it would be wise to use a video chat like
Google Meet.
Having a virtual intern opens up the opportunity to work with people for all over the world and with this you must be mindful of what time you schedule meetings, I’m sure you wouldn’t be too impressed if your boos scheduled a meeting for 2am. Try to set up a schedule where you can meet a reasonable time for both of you and the intern, maybe one week you can stay online later and the following week they can get up a bit earlier to join the meeting.
Take time to give your interns feedback, this can be instrumental to the success of the internship program. Regular and quality feedback is important for interns because mostly internship programs are short term and they will more than likely not be there for the annual review. This will help the intern improve their work and contribute to the company more effectively.
Internship programs give you the opportunity to become a mentor; this can help to develop an intern’s career development. Learning from someone with experience in the industry gives the intern more of a chance to learn and generally makes them more open to asking questions. This is also very important for you as it will provide you with the chance to develop your management skills and learn more about the manager you aim to become.
You need to trust the interns with the tasks you have assigned them, if you begin to micro manage them it doesn’t benefit anyone. They need to know what it is like to be part of the team and to know that it is ok to no get something right, this well help them to learn and develop further. It’s also important to be flexible; most remote workers seek out virtual work so they can maintain flexibility with hours and location, it is important for you and the intern to set out a number of working hours and trust them to get the work done in these given hours.
In a lot of cases interns are unpaid, it can be a good choice to tell your interns that if they are looking to take part in a course or webinar that has a fee that your company will cover that cost. Also for interns who are looking to learn English as well you can provide them with an English language class. Check out our website for more information on English language classes.
It can be an easy out to just give interns solo projects, but providing them with the chance to collaborate with a team or other interns can help build team morale. Set up weekly meetings with all the interns and give them a project to work on, they can use this time to brainstorm, problem solve and come up with ideas for future projects, this will help keep the interns inspired.
Working remotely is something that not all people are cut out to do, so when hiring an intern you need to see that they are independent, take initiative and have the right environment to work in. You also need to see that they are a good match for the company, ask them what their goals are, are they willing to learn new things, are they stepping out of their comfort zone? If you hire correctly you can help them achieve their goals, it is vital for you and the intern that at the end of the internship they can look back at experiences, learn from them and develop their career further.