By Larry Olmstead 

Many of you soon will be welcoming summer interns. You are happy to see the fresh, eager faces, young people who pick up slack while permanent employees go on vacation and do some of the drudge tasks that everyone else has avoided.

Think strategically. A good intern program is probably the most cost-effective talent-management strategy in your company’s arsenal. For the cost of relatively small salaries, you can survey and identify fresh talent; expose young people to your organization’s values, mission and culture; tap into the interns’ own network of friends and associates; begin the process of recruiting the best to permanent jobs, and bring a variety of different kinds of diversity into your organization.

The best intern programs I’ve seen:

- Are specific about the criteria for hiring.

- Provide orientation, including discussions about the company’s general expectations of employee behavior, such as dress codes and policies on ethics and harassment, sexual and otherwise.

- Assign some drudge duties, yes, but also ensure each intern works on at least one high-quality assignment during the summer.

- Ask a staff member to serve as a “buddy” or “mentor” during the summer.

- Provide at least one or two opportunities for in-house training on relevant skills.

- Encourage interns to network among one another and to meet younger staff members.

Interns will always be special to me. In 1983, I was co-director of the intern program at the Detroit Free Press. Our outstanding group included an exceptional young woman named Brenda Turner, who unfortunately took ill and died that summer. I will never forget the way her fellow interns bonded together, or the way the Free Press responded. It created the Brenda Turner Intern of the Year award, which continues to be presented each year. The Free Press continues to work hard to ensure its interns have a meaningful, productive experience.