What is the biggest problem when it comes to hiring interns?

Many companies find it difficult to understand the young interns.

In short, the most challenging part in hiring interns or fresh graduates is - Generation Gap.

Especially for those that are still following the rigid & conventional way in grooming talents & leaders.

We have to understand that time has changed.

• The younger generations, especially the 90's and 00's, they did not grow up like others.
• They grew up in a world when internet & digitization are taking over the world.
• Words can't describe this kind of experience if we didn't grow up like that.
• We need to understand their mindset.
• Fighting for a courses, learning, thought leaderships, experiential elements, sustainability, creativity, & innovation are things that they find interesting & motivating, and we should too.
• Since the world is connected by internet, youngsters have more choices & options.
• In order to retain young talents, we as a company have to put our heart into motivating them to stay based on the things they like.
• Give enough freedom for them to make wonders in the internet world.
• Choose an 80' leader who grew up in the analog-digital transition age to lead the younger ones, he/she will connect the dots and train up great 90's/00's leaders for the company.

Personally for me, I love hiring interns. I think they're awesome to have around, and they bring vibrance to the workplace.

Here are some challenges I face:

• Timing (most of the time they aren't available when you're ready to hire)
  
• They leave after a few months (which is sad)
• Lack of experience (this isn't a major challenge as skillsets can be trained)
• Attitude problems (this is quite rare, but there are some bad apples/spoilt brats)

Startup companies love to hire interns compared to others. 

The reason being is, startups and interns are more aligned, in terms of working culture. 

Interns are usually more energetic to learn, creative, innovative and plugged-in to updated technology platforms.

Startups can provide great learning environment and great ambient.

It's a win-win for both. However, these are the struggles when it comes to hiring interns:

• Lack of working experience 
• Interns only stay for 3-6 months
• Communication & cultural gaps
• Require more & effort time to groom
• Preferred to be inclusive (many companies failed at this)

Therefore, human resource department and managers really need to put a lot of effort into managing them. The moment a startup doesn't manage this well or treating them like a "student", they might drop. We need to treat them like our staff, allocate same amount of time & effort in grooming them just like how we groom our staff.

Nevertheless, overcoming these problems is not difficult. Treat them like an adult and they will treat themselves like an adult. Treat them like a part of your company (do not treat them like a student or intern), and most of the time they will be willing to contribute their parts and do their best. 

Every student should get an opportunity to prove themselves. Whether the business is just a start up or the business is carried on a small scale using interns to help with your company endeavours isn't a new concept. It's a win-win scenario for the most part. They acquire experience, and you may grow your workforce for little or no money. However, it also comes with certain difficulties in exchange to the experience. 

1. In order to choose a right intern one has to go through a long process of viewing thousand of "Choose Me" application. Each application requires a lot of time and the process just doesn't end here. You might have to conduct several interviews in order to find people who actually meet the requirements a company has set for a specific position. However, this small effort may help you bring employees that may bring improvement into your company. 

2. The generation gap is another factor as we have noticed there has been advancement in technology in today's world. It has become essential to work with them in accordance to how their mindset works and by enabling them to have freedom within the workplace.