Whether it's a rising college graduate with their sights set on entering the business marketplace or a mid-level candidate who wants to finally follow their true creative passion by transitioning into a dream role in the art world, landing the right apprenticeship or internship opportunity has the potential to change an individual's career trajectory for a lifetime if it's a good experience.
Providing guidance and feedback that is beneficial to an employee's growth is the best way to keep them engaged and excited about their future with your company and what lies ahead for them in the industry at large.
Below, 13 Forbes Human Resources Council members discuss how leaders can create the most invaluable mentoring relationships for their employees.
Forbes Human Resources Council members share their thoughts.
Photos courtesy of individual members.1. Workplace Professionalism Teachings
A realistic and structured development plan is essential for the success of apprenticeship and internship programs. It's not only about compliance in terms of the formal agreement between interns and employers, but it's also about engagement. The psychological aspect of success is that employers should treat them as professional employees. - Nara Ringrose, Aquila Nuclear Engineering
2. Industry Insights
Gaining career insight is key. Apprentices and interns would love nothing more than to see the world through the lens of their mentor or leader. They would love to understand the challenges and brainstorm on how to solve real-world problems. They would also love to apply their experiences and knowledge and discover what other core skills or knowledge gaps they have so that they can improve for their future. - Omar Alhadi, Adobe Care and Wellness
3. Brand Sentiment And Social Impact Building
Brand sentiment and the social impact of an organization are cultivated internally. Leaders who see the correlation and are cognizant of their operating budgets will actively seek to create apprenticeship and internship opportunities with good strategic planning and analysis of forecasted needs to budget. Then share with HR, which can, in turn, help build relationships with local schools and develop the program - Christine Wzorek, White Label Advisors
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4. Structure And The Encouragement Of Dialogue
Have a defined routine for your intern or mentee to meet with you. This gives them structure. Ask them to come prepared to seek what they wish to learn and obtain from you about a topic each time. Then have a productive and focused dialogue around that one topic. This will build a professional relationship with a defined pattern that will help them engage with you as well as others in their life. - Dinesh Sheth, Green Circle Life
5. Psychological Safety Facilitation
Mentorship is a powerful method to create a safe and supportive environment for apprentices and interns to ask key questions and reach out for support while learning new skills in a new workplace. In order to create a space of psychological safety, you can pair your interns and apprentices with mentors that have similar interests or backgrounds. This can help spark a meaningful connection. - Ahva Sadeghi, Symba
6. Placement Of The Right People Together
Formal apprenticeships and internships translate into invaluable mentoring when the effort is made to connect them with leaders who share a common ground. In our organization, a specific strategy was designed beyond interviewing interns. We allowed leaders time to review both personality and qualifications and be involved in choosing. There are better results and greater ownership when the leader chooses - Tiersa Smith-Hall, Tiera Hall Impactful Imprints, Training & Consulting
7. Team Collaboration
Formal apprenticeships and internships provide key navigational learning for college students. They provide critical examples of how to lead, how to follow, how work gets done, and what collaboration really looks like in organizations. Realizing and understanding who they look up to in an organization can lay the groundwork for who they seek in mentoring relationships. - Megan Leasher
8. Showing Care For Apprentices And Interns
Remember that your intern is here to gain valuable experience. Understand what your intern wants out of the opportunity and find ways to provide that learning. Provide stretch assignments, give them autonomy, suggest feedback on their resume, leave a recommendation on LinkedIn and proactively reach out after they have left to check in. With these actions, it will organically shift into a mentoring role. - Jessica Adams, Brad's Deals
9. Opportunities For Students To Share Their Knowledge
Internships and apprenticeships are key entry points for students that are often their first introduction to professional work. Mentors are crucial to helping transition a student to a worker and demonstrating appropriate work behaviors. The rotation of mentors is essential to expose mentees to various work styles and roles. Also, flip the script and ask the mentee to train the mentors on some new technology. - Gordon Pelosse, CompTIA, the Computing Technology Industry Association
10. The Creation Of A Talent Pipeline Of Future Leaders
Leaders who participate in formal apprenticeships and internships translate those interactions into invaluable relationships by helping to develop structured on-the-job training, provide clear expectations and identify competencies for interns to learn and master for success. Talent pipelines are created to develop future leaders to help solve business challenges and meet organizational goals. - Sherry Martin, Government Administration
11. The Instilling Of A Sense Of Trust
The heart of any relationship is trust. To build that quickly, create a structure for them to gain the experience—from onboarding and job shadowing to regular meetings to listen to the mentee's experience and provide coaching. This sets expectations on both sides and creates intentionality around balancing skill and relationship building. Ultimately, it demonstrates the care that leads to durable relationships. - Jennie Walker, DeEtta Jones & Associates
12. Job Marketability
Effective internship programs will not only teach them how to perform an entry-level job but also how to find their second job. Since every internship will not turn into an offer, interns especially need to understand the importance of networking. Provide formal training on how to maximize the potential of LinkedIn or industry groups and organize social events across teams to facilitate connections. - Niki Jorgensen, Insperity
13. Lifetime Career Connections
Leaders who are engaged in the intern or apprenticeship selection process and assign intentional projects, with meaningful work, leverage the individual's strengths and expertise. Championing and guiding their project efforts along the way, with real-time mentoring and feedback, creates a career connection for a lifetime. - Britton Bloch, Navy Federal
