Tips for offering roles
Generally, the process for offering a role will be consistent with your organisation’s guidelines for taking on a new employee. Here are some tips for offering an internship role.
-
Move fast
As soon as you know who you want to employ, let them know! They may be applying for multiple roles and if you want to bring them on board, the chances are that so does somebody else.
-
Formalise your offer
Quickly follow up your verbal offer with an email clarifying important details such as job description, employment contract, and offer “letter”, which includes things like start date and wages. Once they have a formal offer you need to give them time to get advice and come back to you with any questions.
-
Be flexible
Interns may have lingering study or work commitments. Don’t let this put you off. Find out what these commitments are and see if you can adjust your timeline to help them balance their workload. This may be their first professional job offer, so allow a bit of time to explain the process and answer questions.
-
Communicate
Clear communication with your intern will help them understand the opportunity you’re offering. Make it clear that you will support them and train them. If you haven’t already done so, you could invite your preferred candidate in to meet the team and check out your office.
-
Offer a fair wage
You must pay your interns a fair wage. We recommend interns should be paid at least the New Zealand living wage, but if your candidate is sought after, you may need to offer more. It may be simplest to include holiday pay under the “pay as you go” adjustment. More information on the employment.govt.nz website. As a prime example, take a look and see what the team at Snapper do for their interns.
-
Contracts
An intern is usually hired on a fixed term employment agreement. However you structure it, make sure you have a contract in place, and you follow NZ Employment law. The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment have created this simple to use tool for putting together employment contracts.
We feel it's important to pay interns fairly for the work they do.
Miki Szikszai
Leave a question
Brought to you by
This resource was designed and compiled by interns sourced through Summer of Tech 2017.