Spring is often the time of year when businesses begin hiring interns. The question is how to keep interns engaged and motivated to do their best work.

Recently, I spoke to a fellow founder, Kirti Vaswani, Co-founder and CEO of a mental health tech startup called Emotionally Speaking, Inc. We discussed his incoming group of summer interns. “We have had some amazing interns in the past, but knowing how to keep them engaged and maximize their learning can be a challenge,” he told me as we sat with some afternoon tea. I shared that one of my interns was so engaged with her work assignment to find the best time of day to post on social media to add more followers, that she got up at 3AM to post on X (formerly Twitter) to test her theories. My friend was amazed. Sometimes we get lucky to have interns who really care and go above and beyond.

There is nothing like brainstorming with a friend and fellow founder. Here are some suggestions for businesses to keep their interns engaged and motivated to do their best work.

Establish clear, defined goals in partnership with your intern 

Many interns take a summer job or internship to learn skills they can use in the future or to explore an industry in which they are interested. In today’s world, the person with the better portfolio of skills, or who can show results, will “win” against less prepared competitors. When you can show how your business goals help them achieve their personal goals and that by getting good results with you are a direct payoff for future gain, you will get buy-in on what needs to be done. 

Agree on work schedules and workplace 

While you may set the work schedule, you probably don’t need to monitor them every minute of the day - but it is important to be clear when they should be working for you. You will find that most interns can accommodate your required work schedules, assuming they are reasonable. Whatever the schedule, unless they are physically required to be on site for specific reasons related to their job, it helps to have flexibility in workplace location with hybrid situations being the most popular. SO if they have suggestions by all means listen to them, and if there are one or two suggestions that you agree with do so since it will go a long way in building loyalty.

Institute frequent checkpoints and milestones

Once the intern’s goals are determined, you should establish a routine of checking in to determine where they are in moving towards the goal. If they have a ten week assignment, check in every week or check in every day until you know they are capable. If there is more than one intern, suggest they check with each other and you check in on them every couple of days. Regardless of the assignment, you do need to make sure you set milestones so that you can ensure progress is as you expect or you may be surprised at the end of the assignment. 

“Gamify” the assignment in a way that is achievable

Because Gen Z or Gen Alphas grew up online, you have to adapt your workplace accordingly. It seems that these two generations, having grown up playing Internet games, are always trying to track their progress against each other or someone else. WIthin your workplace, even if you are not running a sports team, it may help to motivate your interns (if you have more than one) by setting up a leaderboard to help them track their progress. Laggards will be motivated to keep up while high achievers will want to show they are exceeding. Remember to make the milestones easy enough to achieve, otherwise you may have a team that becomes demotivated. 

Ensure they understand the impact of their assignments

And lastly, are the assignments given to the interns real and important or just something for them to do? The latter is quickly noted, but if the interns understand that their assignments directly impact the business or other people’s lives in a specific way, many will be engaged and eager to prove they can have an impact. Share with them the opportunity to make a difference if you can, or explain how their work can make a difference in your life.

By embracing these ideas and incorporating them into your intern program, you too will have eager interns who can make a difference for your business. After all, it is a learning experience for everyone, right?