ASK HR: What informs the decision to or not to remunerate interns?

Q. How do HR people feel about paying little for normal kind of work? Take the example of an intern; my JD is the same as the other people in that position. I give it my best. I know jobs are hard to come by and people take every opportunity they get but I am just curious, how do HR feel about company policies such as that?

HR practices vary; some organisations offer internships while others do not. Among those that do, not all offer an internship stipend. Some organisations take internship to be more about exposure to learning experiences than earning for work that may be done in the process.

This view is sometimes sadly mistaken or conveniently misused to treat internship as a means to cheap or free labour. It is however noteworthy that even unpaid internships draw on organisational resources, among which is the time and value of apprenticeship.

To recognise their input, it is good practice to offer a stipend to interns and to be deliberate about providing opportunities for their learning and growth.

Some of the greatest benefits of internship, however, include not the stipend but lessons about how to approach work and its environment, the opportunity to demonstrate character and access to mentors who may have future positive impact on interns’ careers.

HR professionals have a role to play in crafting organisational policy, including the architecture of internship programs. The ordinary HR professional would draw satisfaction from establishing organisational best practice in the treatment of interns.

An organisation may however be unwilling, unprepared or financially unable to properly host interns. Unpaid internships are therefore not always attributable to a miserly and callous HR function; these traits can infest any part of an organisation.

HR people often have to walk the precarious tightrope of acting in the best interest of the business as well as meeting the varied expectations of its people, two elements that do not always have an obvious intersection.

Consider that your internship is not a life sentence. Be careful about what you are most interested in at this time, focusing more on what you are learning, the impression you are making as a potential employee and the networks that you are knitting.

The character you demonstrate during this short stint may have long lasting implications on your future career. Internship is a time of preparation; an opportunity to plough and plant, not the season to harvest.

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