Interns are the future of employment, and investing in their training is not only the right thing to do, but a long-term investment in your own success.
It can be easy to dismiss claims of fair compensation for labour as 'woke' or 'too soft', or even as a leftover symptom of the Covid era, when people downed tools at a rapid rate and left employers with a swift, startling talent deficit.
Read more: Ending the era of the unpaid intern
However, I’d argue that some of the incredibly common business practices that senior leaders and business owners take for granted are, actually, not only unethical, but also bad for business.
I think unpaid internships should be illegal. I’m certainly not the first person to propose this and hopefully, I won’t be the last; most existing employment law around payment for internships in the UK is the result of debates in Parliament proposing to ban unpaid labour.
A good talent pipeline should genuinely be a pipeline
With employer brand being such an important part of a proper people strategy and a business’s overall success, it’s important that talent mapping includes lower-level positions that have room to grow into key members of the team.
Read more: Quarter of grads have done unpaid internships
We’ve had six apprentices work at ClickOut Media since May, two of whom have completed their apprenticeships and joined the company full-time. Many of our people started with us as apprentices, interns, part-time or freelance, and are now running departments.
Just as with most ESG issues, fair rates of pay are not just the right thing to do, but also serve as a long-term strategy that raises employee satisfaction and decreases turnover.
Diversity and paid internships go hand-in-hand
Consider what your stated diversity principles are and whether they’re backed up by your policies and procedures.
For example, statistically, the young people who can work for free are often those with generational wealth and the ability to be supported financially. This means that people of colour, LGBTQ+ young people and young parents will all be disproportionately affected by policies that include unpaid labour.
Read more: Is the tide turning on unpaid internships?
And if that’s not enough to convince you, just consider that according to a LinkedIn study, 75% of job seekers consider an employer’s brand before they even apply for a job; which, according to the same study, means that a strong employer brand could equal a 50% cost-per-hire reduction.
Ultimately, I believe that apprentices are the future of employment and that investing in their training and wellbeing is a long-term investment in your own success.
At the end of the day, many companies expect young people to work for free, because that’s ‘what they did when they were young.’
But just because something has ‘always been that way’ doesn’t mean it’s right – we used to think work houses and child labour were morally acceptable, and now we know better.
And once we know better, we can do better.
By Liam Reese, head of people at ClickOut Media
