Importance of Intern Surveys

Companies hire interns to help them reach their business goals by training them and turning them into full-time workers. However, to get the results they want, they need to evaluate the intern's performance during the internship.
In addition to the assessment, intern surveys are a key way to get feedback on the whole internship programme. There could be some loopholes in the program.  If they are identified through these surveys, it would help in smoothen the process and eliminate any errors that might be a hindrance in converting the interns into full time employees. Some loopholes could be:

• The trainer wasn’t as educative, or
• The assessment wasn’t up to the mark, or that
• The interns did not turn up as educated at the end of it, as expected.

Below are key areas to include in your intern survey questions to effectively assess your internship program. They would also assist in providing a better training atmosphere to the interns:

1.    Importance of the Survey:

The interns must be aware of the purpose of the survey. Maintain transparency about informing them about the same. Staying clear that it's about getting an honest feedback on the internship program will give you better results than giving any other reason.

2.    Design a Simple and Clear Survey

Instead of asking twisted and too subjective questions, asking just a two-liner answer question would be a better approach. You could include basic questions like asking about the hiring process, mentor feedback, quality of internship, work experience, feedback on the recruitment process, hiring panel and how beneficial was the internship.

3.    Avoid Double-Barreled Questions

If you have several questions, ask them separately instead of weaving into one. You may categorize and add questions in the particular category. This would be easier for them to answer, and you will get honest replies to a lot of your small queries.

4.    Use Clear and Consistent Rating Criteria

If the questionnaire is an objective one, have the ratings clear, like from 1 to 5, where 1 being excellent or worse and 5 being vice versa, or Strongly agree to Strongly agree basis.

5.    Eliminate Redundant Questions

Try not to ask a single question in multiple ways. If the survey is done many times, don’t repeat the same questions. In fact, if they are about joining period or the exit period, you may keep it at just one time.

6.    Focus on Data-Driven Insights

Data has power so keep your survey data based. Include questions that will give you actual data, wherefrom you can extract the required response and utilise it meaningfully.

7.    Ensure Intern Anonymity

One must always have this option open because it allows honest feedback to a very large extent. It is possible that interns may not be able to write down their accurate comments for the fear of negative reverts about the same. Allow them to stay anonymous.

You can have these surveys filled by the interns’ multiple times, like on a monthly basis. Make constant improvements in your internship modules. By the end of the training period, the intern evaluation will be able to give you the required results. As a company, hiring interns and training them is an investment, hence it is vital for the employers to keep such processes in place and keep updating them with time.