Employer Internship Guidelines (Post-Hire)

Congratulations on recruiting an intern! Internships offer mutually beneficial opportunities for both employer and student. For students, they provide rich hands-on learning, industry exposure, and résumé building experiences. For employers, they offer assistance with seasonal or special needs, enhance college relations, add corporate ideas into academics, and infuse companies with youthful vitality and cutting-edge ideas and technologies. You will find your intern to be an enthusiastic, talented and valuable contributor to your organization’s mission and long-term success … if the internship is planned effectively, structured properly and executed professionally.To help you design the internship, we offer you these guidelines:

Workplace Orientation

• Offer your intern a safe, welcoming atmosphere where they will learn, increase job skills, develop personal career connections, and build their résumé in a real-world work environment.

• Interns are governed by your company standards of conduct, so take time to orient them to your policies, procedures, dress code and culture, and introduce them to managers and employees to ensure others know the intern’s name and role within the organization.

• Inform the intern of their assigned work schedule, both hours and days of the week, the location of their designated work station and provide support technology (computer and phone).

• Outline performance standards, confidentiality, communication procedures, and decision-making channels. If the intern is new to your community, it is helpful to provide information in advance regarding housing, weather, and the community.

• Designate and assign one mentoring supervisor who will assist the intern with development of career-ready skills and be available to answer questions and solve problems.

• If the internship is paid, complete hiring paperwork and inform the intern of the pay schedule.

Intern Supervision

• Review both the Learning Agreement and Learning Objectives with the intern to make certain responsibilities and objectives are complete, accurate, and clearly understood by both parties.

• Collaborate with intern and faculty advisor to set meaningful goals and learning objectives that are obtainable within the limited timeframe and, in regular intervals, take time to discuss the intern’s progress and offer direction.

• Make the intern feel like part of your team by explaining how their work makes a meaningful contribution to the mission and goals of your company.

• Involve the intern in increasingly challenging work assignments related to their academic and career goals as the intern becomes more skilled and knowledgeable.

• Schedule a meeting early in the internship to check-in with the intern and make sure that their expectations for the internship match yours.

• Provide regular feedback beginning the intern’s first day, commending their strengths and presenting constructive counsel in areas needing improvement.

• A Supervisor’s Evaluation will be mailed to you near the end of the internship. Complete the evaluation and discuss it together with the intern before returning it to Internship Services. Your intern’s performance is measured by your evaluation and a faculty-sponsored learning assignment.

Hiring International Student Interns

• Nearly 500 international students are pursuing a full-course of study at The University of Montana and place a high value on experiential educational opportunities such as internships.

• International students on non-immigrant visas (F-1 or J-1) are eligible to engage in paid or volunteer internships within their academic field under the terms of their legal status.

• If you wish to offer an international student an internship, The University of Montana Foreign Student and Scholar Services (FSSS) will prepare a work authorization document generated by US Immigration Services to allow a student to intern with you and receive wages.

• Once selected, it is critical that international students on a non-immigrant visa (F-1 or J-1) complete a Learning Agreement with your signature, attach a job description and learning objectives, and obtain approval of FSSS prior to beginning the internship. There can be severe negative consequences imposed on the student, university and employer it if is discovered an international student did not hold prior authorization.

Compensation Criteria

• Financial compensation is determined by the employer in compliance with US Department of Labor Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and in consideration of the following:

• Most students must work to pay tuition; therefore, it is advantageous for employers to offer a wage. If an hourly wage is impractical, consider offering a stipend or scholarship to help cover tuition expense. Compensation may be in the form of reimbursement for travel to/from the internship site.

• Students earn and pay for academic credit. Registering and paying for academic credit is critical as it is the only way interns are covered by Montana University System liability insurance policy.

• For worker's compensation rules, see the table and notes below. 

• Students are not self-employed consultants and therefore, not considered independent contractors under Internal Revenue Service 1099. An individual is an independent contractor if the person for whom work is performed has the right to control or direct only the result of the work and not the means and methods of accomplishing the result.

• The FLSA Six-Prong Test differentiates between interns and employees. A student is considered an unpaid trainee (intern) if:

Internship Insurance Coverage

Coverage Type	Internships (Optional or Required)
	Who is responsible?
	Paid Interns	Unpaid (volunteer) Interns
Health Insurance	Student1	Student1
Worker's Compensation	Employer or UM2	Not required3
Professional Liability	UM4	UM4

 

1. Students are required to have university health insurance OR proof they are covered by their parent’s policy or an alternate policy.
2. Worker’s compensation is provided by the organization providing the paycheck. IFthe individual is on the UM payroll at the time of an accident, the Montana University System (MUS) Self-Funded Worker’s Compensation applies. 
3. The University of Montana does not provide Worker’s Compensation coverage for unpaid interns. It is at the employer’s discretion whether they choose to provide such coverage. According to Montana Supreme Court ruling, unpaid (volunteer) interns may becovered by worker’s compensation, but it is notrequired of employers.
4.  Interns are covered provided they receive academic credits that satisfy course requirements and degree, and provided the internship experience is University approved and supervised. Bottom line: non-enrollment in academic credit for an internship means non-coverage.

We are available to assist employers who might encounter a difficulty with an intern during the internship and, if need be, will facilitate conflict resolution. Our staff conducts a limited number of staff visits each year. Please feel free to call us if you would like us to visit your intern on site or if we can help in any way.

The University of Montana is committed to Equal Opportunity in education, employment, and participation in university activities and programs, including admissions, without regard to race, color, sex, age, religion, political ideas, marital status, physical or mental disabilities, or national origin.

 

Revised 3/24/2011