Managing an Intern Remotely

You may wish to offer the opportunity for your intern to work remotely for some or all of their working hours. This can have practical benefits such as organisation of office space, and is also an opportunity for interns to experience this increasingly common way of working. Or, you might be offering a fully remote role. Either way, below are some top tips for managing a remote or hybrid internship.

Practicalities

• Ensure your intern has the equipment they need – you might need to arrange a delivery or pick up.
• Ask them if they might face any barriers to working remotely? Are they based in a different time zone? Do they have caring responsibilities? Ensure they know what you can work around and what won’t be possible.
• If you won’t meet your intern in person before they start, ensure you get any legal documents or contracts sorted out early. Printing, scanning and the post can add time to this process.
• Carry out relevant health and safety checks with them so you make necessary adjustments before they start. The government has a useful guide which is included below. 

Home workstation checklist

Participating in this internship has allowed me to gain confidence working remotely which might be something I wish to pursue in the future

Former Student Intern (summer 2020)

Culture 

It can be challenging to embed company and team culture remotely but it is not impossible.

• Buddy them up with a couple of colleagues.
• Explain your company values, aims and objectives and how they and the project they are working on contribute to this.
• Include them in any virtual socialising.
• Ensure they are on the staff email distribution list or other communication software you use such as MS Teams.
• Arrange for colleagues not working directly with the intern to introduce themselves and discuss their role – this is helpful for the intern’s career learning and to build up their network. Encourage your intern to set up their own meetings with colleagues and explain that this won’t happen as organically as it might have done in the work place.

This internship experience has provided me with a huge insight into the sector. This has been made possible due to networking with the staff

Former Student Intern (summer 2020)

Day to day management

• Decide on how you will communicate - video calls can be good to build relationships as you can see body language and get to know someone a bit better. It might be suitable to use personal phone numbers but this may blur the lines between work and home – they might feel obliged to reply out of office hours.
• The first couple of weeks will naturally involve lots of conversations through induction and getting the project underway. Following this, you may want to have a regular slot every day to catch up. As they get settled into the project you can move to less frequent catch ups but make sure you are still checking in regularly.
• Time management and the work life balance can be harder when working from home, especially if this is their first job.
  • Be clear about the hours they are expected to work and when they can work them. It might be suitable for them to work flexibly but set out the expectations from the start. Things to consider: when should they be available to be contacted? Have they factored in regular breaks to their working pattern? Are there meetings they must attend?
  • Be clear about deadlines and ask for regular updates.
  • Ensure the intern knows how to manage their electronic diary and how to share this with you.
• Celebrate success! Let interns know when they are doing a great job and communicate their achievements with your colleagues.

Work from home really trained my discipline. Full-time work provided me an insight of the workload in my future career.

Former Student Intern (summer 2021)

Please also refer to the section on supervision in the CIPD guide for general guidance on supervising and managing your intern.

CIPD guide to Internships that Work