Bring Out the Best in Your Interns

"Hiring managers should set, as a goal, the conversion of about 74% of their interns into permanent employees," according to Steven Rothberg, Founder of CollegeRecruiter.com, an Internet career site. "At least that's how many offers they should extend."

So what are the goals of your company's internship program?

Sure, revenue may be down, but the pool of talent isn't. Now is not the time to let your internship program languish as many employers did in the last economic crunch of 2002-03. Rothberg says that while business has slowed for many, now is the time to let interns do more hands-on work, but warns not to assign tasks that require more experience than what these fresh college faces are equipped to handle.

"They're just not ready to shoulder that workload yet. Not the amount of work so much, but the type of work," says Rothberg. "They don't have the experience; they don't have the training. It will lead to stress, it will lead to poor performance and it will lead to turnover."

Give Interns Something to Aim For

One way to get more out of interns is by setting goals. "Any employee will tell you that part of their job satisfaction comes from knowing what is expected of them and where they stand vs. these goals," says Jason Blessing, Group Vice President for the Horn Group, a communications company. "Studies show that goals that are aligned with company strategy and consistent feedback on those goals is key to employee engagement."