Evaluation of intern performance

The importance of evaluation

Typically, an intern works for your company for a set amount of time, such as the summer, spring semester, or fall semester. During the entire internship process, both the student and the company will have a more positive experience thanks to effective supervision. Giving an intern comment on their performance and skill set gives the student a wonderful opportunity to learn. At the end of the internship, it’s simple to shake hands with your interns, say thank you for their time, and say goodbye. However, it’s crucial to properly off-board your intern before you part ways in order to avoid work slipping through the cracks and leave your interns with positive memories of their time spent with the business. In addition, if the student opts not to get academic credit, evaluation is not necessarily required; still, establishing the foundation for communication throughout the process is crucial for a successful internship.

3 Best practices to effectively off-board and evaluate interns:

1. Confirm your intern’s final day and let the rest of the team know.

Make sure everyone is aware of the intern’s final day, and allow enough time for any outstanding work to be transferred to a different team member. A week or two of overlap between intern classes is ideal so that departing interns can mentor new interns. The team will save time by not having to spend it on training and working with new interns.

2. Take into account making them a brand ambassador.

You can consider employing the intern as a Brand Ambassador if they have positive things to say about their internship and if they indicated that they would recommend the company to a friend. Since they are returning to school, where better to advertise your internship program and business to students than at their place of study? Typically, brand ambassadors receive a little bonus for reaching predetermined objectives (X number of newsletter subscribers, X number of students attending an info session, etc.)

3. Complete evaluations and conduct exit interview

Evaluations of some kind should be completed by both the intern and their mentor in order to evaluate the program as well as the intern’s development and abilities. Next, have an exit interview to go through the assessments and talk about their experience working for the organization. This entails drafting formal evaluations to be completed by the mentor and the intern. Both parties can use the useful information and recommendations from these evaluations to get better. 

For instance, a student can say that interacting with other teams more would have made their internship better. And this is actually a free enhancement that can be made to any internship. So, this can only be beneficial for you, as interns view the program from a different perspective and may offer minor changes that you hadn’t considered. Your program could be significantly enhanced for a minimal time and financial investment.

Or, the mentor can write that the intern’s time management skills were not very strong. Thus, the intern is now aware of the skill the needs to develop in order to perform better in the future.

Intern Evaluation Form

The evaluation of the intern should be centred on their time working for the company, how valuable they thought the internship was, and what they learned. The intern should get something from the mentor’s assessment of them. They can use this to start making improvements right immediately. You can rate the intern’s abilities in communication, learning, critical thinking, and problem-solving. Additionally, there should be open-ended inquiries on the intern’s overall areas for improvement (as well as their accomplishments!). You should also consider the following during off-boarding:

• Would you write them a letter of recommendation? And let them know!
• Would you like to provide them with a full-time job after they graduate?
• Do they receive academic credit for the internship? Do they require any approvals?
• Would you like to plan a farewell dinner or party?

Anyway, make sure the intern leaves the organization on a positive note and feels like they accomplished something during their time here, whether they were fantastic or just okay. Plus, keep in touch with them and exhort them to get in touch with you in the future if they require anything.

Main things that are considered in an evaluation form

The supervisor/mentor/project team should assess what is working and what adjustments or enhancements are required. The following areas should be taken into account:

• The intern’s performance based on the job description
• Attitude toward work / Initiative
• Judgment in decision making
• Dependability and reliability
• Did the intern adapt to the employer’s culture?
• Ability to learn
• Quantity of work
• Basic skills
• Quality of work
• What were the intern’s best skills?
• What areas need improvement?

The best way to develop your skills is to have experience abroad. USA Internships offer several options and we follow you up during all processes. Plus, for more tips, we also have the Inspiration blog full of interesting insights. Don’t forget to read our latest blog ‘Networking: create and develop your network to maximize your chances in the business world. . It only takes one click to change everything