In this last fortnight, I have been looking for one or two interns for the happychild website, which is nearly 18 months old now. And I had to do some thinking about why, and whether, an intern would be a good thing for both the business and for any prospective intern.

I know, through my work as an executive coach, that mentoring others can be one of the most professionally rewarding exercises – so I have been thinking about how happychild could be involved in this.

Why offer an internship?

As the happychild website grows and blooms (it really does feel like blooming now), I have been able to offer more opportunities to writers and bloggers to showcase their fantastic writing and ideas on the website. And I am proud to say we even have one commissioned writer – it may not sound like much to you, but it’s a big deal for a micro-business! But I’m always looking at opportunities to publish more writing and I cherish the chance to pass on ideas and skills to other people.

So I started thinking about offering an internship. It seemed like the ideal opportunity to offer work experience to somebody in a flexible way that only an online business can offer. Sure, the work an intern may do is likely to be wonderful for the website also – but if you’re thinking of offering an internship (particularly unpaid), you need to be sure that you can offer more than you take.

In the case of the happychild internship, we have offered a flexible arrangement to suit an applicant’s parenting or work arrangements and that can even be worked off site. But this can be tricky of course – so it’s important to think carefully about how to give useful feedback, how to mentor your intern and how to create diverse opportunities for an intern that will deliver them the educational and work experience they are after. I’ll get back to you in a few months and let you know how that worked out!

Australian Employment Law and Internships

Before reading this, please take note that I have no expertise in employment law – although my former career was in law, this was not my specialisation. So before entering into any paid or unpaid arrangement with an employee, work experience placement or intern, you should consult an expert lawyer or at least talk to a relevant government department such as Fair Work Australia.

However, to get you started in thinking about what an internship means, I can give you the following tips:

• Employee: Just because you are not paying somebody to work for you, does not mean they are not an “employee” in Australian law. If the way someone is working for you is part of a legally binding contract for example, they are more likely to be considered an employee. However, you may choose to offer a contracted paid internship in which case you’d be obliged to pay that person the relevant minimum wage for the work they are required to do.
• Obligations to employees: If somebody is an employee, then you have all sorts of obligations towards them and they of course have rights – think about things like pay, leave and superannuation.
• Hours and length of time worked: If a person is working for you as an “intern” then they should not be working for you on a long-term (or possibly full time) basis. An example is given on the Fair Work website of ‘Stuart’  who works full time for three months at a newspaper and who is given specific tasks and deadlines to meet – in that example, Fair Work Australia said Stuart may be considered to have been engaged as an employee.
• Intern is there to learn: Your intern should not be a critical part of your business’ producitivity – they are with you to learn and get experience.

More information is available at the Fair Work website.