Job creation is a tricky matter anywhere in the world. There is considerable wealth creation, still when the number of employees is reduced. Less and less, a certain amount of investment creates the number of jobs previously expected because many tools make the work easy and quick, and fewer people are required; more outcomes are easily possible. The principle that the number of jobs will follow proportionally with a particular investment is only partially true.
The Entities and the Ministries directly related to job creation must give comprehensive and intense attention to this fact. Not only is one policy for job creation not enough, but many different sub-policies must converge. For example, bridging the big and medium companies with the small and micro ones, as their suppliers, since these are the real job creators.
Can internships become useful in job creation? In general, it looks pretty reasonable, for several reasons I expose:
1. A Company accepting internships does good social work by training young people to acquire practical skills and discipline at work, in a manufacturing or a service company. The internship is valuable not only for a particular company, as the effects of learning can be applied to others in the same sector of activity.
2. At the same time, with internships, it creates bright opportunity to identify people among the interns with good capacity, values and attitudes who could be interested in making part of the Company permanent staff. During the internship period, many personal behaving factors become positively evident.
A company willing to accept interns must do its homework to prepare everything carefully so that the internship may be helpful for the young and what they carry may be creative and valuable for the company’s future.
What kind of preparation must the trainees receive? There must be one person in charge of outlining what the process of the internship will consist of, providing knowledge of the different departments, such as where they can learn and what, so that the young trainees do not waste their time, but rather that it is helpful for them. This person in charge can accumulate all the best learnings to improve substantially the training process year after year
Then, each intern must have a company person who is like his coach and advisor, to whom the intern can turn in case of any doubts or difficulties. Their role will be to integrate the intern and advise whoever they turn to in the company regarding their learning issues or approval of creative ideas.
The coach should help to understand and practice the usual work standards without creating clashes or misunderstandings. This role also provides good training for the coach, who, by guiding others, also learns and matures. For those who begin a period of internship, one always finds those who make a good and stable impression and could become part of the staff.
In several good companies in the USA, during the training and test period, it is suggested that the interns think about and develop one or two valuable ideas for the company. Before the end of the test period, each young person exposes to a small group of managers, in the presence of the CEO, the ideas he found exciting and discuss them to understand the foundations and scope. This perspective makes the trainee focus on the company's knowledge and strengths.
Even if you hadn't thought about recruiting and if you find that there exist valuable people, perhaps one shouldn't let it pass unknown because talent makes a big difference in any company. There is always the idea that this person, even if she has no place, could be kept in reserve for a future need. However, if you think a little bit, you can always find some jobs, such as data analysis, better knowledge of clients, or exploration of new social sectors, etc., which had never been done before due to the lack of people.
In some cases, it will be good to create a small fund to improve the structure, carry out new studies or apply R&D work that can be very profitable and timely, using interns with good skills. Any organization that has been around for a while now needs to renew itself with new ideas and, above all, new ways of doing things, or perhaps with new tools based on the latest technologies that older managers have not yet mastered but that young people can quickly enter and provide a great deal of help in modernizing aspects of the work, even though we are convinced that our company is already modern and operates with good levels of profitability.
It seems prudent and makes a lot of sense that all companies enter this game of receiving interns, not in exceptional situations, but as a routine aspect of gradual updating of their organization, in contact with young people who better master some of the technologies, with sensitivity to design, work simplification, presentation and packaging of products, communication of features, etc., all of which are susceptible of improvements.
As I mentioned, good interns who are well prepared in their field of study can give a solid boost, helping develop new market niches frequently with good profitability.
It is striking that in 2016, there were less than 5,000 start-ups in India and by June 30, 2024, there were already 140,000! Of these, there are more than 110 with a valuation of over US$1 billion (so-called unicorns). This should be interpreted as a necessary flow of new ideas with excellent value and greater efficiency, allowing more to be done in less time and probably at lower costs.
We are well aware that MSMEs create the most jobs anywhere. Therefore, they deserve special attention and significant support not only for their creation but also for their evolution.
Large and medium-sized companies cannot rest on their laurels of their unique product and their good profitability. They should consider this because many operate as an oligopoly, protected by substantial barriers to entry, particularly in what matters to the needs of capital, where other players would like to enter the business.
They should be concerned with incorporating new ideas by supporting the creation or acquisition of start-ups that enlarge the scope of their work objective. Usually, much innovation comes from the ideas that new generations can understand and master more efficiently, both in handling and achieving greater profitability at work.
(The Author is Professor at AESE-Business School (Lisbon), at I.I.M. Rohtak (India), author of The Rise of India)