It’s no secret that South Africa’s unemployment rate and situation is extremely distressing. We are doing our bit in this fight by trying to empower and uplift young graduates into internships/entry-level positions, but these positions obviously need to be available. 

We felt that the thought of hiring interns is often underwhelming to employers, and in an effort to show off the value that we know interns can bring to a company, we’ve listed some of our favourite benefits of interns. 

1. Word of Mouth

Think about the first couple of months of a new job. 

Think about how many friends, family, your friends’ family, your family’s friends, etc. ask you how your new job is going, what it’s like to work there, what your boss is like, blah blah blah. It’s incessant for at least 3 months. 

Now, imagine you hire an intern. 

Imagine they were telling all those people about how great your company is. 

For free. 

Providing an intern with a meaningful, mentored internship experience means they’ll spread the word about your company. If you’re committed to helping them learn, letting them sit in on real meetings, work on real projects, and overall giving them real-life work and industry experience, you’re essentially gaining a guaranteed brand advocate. 

2. Tax Savings

Currently, South Africa’s youth unemployment (ages 15 – 24) rate is 55.2%. The Employment Tax Incentive (ETI) is an incentive put in place by the government to encourage employers to hire individuals who are young and qualified but inexperienced, by reducing the cost of employing them.

Hiring a paid intern can reduce your PAYE tax by up to R1000 per month per intern hired, via the ETI. The amount you can claim back is dependent on the salary paid and is 50% of the salary if they earn R2000 or less, R1000 if they earn between R2000 and R4500 and up to R999 if they earn between R4500 and R6500.

You can get more information about the ETI and how it works for your business here. 

3. Build Talent Pipelines

Hiring an intern gives you the opportunity to simultaneously preview and develop a candidate’s work ethic, potential and skills. You’re essentially presented with the opportunity to provide a graduate with valuable work experience, get an extra set of eager hands to help out within your business for a temporary amount of time, and contribute to the growth of our economy by helping fight youth unemployment. 

You also have the opportunity to nurture your interns in such a way that they are ready to leave their entry-level nests, and become a permanent employee/vital part of your company, thus growing your team and helping your business take a step forward. 

4. Closer Connection

Taking steps and making changes in your business can be scary, especially if you’re an entrepreneur. Even more daunting is the fact that taking these steps to stay relevant and modern often includes the addition of technology in the form of devices, software, programs, etc. 

Luckily, interns and young graduates find technology easier to navigate, and are either already tech-savvy or very fast learners. 

As a result of being more familiar with modern technology, interns can recommend tools which they think might positively impact your business. 

Because interns are usually fresh graduates, they are closer to and more in-tune with the younger generations, which can help you engage with this target market more effectively.

5. Fresh Perspective 

Interns are renowned for their dismissal of all things traditional; ‘the way we’ve always done it’ doesn’t fly with them. This attitude can help identify missed opportunities within your business, refine and revamp your existing processes to make things more efficient, and help your business gain a fresh set of eyes with which to view your audience. 

80% of our Trusted Interns team is made up of interns – that’s how much we back them. If you want to add an intern to your team today, and want to know more about how we make that happen.

Read about our most recent campaign where we partnered with Yoco to give small, local businesses the opportunity to grow their business by hiring interns at an 80% discounted fee here.