Two weeks of travel up and down the East Coast has confirmed that spring has definitely arrived—and not a moment too soon.  This winter seemed to be a particularly cold and brutal one.  By mid-January, I had succumbed to a true anti-snow mood, telling everyone who would listen that “snow” was the original four-letter word.  Every flake I saw thereafter just made me more desperate for warm temperatures and sunshine.

 

While the calendar says spring, most recruiters I know are already fully focused on the summer season.  In a few very short months, your newest recruits will arrive.  By spending time preparing for them now, you will help them successfully make the transition from being students to professionals this summer.

 

Use these Five Steps to help ensure you make the most of the upcoming summer:

 

Step 1:  Celebrate the beginning of summer before your new recruits arrive.

 

Every organization I know bends over backwards to welcome new recruits.  In most law firms and corporations, summer recruits and interns are wined and dined, treated to ball games and boat rides, and generally welcomed as the most important people in the world. 

 

No one disputes that some of these recruits will be critical to the long-term success of your organization.  Don’t lose sight, however, of the fact that so many members of your current staff are equally as important.  Use the next few weeks to communicate just how much you value these members of your organization, especially those who will supervise and mentor the summer arrivals.

 

If you haven’t done so already, plan a summer kick-off for all supervisors and managers of summer recruits.  Use this event to communicate how much you value the contributions these people will make to the success of the summer program.  To the extent you can, review best practices in terms of delegating work and giving feedback.

 

By the way, you can not over-emphasize the importance of giving feedback to your summer recruits.  From inception on, your Generation Next employees (those born after 1982), have received feedback, and tons of it, from doting parents, encouraging soccer and T-ball coaches, and classroom instructors.  In my own very non-scientific interviews of this generation’s employees, the one thing I find they consistently want more of is feedback.  Note: They want feedback more than they want money.

 

 

Step 2:  Start the summer by very clearly setting expectations.

 

Though I increasingly hear complaints from recruiters that this year’s about-to-be summer visitors demonstrate a real sense of entitlement, I’m not fully convinced this is entirely true.   In most cases, the top students from leading law and MBA programs have been challenged throughout their lives . . . to earn high test scores, win admittance to the best colleges and graduate programs, and engage in only the most impressive résumé building extracurricular activities.

 

More than entitled, lots of your summer recruits are thoroughly confused.  In most cases, the time they spend in your offices this summer will be their first exposure to the real working world.  Until now, no one has sat them down and explained, “Here is how a successful professional behaves in the office context.”  If they’re going to succeed, you need to address what is and is not appropriate in the following key areas:

 

 

Nothing is more important than the tone in which you communicate these key messages.  The last thing Generation Next wants to hear is “Don’t do A, B, or C.”  Instead, position key messages by saying, “Here’s how you succeed.”

 

 

Step 3:  Balance business and social activities.

 

Summer programs filled solely with fun and games have gone the way of the three martini lunch.  Of late, most firms and organizations I know have developed summer programs that ensure participants are exposed to “real” work.

 

While it’s important for your recruits to roll up their sleeves and experience what their futures hold, don’t forget the on-going importance of a variety of social activities.  Events such as happy hours, ball games, theater evenings, and dinners at partners’ homes allow recruits to learn more about the culture of your organization as well as the personalities of key movers and shakers.

 

As soon as they arrive, tell your recruits that they are expected to attend some (not all) social activities.  Remind them that this is an important way to begin developing relationships with the very people who will ultimately hire them.  Don’t hesitate to tell the recruits that few professionals will extend an offer to someone they don’t know.  Your recruits must understand that their ability to build relationships, in the long run, will be just as important as their technical skills.

 

By the way, I fully expect that by mid-summer some of your recruits will begin to struggle with balancing their work assignments against your planned social activities.  And that’s okay.  Tell the recruits this struggle is a natural part of entering today’s work world.  They have choices to make, and how your recruits make those choices will tell you much in terms of their likelihood of thriving in your workplace.

 

With regards to social events, here’s one last bit of advice:  If you haven’t already planned a pool party at one of the partner’s homes . . . Don’t.  Trust me; most young people abhor the idea of donning a swimsuit in front of the senior members of your organization.

 

 

Step 4:  Close with some practice interviews.

 

In a million years, I never would have predicted this, but every once in a while experience teaches you to disregard your gut instincts.

 

In recent years, I have led training programs on behavior interviewing; a method that encourages the interviewer to ask questions that reveal whether a particular candidate possesses the behaviors that thrive within that particular firm or organization.  (For more information about behavioral interviewing, go to our web site www.marycrane.com; click on Read Mary, and then click on “Finding Candidates that Fit” in Mary’s NewsBox.)

 

Last year, in the last days of the summer associate program, I conducted several of the training sessions in law firms across the country.  After reviewing the theory behind behavior interviewing and appropriate methodology, we asked summer associates to participate in a mock interview, allowing me to demonstrate the technique.

 

The summer associates who participated absolutely loved the experience.  They viewed this as an additional opportunity to practice their interviewing skills.  At the same time, very conceptual information was made quite real through the demonstration.  After a 10 minute mock interview, I could look at any group of participating lawyers and ask, “So what have we learned about this candidate?”  And the participating lawyers had no difficulty listing a series of behaviors that would suggest that the candidate would succeed in their particular office.

 

Corporate America has used behavior interviewing for nearly 25 years with great success.  For additional information on behavior interview training, feel free to phone me at (202) 256-8141.

 

 

Step 5:  Get some feedback on your own.

 

Plan now for soliciting feedback as soon as the summer ends.  It’s impossible to know what you’re doing right or wrong without the direct input of the summer program’s participants.  Gather information way before next fall’s class work consumes your recruits.

 

Before soliciting information from recruits, make sure you take a page out of every marketer’s handbook.  When asked to undertake a task, most people, implicitly or explicitly, ask themselves, “What’s in it for me?” 

 

If you really need feedback about your summer program, and I think you do, make sure you provide something of value to those who invest time in providing you critically important information.  Does the gift need to be an oh so popular iPod?  No.  But any gift must communicate that you truly value the information you are soliciting.