Would you like to be an organization that attracts and retains interns and volunteers?

Why are some organizations more successful than others in attracting and retaining 'volunteers,' or 'interns'? I'm going to answer that question by relating a personal experience I had working for a Fortune 500 company. One of the first volunteers I had the pleasure of working with was a student named Ellen. The company I was working for at the time had established a good rapport with colleges and universities throughout the United States. These institutions were the company’s chief source of “volunteers.” “Could you use a student intern for the summer?” the company headquarters asked. “Yes!” I said instantly. “I have at least a dozen projects for a good project coordinator.” “Could a student handle the work?” asked headquarters. “I happen to have a job description. I’ll fax it to you and you can have the student decide for herself if she can handle it,” I replied. Now think about this. A person was volunteering help. And I was ready to accept it (1). I had a list of tasks (2). I had a job description (3), and even a job title (4). Before the student reported for work, I alerted her co-workers that we were going to have an intern (5). I didn’t want anyone to feel threatened by a new person. In fact, I asked members of my staff to conduct parts of the student’s orientation (6). When the student reported for work, she was introduced to co-workers (7). She was given a work area (8). And the work area was set up with all the tools she needed to do her job (9). We gave her a schedule for her first day (10). It included a tour of the facility (11) and time to look over a list of people (12) she would be working with. The list identified who the people were, why they were important to her, and it had their phone numbers. There also was time on the schedule for her to read publications describing our operation (13). As a volunteer, she was interested in gaining job experience to list in her resume that would eventually help her get established in the job market. With the job title we gave her, she could say on her resume that she worked one summer as project coordinator for a Fortune 500 company. There was no question in her mind about what we expected her to do. The job description identified who she reported to, what standards were expected, how her internship was to contribute to our overall goals, and it outlined 12 specific assignments. When I reviewed it with her, I asked about her professional ambitions (14) and explained how her assignments would contribute to her personal goals (15). I said to myself at the time, if she completes half of the 12 assignments, it would be quite an accomplishment for an intern and of significant value to the company. During the internship, we gave our volunteer periodic critiques (16) of her work and personal written notes of praise that she could attach to her resume (17). Work was always delegated (18). People want to be given an assignment with all the information, authority, support and resources to get the job done (19). And they want to be recognized and rewarded for good work when it is deserved (20). To my delight, Ellen completed all 12 assignments in an outstanding manner. And guess what? I just gave you 20 ways to be an organization that attracts and retains interns and volunteers.

Why Are All PR Objectives Objectionable?

Well, not all public relations objectives are objectionable, just the ones you and I didn’t write. That’s probably a more accurate statement. Every public relations practitioner, agency and institute of learning has its own way of writing objectives for a plan, proposal or campaign. Students who graduate with a degree in public relations can expect to be confronted early on the job by a supervisor who says, “That’s not how we write objectives.” Such a statement reveals three things: one, that in practice, we acknowledge that there are different ways to write objectives; two, that various entities have preferences for how objectives should be written; three, that some entities believe that their way is the only way to write an objective. Let’s look at objectives taken from a PRSA Silver Anvil award-winning plan to see if they are acceptable or objectionable. Here’s one: Objective: Convince investors that management’s strategy to gain back market share would work. As a plan reviewer I would want to know if the target of this objective is existing or potential investors or both. Next, I would try to view it from a cost/benefit standpoint. I am expected to approve an expenditure for convincing investors, but what is the benefit? What could I expect investors to do as a result of being convinced that management’s strategy to gain back market share would work? How does this objective contribute toward achieving the plan’s goal? I don’t see a stated benefit. If a benefit is not stated, how could I determine any return on investing in this objective? Here’s another one: Objective: Gain longer-term support from moderate growth investors to justify a higher valuation. The proposed action is to gain longer-term support, in other words to get shareholders to hold onto the stock. The target is investors with moderate growth goals. The purpose of the objective is to show others that moderate growth investors must be retaining shares because they have reason to believe the stock is undervalued or worth more than the current market price. To survive cost/benefit scrutiny, maybe the objective should be written this way: To convince investors with moderate growth goals to retain the company’s stock for a longer time so that their retention of shares will suggest to other investors that the stock is worth more than the market price and that there might even be some growth potential in its value. As I said, we all have our own ideas of how to write objectives. So I will end this blog with my rules for writing objectives. 1) An objective should have three parts: It should tell 1) what must be done; 2) with whom, 3) and how it contributes toward accomplishment of the plan’s goal. a. Part I. Tells what must be done. The action must be stated and preceded by the word “to,” used in the sense of producing or causing a result, to form an infinitive phrase. Example: To provide… b. Part II. Tells with whom an action is to be taken. An objective should always include a target audience because nothing can be accomplished without some form of human involvement. c. Part III. Tells how taking an action with a particular target audience is expected to contribute toward the achievement of a plan’s goal. d. Example of an objective: To show industry analysts the company’s latest application of cost-saving technology so they will be motivated to publish “buy” recommendations for the company’s stock. e. In other words, an objective should have an action, receiver of the action and desired behavior of the receiver as a result of the action. 2) An objective should be measureable; it must include a desired outcome that can be measured. That is not to say that it should specify a means of measurement; it should be stated in a way that enables measurement. 3) An objective must be achievable; it must aim at a result that is possible to obtain cost effectively. 4) An objective may include a target date or deadline; however, that information is easier to review and assess when presented in a plan's timeline. 5) An objective should include only aims over which the plan developer has complete control; goals for sales, return on investment and employee productivity, for example, involve factors that are the responsibility of management areas over which public relations has no control.