Keeping It Real: The Impact of HRD Internships on the Development of HRD Professionals

What do we know about internships broadly?

As stated before, internships are experiences garnered prior to graduation from an academic program that have some structure and relevance to one’s career path (Taylor, 1988). Research has highlighted some of the positive psychological and practical benefits that holding an internship may have on the intern themselves. For example, early research on internships demonstrated that interns felt more efficacious (Bernstein, 1976) and had a greater sense of responsibility for their own career development (Eyler, 1992; Hursch & Borzak, 1979; Williams, 1990). Student interns have also reported that they built better networks and gained a greater knowledge of the job market (Groves, Howland, Headly, & Jamison, 1977) through internships. More recent work has demonstrated the positive impact of internship experiences on job offers, compensation, and job satisfaction (Gault et al., 2000; Knouse, Tanner, & Harris, 1999, in a marketing context). Furthermore, students who participate in internships have been reported to have improved on several key competencies by their internship supervisors, including ethical behavior and integrity, professionalism, and statistical analysis (Shoenfelt, Kottke, & Stone, 2012; in an industrial/organizational (I/O) psychology context). Many employers believe that internships are intended to increase students’ market value, so they focus on building broad skills such as critical thinking and written and oral communication skills—expertise that employers may find valuable (Maertz, Stoeberl, & Marks, 2014). Not surprisingly then, students who have completed internships in business more broadly have been found to report improved communication skills (Knemeyer & Murphy, 2002) and improved job-related skills overall (Divine, Linrud, Miller, & Wilson, 2007). Thus, internships have the capacity to impart valuable, job critical skills onto interns, which enhance their attractiveness to organizations.

Universities with HRD programs may also benefit from placing students within meaningful HRD internships. In fact, universities may realize a connection between their students’ internship experiences and increased success for the institution overall. Weible (2009) found that a majority of universities reported that student internship placement enhanced their connection to the community overall and increased their reputation with prospective students. Thus, student internships stand to have a positive impact on many stakeholders: the students themselves, the institutions they represent, and the companies that hire them (Gault et al., 2000). However, to reap the positive benefits of an internship, there are some contextual factors that must be in place to support intern success. For example, recent research has called upon employers to create clear objectives for skill attainment for interns, so that psychological contracts between employers and interns are agreed upon and focused on strategic, mutually beneficial experiences (Negrut, Mihartescu, & Mocan, 2015). Furthermore, initial studies have suggested that quality onboarding, engaged supervisors, and meaningful work contribute to higher quality internship experiences within HRD (Maertz, Stoeberl, & Magnusson, 2014). Indeed, while willingness to learn is a strong predictor of intern success, it must be combined with supervisor support for learning to positively affect intern outcomes (Holyoak, 2013). In addition, within internships where students reported learning in a cohesive fashion (allowing for recognition of context playing a role in the application of theory), deeper level understanding was more likely to be achieved and enacted within a professional context (Matthew, Taylor, & Ellis, 2012). Similarly, students who perceived goal clarity and enhanced learning in internships were more likely to accept job offers from the interning organization (Beenen & Rousseau, 2010). Thus, the way in which internships are structured and the specific experiences that students have within these internships determine their perceived value.

Increasing the value of HRD internships

Although, across fields, many stakeholders may benefit from an effectively structured internship which emphasizes broad competencies necessary for success in a variety of roles, it remains unclear within the literature what constitutes the key components of a positive internship experience within HRD. As a result, the specific competency-building experiences that make HRD internships most effective in preparing students for their future careers warrant further examination. Within the field of HRD, there is evidence that employers may find HRD internships to be effective in increasing employee capability, with companies finding internship experience to be more indicative of potential in an HR-related profession than passing a professional examination (Sincoff & Owen, 2004). Thus, employers at large seem to believe that HRD internships hold value for those who have completed them. However the questions still remains—how do HRD internships build capabilities for interns? What, specifically, should HRD internships focus on if they want to prepare interns for future success in HRD-related career paths? While these pressing questions are yet to be answered within the HRD literature with regard to internships, the work of determining key necessary competencies for HRD professionals more broadly has been an ongoing effort of the Association for Talent Development (ATD). Thus, to begin to understand the extent to which HRD internships are positively preparing interns for their future careers, I center the current work on the competency framework offered by ATD. I will describe this competency model below.

ATD competency model: An overview

The ATD competency model offers a comprehensive set of knowledge, skills, abilities, and other attributes necessary for success in HRD. However, this model focuses more specifically on the population of interest within the current work—those working specifically within talent development functions within organizations. Specifically, the ATD competency model is rooted in six foundational competencies: Business Skills, Global Mindset, Industry Knowledge, Interpersonal skills, Personal Skills, and Technology Literacy (Association of Talent Development, 2016). These foundational competencies provide a basis for the areas of expertise (which will be focus of the current work). These areas of expertise are Instructional Design, Training Delivery, Learning Technologies, Evaluating Learning Impact, Managing Learning Programs, Integrated Talent Management, Coaching, Knowledge Management, Change Management, and Performance Improvement (Association of Talent Development, 2016). Thus, ATD’s areas of expertise are more focused and tailored toward talent development and, therefore, HRD, than other competency models relevant to HR more broadly (i.e., the Society for Human Resource Management [SHRM] competency model).

The current study

To achieve the objectives outlined above, this article will utilize qualitative and quantitative data, gathered from HRD professionals, who participated in HRD internships as undergraduate students. Based on the Association of Talent Development Competency Model, participants reported which developmental experiences within their undergraduate HRD internships enhanced these competencies and the perceived impact that these experiences had on their career path. Highlighting student voices in the creation and evaluation of internship programs is a best practice for inclusivity in research methods and in practice (Hoyle & Deschaine, 2016). Focusing on former student feedback regarding internship experiences may allow future HRD internships to contain a greater number of developmental or training opportunities (Lain et al., 2013). By ensuring that employers will focus on student needs when deriving internship experiences (Toohey, Ryan, & Hughes, 1996), universities may also increase their ability to place top HRD talent into meaningful internship programs. Overall, harnessing the feedback of current HRD professionals who have held past HRD internships may positively affect internship satisfaction and related career outcomes for future interns within the field of HRD (Narayanan, Olk, & Fukami, 2010; Toohey et al., 1996) and may increase return on investment for universities with HRD internship programs.

ATD competencies

Overall, participants tended to report less exposure to the ATD competencies within their internships than expected. This could be because internships may provide more broad-based experiences which might resonate more strongly with less-specific competency frameworks (i.e., the SHRM competency framework). In any event, there was still variability in feedback regarding effectiveness in increasing the ATD competencies through internships. First, for Change Management, most participants felt that their internship did not provide exposure to this competency. Performance Improvement was also unlikely to be endorsed among the group of participants. While most participants stated that they did not have much exposure to this area, one participant noted, “I gained experience having one-on-ones with my manager and taking that feedback to make systematic improvements in my performance. I set small, achievable goals week by week that I was able to track with my manager” (Participant 5).

For the learning-related competencies present in the ATD model, participants tended to note that these competencies were severely lacking in their development within their internship experiences. For example, within Instructional Design, responses ranged from ineffective (“I created a couple of slide decks for training purposes”; Participant 12) to very effective (“I had to participate in [and help deliver] a couple of trainings around I9s and Visa and Immigration practices during M&A activity”; Participant 2), but skewed heavily toward the former. Similarly, within Training Delivery, responses ranged from ineffective (“I never performed any trainings”; Participant 2) to moderately effective (“In administering management training courses, I was able to listen in on a number of trainings and learned how to best facilitate courses in a virtual environment”; Participant 4). However, most participants reported having very little exposure to training, other than participating in training themselves. Learning Technology was inconsistently enhanced across internships. Those who reported positive experiences noted that they had been trained to learn a popular HR learning system (“I worked at [a large HRIS vendor] so I had a lot of experience with different technology and systems—for example, Success Factors”; Participant 5). Others reported having no exposure to learning technology, even stating that learning technologies were “not applicable to interns” (Participant 6). In the same vein, Managing Learning Programs was not heavily endorsed as being enhanced through internships within our sample. Finally, Evaluating Learning Impact displayed similar patterns to the other learning-related competencies, in that most participants reported no exposure to this competency.

Participants’ ratings of Knowledge Management seemed directly linked to the interns’ own motivation to grow and learn as a result of their experience. Highlighting this, one participant who felt her internship was effective in this area stated,

I learned a lot during this internship and kept several notebooks and folders on my computer that held all of the knowledge I gained. These were great references during my internship and also as I developed my career outside [of my internship experiences]. (Participant 5)

On the lower end, participants relayed such statements as, “I only worked with my manager, so other than using a SharePoint site we did not share intellectual capital much” (Participant 4), demonstrating a more passive and less proactive approach to knowledge management.

For the competency of Integrating Talent Management, participants seemed to rate their internship as being very effective in enhancing this competency, if they had the ability to be present and observe specific areas of work and the opportunity to discuss these observations with their manager. Highlighting this distinction, a participant relayed,

I had some experience interacting with managers and HR Business Partners during the annual performance review. I sat in on calibration sessions as managers worked through Success Factors, which provided insight into how employees are rated on performance and what is important to managers. (Participant 5)

Comparatively, another employee simply noted, “We really were not advanced enough in this area as a company at all at the time of my internship [so I was not exposed to it]” (Participant 2). Finally, participants did not feel that they were exposed to Coaching overall. They mostly felt that this competency was not relevant to interns in general, given their inability to influence others at work.