Want your employer brand to thrive? Start by recruiting high school students

Many companies, especially legacy companies, struggle to recruit and retain early career talent. One reason is that up-and-comers just aren’t aware of the organization as an employer. 

To excite young minds, start early, when these bright young things are still in high school. And one of the best ways to stir up excitement is with an internship program. It gives them a chance to build and apply real-world skills and it gives you time to plant the seed in and nurture young minds. And one of the best ways to stir up excitement is with internship programs. 

Internships for high school students are common in the tech world. Major companies like Microsoft and Google (theirs is for rising college freshmen) offer programs, and NASA runs a famously competitive internship for young people. But you don’t have to be a flashy tech company to offer a valuable and exciting internship for the next-gen workforce. You’ll find intern- and apprenticeships at literary magazines, financial institutions, and construction and contracting companies.

Promoting to high school students

Know where they are, speak their language (Hint: It’s TikTok.)

Especially if you’re a legacy company, high schoolers may not know you exist, but that’s not a problem if you’re putting yourself in the right place. 

Virtual recruiting should be your approach. Specifically, social media. According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychology, 75% of teenagers ages 13–17 report having at least one active social media platform and 51% say they visit a social platform at least daily. And job seekers are increasingly using social media to find jobs—79% by one estimate—and TikTok is piloting a platform for career advice and job searching.

Consider also sites like Chegg Internships, which is highly optimized for search engines and focuses on programs for high school and college students.

Go virtual

Many Millennials and all of Gen Z, and anyone who follows, are digital natives, so you’ll have no problem getting them to operate remotely. For example, Ford took their college internship program totally virtual this year with great success.

Going virtual is also a way to increase the diversity of your programs. Because you can recruit talent from anywhere (that is, anywhere you’re cleared to operate), you expand your talent pool.

If you can’t sustain a full-time internship for high school students, consider a short-term, project-based program

Apple’s 350 Swift Student Challenge asks competitors to submit a Swift playground to demonstrate their coding and ability to solve real-world problems. Winners are invited to attend their annual Worldwide Developers Conference. Batta bing, batta boom.

Compensate them

Pay them just as you would pay a college intern. Asking for free labor is in poor taste. 

If you can’t provide monetary payment, compensate them in some other significant way—scholarships, public publicity for their work or projects, school credit, recommendations for college, or help with building a strong portfolio of work.

Help them apply

Provide applicants with some resume and interview guidance. These workers are the greenest of the green, so any help you can provide regarding resume writing and interviewing for your particular program will go a long way to improving the quality of your applicant pool. 

Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza writes about workplace culture, DEI, and hiring. Her work has appeared in Fast Company, From Day One, and InHerSight, among others.

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