Thanks are due to ICMA member Andrew Stephens, a senior executive manager at one of Australia’s largest companies, for this fascinating case study of an internship and mentoring program he designed with his company HR department and an external education provider, Navitas Workforce Solutions.
The case study illustrates how many of the so-called softer aspects for achieving effective management control can be extremely successful when they are skillfully applied. The program was designed and implemented within the corporate finance department with two broad outcome objectives. The first was to provide an opportunity for the finance function to recruit the best and brightest candidates available. The second was to enact social responsibility obligations by facilitating the induction of graduates into the workforce and ultimately into permanent employment.
This is how it works. Prospective interns are required to complete a nine month study program conducted by Navitas. Before entering the nine month program candidates are required to either have completed or be completing an appropriate university degree. Aged between 18 and 30, they also need to prove a successful history of study. Typically, intern candidates are either international students or university graduates looking for work experience, to develop skills and acquire practical training for transitioning into the workforce.
The nine month orientation program focuses on adapting to the Australian business culture, training in the use of Excel, Word, PowerPoint, making presentations, understanding appropriate business etiquette and attire, and networking skills. On completion, prospective candidates are interviewed by an experienced Navitas HR consultant to ascertain their suitability for the program. An interesting aspect of this process is that the company incurs no costs for partnering with Navitas and accepting an intern into its organisation.
The intern then spends 12 weeks rotating through an area within the finance department. The General Manager Finance is the sponsor and provides career mentoring to each intern at weekly meetings. The meetings focus on the intern’s progress within the program in addition to their career motivations and aspirations. The benefits to the interns are immense.
One remarked, “I would never normally get the opportunity to spend one-on-one time with the General Manager Finance of a major Australian public company over a 12 week period if it were not for this program”. After 12 weeks, the intern may be offered a permanent position or alternatively go into a talent pool for future opportunities.
Initial reactions from the finance management team were interesting and a number of negative initial perceptions had to be overcome. Managers were concerned about the amount of time they thought would be required to spend with the interns, wanted guarantees that the interns would ‘stick around ’ and were unsure if the investment in time had any value creating potential. These concerns ultimately dissipated as the program developed, brought about by the quality of interns. Ultimately the attitude evolved into one of ‘they are an integral part of the team’.
The interns were actively involved in a number of major projects within the finance team and proved to be of immense value as the processes were rolled out. The company had many projects in progress, and the additional resource allowed the interns to do much of the hands-on work freeing up managers to do the analysis. The finance department experienced a number of indirect benefits also. Its managers found they had more time to plan the utilisation of existing resources and to develop role specific succession strategies.
The program also provided time to get out in the business to consult and follow through with the divisions, whereas previously the perception was that finance merely delivered month end results. Now managers spend more time with the business providing a higher level of service, which enhances the value of their section and their own self esteem. Other interesting indirect benefits were the opportunity for finance department managers to further develop their training and mentoring skills, and importantly, the concept of ‘try before you buy’ which worked extremely well as job vacancies were filled by good caliber interns.
Finally, the additional resource provided by the interns enabled more effective management of annual and long service leave, lessening the impact on the quality of corporate support as they filled temporary vacancies. This case is an excellent live representation of many of the principles in the literature regarding the deployment of indirect methods to facilitate effective management control over an organisation. One of these principles is that organisational culture and its ethos impinge very powerfully on individual behaviour. For this reason, a nurturing environment tends to facilitate the desire within a workforce to contribute through self-motivation rather than external pressure. In this way, the internal ethos of the organisation supports effective managerial control as well illustrated by the case study outcomes.
Another block to effective control is overcoming the tendency for dissonance between personal and organisation goals. In the case study interns enter the program eager to succeed and if they are ultimately awarded with a permanent position there is a very good chance their goals will have been correlated with those of the organisation because of the pathway travelled before entering it permanently.
A powerful indirect lever for achieving control is through effective recruitment, which to quote Jim Collins (Good to Great), is ‘to put the right people on the bus’. An effective recruitment policy is the result of a careful selection process that ensures cultural, educational and emotional fit in addition to the mandatory criteria set down for education and experience. The process needs to be supported by a program of employee induction and training together with mentoring and support where necessary. The case study ticks every box!
In summary, assuming that the ultimate aim of the overall control process is to encourage all employees to direct their best efforts in the interest of the organisation, namely encouraging cooperative behaviour, the intern program set out in the case study represents an excellent example of control in action.
