After all, advisors walk a fine line between making their internships valuable for interns while also ensuring that their interns contribute to the day-to-day operations of the businesses.

For advisors, therefore, managing interns can be a delicate balance. On one hand, providing extensive training to an intern seems counterproductive, as the nature of the relationship, by definition, is short term. At the same time, advisors want to ensure that their interns contribute to business results while benefiting from the process and gaining valuable experience that can help them eventually contribute to the financial industry.

Indeed, interns shouldn’t be limited to doing menial functions, such as running out for lunch, fetching a cup of coffee, or filing folders. In a similar manner, an advisors should remember that properly managing interns can make summer employment valuable for workers, which may enhance a firm’s image within the industry and improve its capabilities for recruiting full-time employees.

Many advisors, unfortunately, start the process of hiring interns on the wrong foot by failing to fully plan and think through the role that summer workers will play. In other words, hiring an intern is a big commitment for advisors because internship programs must be well planned. Without having thought through the goals of hiring an intern, advisors and full time staffers may have a tough time figuring out what functions their interns will serve.

For example, some advisors may use their internship programs as a farm team for culling future employees. In such cases, advisors will have a strong incentive to ensure that their interns receive training and mentoring as the summer workers may someday become valued staff members. By thinking through the goals of an internship program, moreover, advisors can manage interns’ expectations.

Growing firms, for instance, may want to emphasize that they expect to hire additional planners in the near future and the interns will have an advantage among other candidates. Or, other firms that don’t have plans to expand their staff may want to emphasize that summer work experience may help interns eventually secure full time employment with other advisors.

Either way, the goal of internship programs should be to make interns feel like valued employees who gain important work experience while contributing to advisors’ business results. There are a variety of ways, of course, that interns can contribute to day-to-day operations. They can run Morningstar reports on investment products, help enter client data into software planning programs, assist with analyzing clients’ portfolio, conduct savings forecasts, analyze 401(k) plan fees, work on client presentations, perform online searches related to investment strategies, and other tasks.

By having interns conduct meaningful work, advisors can also benefit by assessing if the workers have qualities such as strong work ethics, analytical abilities, and communication skills that may make them attractive candidates for full-time employment after graduation.

At the same time, there are many ways to make interns feel valued. To start, advisor firms should clearly communicate with employees what functions interns will perform. By doing so, advisors can reduce the likelihood that staffers will target interns for menial tasks.

Advisors, meanwhile, should seek ways to enhance the internship experience. To that end, some advisors bring interns with them to industry events, such as continuing education programs or network functions. Other advisors will have interns observe meetings with clients and assist with client presentations.

Interns, furthermore, bring an asset to their summer employers that many advisors may overlook—as a generation raised with the Internet, many are savvy with the World Wide Web, including social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Advisors, therefore, may be well served to have their interns provide input on web-based marketing initiatives. Interns, or their families, may also have social networks, such as those acquired through country clubs, churches or other organizations that can provide advisors with attractive client-prospecting opportunities.