As organizations strive to attract and retain top talent, intern programs have become a critical component of domestic mobility strategies. Internships not only provide valuable work experience for young professionals but also help companies build a pipeline of future talent. In this blog post, we will explore the key insights from the 2025 US and Canada Domestic Mobility Survey regarding intern programs and discuss best practices for supporting and enhancing these programs.
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Terri: Welcome to Mobility Matters. The official Cartus podcast.
Kristi: Join us as we dive into the hottest topics in global mobility and talent management.
Terri: Get ready for some expert insights, honest discussion, and maybe even a few laughs. Let’s get the conversation started.
Hi, I’m Terri Bonfiglio with Cartus. I’m the Director of Consulting Solutions, and you are joining us for our very first podcast in season four of Mobility Matters. Kicking things off, I’d like to welcome our esteemed guests for today’s discussion. First, I’m pleased to introduce Doris Ng, who works and manages the internship programs at Medtronic. Hi, Doris.
Doris: Hey, Terri. Thanks for having me.
Terri: Oh, it’s exciting to have you here. We know you have a busy schedule right now, so it’s great to have you with us. We also have Chris Fleming, CEO and owner at Compass Furnished Apartments. Hi, Chris.
Chris: Hi, Terri. Thanks for having me. Pleasure to be here.
Terri: Absolutely! And of course, last, but not least, Claire Barrie. She’s the Executive Vice President of Global Sales at Synergy Housing.
Claire: Hi, Terri. Nice to join you all.
Terri: Very nice to have you here. So, our two guests that are from the housing area manage corporate housing and work very closely with Cartus, and our clients, when they have internship programs that they’re launching each year, or periodically throughout the year. So, just to kick things off, we hear time and time again how companies are challenged in attracting and retaining top talent. Well-structured internship programs can help close the gap by thoughtfully executing and driving a positive experience. In our most recent North American domestic survey, our respondents indicated that 62% are currently managing these programs, and 67% of them are tracking their conversion rates.
This, for me, is demonstrating their interest in linking back to the return on investment for their organizations. So, we thought it was really important to focus on this topic in our first podcast, because of the time of the year we’re in, and also the fact that we have 87% of the respondents from our survey telling us that the internships they manage are summer internships. I thought we’d focus on that as our point of discussion for this particular population, knowing some of the key program objectives would be to offer real world experiences, foster loyalty, and identify potential future employees. I would like to start with our subject matter experts, starting with Doris. Doris, could you share a bit about your company’s philosophy around summer internships and how long you’ve been supporting these programs?
Doris: Yeah. Thanks, Terri. You know, Medtronic really wants to be the talent destination for early career talent. So, our ultimate goal with the program is to be able to convert our interns to full time hires. I think you kind of mentioned that conversion rates are very important. That’s kind of our ROI and how we define success of the program. So, you know, in order for us to be the talent destination for our interns, we have to make sure that we’re assessing our interns, just as much as, and acknowledge that they are assessing us just as much as we are assessing them. So, that means that we have a robust performance process during the summer where we learn more about their skills and have projects for them to make sure that they’re fully aware of all the work that they’re going to do here at Medtronic.
So, your second question was just related to how long I’ve supported these programs. I’ve seen our program really grow from where we started in 2016 when I joined. We had a class size of, I think, 79 in 2016 and we’re expecting about 500 for this upcoming summer. So, we scaled quite a bit, and we’ve had a lot of growth. It took a lot of time to get to where we are, but I’m proud of how far we’ve come and what we’ve accomplished to date. We’re striving to become a talent destination for our interns so we’re building the future bench for Medtronic.
Terri: I think that’s really important, that you’re that you’re looking at that bench strength and thinking about where we’re at in various demographics in the United States, at least knowing that we have a lot of folks that are kind of retiring out or growing up in their organizations. So, organizations are looking to bring in new, fresh minds, new talent, and talent seems to stretch across different industries in ways that it hasn’t in the past. So, it’s very challenging to try to find, bring in, and then retain that talent. So, these programs really do add a lot of value.
Chris: If you don’t mind, I’d love to address some of the things that Doris brought up. I thought it was excellent insight. As a way to address this particular question, the intern experience is just paramount in terms of how that affects their perception of the client, this being Medtronic in this example. Working in conjunction with Cartus and their clients, we try to fill that void and provide some of that logistical support to really help bring that home and nurture the experience of the guest. In our terminology, anyone that lives with us is a guest.
So, whether it’s a top-level executive or an intern, they’re all guests, and they’re all treated in a very similar fashion. This really speaks to the power of partnerships. I mean, I think Cartus does a tremendous job working with their supply chain and the client in partnership in terms of communicating and understanding the needs of the clients and working together to really create this triangle in terms of bringing the suppliers in with the client to work on that experience.
Terri: I looked through, and I know that you were a respondent in our recent North American survey, or your department was, and you talked about offering a very robust package for your interns. So, I know that obviously you coordinate housing. We’re going to talk about housing in a moment. But what are some of the things that you’re doing to get them interested in accepting the internship and then really educating them, getting them coaching, and performance managing so they’ve really learned something about that real-life experience working for your organization?
Doris: Yeah, we have a framework that we’ve built out for our interns, and it starts from the moment they accept their offer. So, once they’ve accepted their offer, we’re thinking about different ways on how to engage them before they even start with us. With campus recruiting and the talent pool that we’re hiring, we’re securing this talent months before they officially join our company. So, we extend our offers in November, and they accept their opportunity in June.
So, there’s this dark low period after we’ve extended the offer and they’ve accepted it, for other companies to come in and try to entice them away and convince them to join their company instead. So, once we extend the offer and they’ve accepted, we create a robust keep-warm engagement strategy, so there isn’t, a black hole in terms of hearing from us. We partner with external vendors as well, just to learn a little bit more about this talent profile and what it is that they want and need. And we’ve heard that they like hearing from former interns about their experience with the company, getting advice from them, and they like hearing from their manager.
So, before the interns even start, they’re already connecting with a former intern who has been in their shoes before to give them reassurance about joining Medtronic. They’re connecting with their managers on a monthly basis. They’re learning about the project that they’ll be working on, before they even start, to get them excited about the work that they’ll be learning. And then once they’re officially with us, that’s when the two-way assessments really kick off. At that point, we’re evaluating the interns. We ask our managers to give our interns goals for the summer that they need to hit within that 11-week summer internship timeframe. Our interns are being assessed on whether they’re able to complete these goals that have been assigned to them by their managers.
So, that’s how we’re assessing our interns to determine if they’re ready to roll up their sleeves, jump in, and hit the ground running. For our interns, we want them to get excited about our company, too. So, our team is working on building experiences. They go out to social events, and there’s a volunteer event that they’ll do. We participate in National Intern Day, which is a national holiday for our interns, and we get our CEO on a leader speaker session call with our interns. There are a lot of engagement opportunities so that our interns feel the love during the summer. They get excited about joining us again once they receive their full-time offer by the end of the summer.
And it’s funny because, you know, we do so much during the summer for interns that once they join again full-time, they’re like, ‘What happened to all that engagement?’ So, we’re still working and figuring out what we need to do after the intern joins to continue engaging with them and giving them that same kind of robust experience. But yeah, it’s a packed summer that we have for interns when they’re here with us.
Terri: It sounds like an exciting program. And I would say that is interesting because you’ve probably built this cadence of excitement up. And so, the real-world piece actually hasn’t set in yet, but you’ve done a lot of wonderful things. So, I wonder about the housing area, and this is where I’d like to bring Chris and Claire in as well. After I ask you about the co-living, I know you do that. You do set up some matches for the interns, so their cost for housing is more reasonable. So, how do you go about coordinating that? And then maybe we can turn it over to Chris and Claire to get their side of that story. So, Doris, is there something that Medtronic does to do the co-living matches, or do you leave that to the corporate housing provider?
Doris: Yeah, the co-living aspect of it is definitely challenging. I think, for all of us and Cartus, who we actually partnered with, and I’ll give them a shout-out here. Melissa and Rick are our Cartus account managers, and they’re just amazing. What we’ve done with the co-living arrangements, because with the offer that we give to our interns, we’re giving them corporate housing. We typically give corporate housing to where the larger volume of our interns will relocate to Minneapolis. For example, we have about 120 interns that will relocate to Minneapolis for our summer internship program. We’re getting them corporate housing, so that means we have to arrange roommates and figure out how that’s going to be split up. We’ve partnered with our Cartus team to send out a survey where the interns are filling out their preferences, letting us know if they have any allergies, if they intend to bring any service animals. Then from there, our Cartus team is helping us to figure out where the right matches are. Generally, we try to make sure that, from a gender perspective, two female interns would live together in the same apartment complex. If somebody indicated that they’re bringing a service animal and somebody else mentions that they are scared of dogs, we are not going to have them room together. We want to be very intentional with the roommate matching. A few years ago, I don’t think we were as intentional, as we have been these past few years, and we had some bad roommate situations. Going forward, just kind of learning from our interns and hearing their experiences, we’re doing a lot more to make sure that their roommate matches are ideal for what our interns prefer. We’ve been able to, and again, shout out to the Cartus team, Melissa and Rick, they have been pretty much able to help us eliminate some of those concerns that we’ve had in the past by being very intentional with how we’re matching our interns from a roommate perspective.
Terri: That’s an excellent segue. I’d love to get Chris—handing it off to you. You’ve probably worked with some corporate clients and Cartus, where you may have gotten some work orders from us with some of that criteria. So, talk a little bit about how you manage the capacity that happens at that time of the year, because that’s massive. And then, of course, the right placing and matching when you have co-living. Then we’ll turn to Claire for something similar on the international front.
Chris: Thank you, Terri. I think what a great topic this is, and how timely it is today as we prepare months in advance for the intern programs and all the work that needs to be done to make them successful. And no doubt, what we do from the housing standpoint affects the experience and ultimately reflects on not only the property but also on us, Cartus, and the corporation. We’re all sort of tied in together in an interesting way.
You know, we’re really like a logistics company in a lot of ways. And I wanted to speak a little bit about relationships with our clients and our properties. We look at our business as having two distinct core audiences: the corporate clients and the relocation companies like you guys in partnership, where we provide housing services in a variety of ways, but also our property partners. That’s our other core audience. So, we really look at our property relationships on the same level as we look at our client relationships because of how critical they are at the end of the day to provide the end product.
We have really strong relationships with our properties, including the actual owners, the developers, and the property managers. What this allows us to do is to cast a really wide net when we’re looking for different style options. It could be an interim program that requires multiple options, or it could be a one-off for a moving transferee. These established relationships allow us to find a variety of different types of communities and very diverse types of accommodations. It’s our experience working with this audience that allows us to lead the conversation, making sure that anything we find is a correct fit for the need of the client and the actual co-living arrangements that we arrange.
We make our property partners, in the sourcing of these types of properties, really well aware of the client’s needs. That’s in terms of how many interns are actually coming in, how many interns per apartment, and what their day-to-day living is going to look like while they’re living at that particular building. This way, we can have them understand everything that’s going to be involved, whether it’s the moving arrangements, the parking, the keys, the mail and delivery services, or the usage of the amenities like the concierge, the fitness centers, and other types of amenities in these buildings. All of that has a lot to do with how the interns are going to live and be successful in their living environment, from an actual furnishings standpoint. So, this comes down to the actual furniture that we provide inside these apartments.
It’s also something that we put a lot of thought into to make them comfortable and make them feel like they’re having a great experience. So, of course, they have their own bed. That’s a given, right? But there are other types of things that we go above and beyond and try to provide for them so that it’s shared living, but they also have very independent living. So, we think about those things in advance, like, for instance, just their individual movement arrangements. Maybe they’re coming in at different times, and the individual communication about rules and regulations so that they understand their obligations while living.
And then, of course, things like the linens, the toiletries, electronics, the housewares—all these things that you sort of take for granted but make you comfortable in a living place—we can provide for each intern. Even if there are, say, two or three or four living in the same place, they all have their own style of amenities while they’re living in the actual apartments. So again, co-living and co-sharing don’t always work, and we really try to cater to each individual experience to help enhance the program.
Claire: I think this is absolutely critical. You can have the most fabulous apartment. You can have everything right. The client can be delighted. But if you don’t put the due diligence, effort, and time into the room matching, particularly now with the co-living, that can ruin the entire experience, just as you say, just from not being prepared. And Doris just mentioned some excellent points—I was busy making notes furiously around some of the things, Doris, that you do to try and ensure that is a success.
What we’re now starting to see when it comes to ensuring value for the product is twin rooms. So, in some cases, four people per apartment, per two-bedroom apartment. Therefore, that can also create all kinds of further noise. If you think it was tough having two to an apartment, now you’ve got four to an apartment, which can create a whole lot more noise. So, just even more things to consider, particularly around that room matching, for sure.
Terri: Yeah, I don’t think people really think about what goes into preparing the corporate housing for the intern or for anyone to stay. Claire, I’d love to hear a little bit about—so Claire is over across the pond, if you will. And I would love to hear a little bit about your perspective when you think about international, because there are some clients that are doing international internships. Are there any additional steps, protocols, or insights that you might want to share that we should be sensitive to or aware of?
Claire: Yeah, absolutely, Terri. And I think so far, we’ve brought up some really great points. It’s very easy to underestimate what goes into planning for an intern program, especially as you look down the line to the supply chain and really the reliance on the supply chain, as we touched on earlier. I mean, we recognize they are a critical pipeline to the company’s future talent, as you mentioned, Doris. Getting that intern experience right and making it memorable for the right reasons, versus making it memorable for the not-so-right reasons, is certainly a key influencer in that search for talent. It’s a big responsibility for us as the supplier, as our clients are reliant on us to make it an excellent experience.
So, it definitely can influence and have a direct reflection on the end result and the success rate of that entire intern program. Actually, the responsibility on the supply chain is huge. There’s certainly much to consider when running an intern program, wherever that is in the world. It doesn’t really change. To some degree, it does. There are more things to consider, especially with so many programs running concurrently. As you mentioned, you have the intern season. That, in itself, is enough to create chaos in many aspects because we know that companies are looking to ensure that we consider rates and make it competitive and worthwhile for them from a procurement standpoint.
But equally, just as companies are vying for talent, as suppliers, we are vying to make sure and ensure that we act as an extension of that program, ensuring that the experience has been positive. Equally, we are delivering on point as far as price points are concerned and as far as consistent experience is concerned, especially when it comes to many international cities. What’s interesting now is that for many years, we saw intern programs typically feature predominantly in the same cities. Due to cost and a desire for a broader and more globalized experience, we’re seeing intern programs moving to different cities or different countries.
That perhaps is a first for some of these organizations, which again puts even more pressure and different expectations. So, some of the things that we consider around this, and we highly encourage, first of all, plan ahead. Even planning in the year for the year can sometimes be too late. We like to start planning intern programs in November or December of the year before, at the latest.
Also, what that really can offer is more flexibility, more flexibility in rate, but probably equally as important, more flexibility in terms. You know, things change, particularly when it comes to international intern programs, because we have to consider things like visas that can come through or be delayed, legal compliances, and navigating local regulations that are required for housing international interns. Looking at things, for example, such as cultural adaptability is a big one that can be easily overlooked. Sometimes for these interns, it may be their first time out of their home country, their first experience in a host destination.
So, just spend some time understanding the diverse housing preferences, ensuring accommodations meet these varied cultural expectations. Because, of course, not everybody’s coming from the same country. In some instances, they’re coming from right around the globe with all with different expectations and with different norms. So, those are the other things also from a client’s perspective, terms and conditions almost always differ from an existing MSA or contract that they have day to day. So, there may be some nuances in the terms and conditions that have to be considered.
So, lots to consider, for sure, lots to coordinate. I think the main thing really for us is just ensuring that the communication is absolutely critical. Be upfront, say it like it is. If there’s issues or if there’s challenges, or if there’s something unexpected, which usually something comes on towards that we’re just open and transparent with Cartus, so that Cartus can, in turn, be open and transparent with their client. Nobody likes surprises, and usually they’re almost always solvable, so long as everybody knows about them.
Terri: That’s fantastic. Claire, I just can’t believe the amount of content we’ve been able to get through in such a short amount of time. But really good perspectives and insights. Sounds like there’s a lot of passion and investment in the success of these internships, a real focus on the individual needs of everyone.
If there was just one piece of advice that you could give to a company that’s thinking about starting an internship program. Doris, is there something that would come top of mind for you to say to that person, besides, don’t panic?
Doris: Yeah, that’s a great question. For somebody who is just starting out, I think everybody has a different working style, but for me personally, my working style is I need to ask key critical questions that will help inform the type of internship program that I would or can run with the particular company that I’m at. So, my recommendation is to make sure that you know, if you’re starting a program, you have answers to questions like, what is the purpose and intention of the summer internship program?
So, as I mentioned, at Medtronic, it’s to build our future bench. But other companies might just be to have a short-term higher labor force that they can, you know, tap into for quick, easy wins for projects and stuff that they’re doing. What’s the budget that you are being given and who’s funding that budget. So, you know who you need to recap and try to get buy-in from when you’re looking to enhance, improve, or make changes to the program. What type of intern talent are you looking for? Are you okay with local talent? Or are you going to look for talent all across the US? Kind of broaden that horizon. And so, if you have answers to important questions like that, that can help define what type of program you are going to have.
So, you know, if you have a bigger budget, if you’re looking for more, and the talent that you’re looking for is not going to be local to your specific office or site. That means you’re going to have to go somewhere else within the US or maybe internationally, and then you’ve got to make sure you have the budget to do stuff like relocation and corporate housing to be able to entice some of those interns to come work for your company.
So yeah, I would say, make sure you have answers to important questions, because then knowing the answers to these questions can be your north star as you’re building out that roadmap and that foundation for the ideal internship program you will run for this company. And every company’s internship program is so different that no two are going to be the same.
Claire: Thanks, Doris, so great advice for sure, and just from a supplier side. I just wanted to add, yes, Doris, bigger budgets are always helpful. I will say that for sure. But for someone starting a new intern housing program, I would say it would be great to prioritize early planning. As we mentioned, the sooner you can start the conversation with your housing provider, the smoother the entire process will be.
So certainly, I know we’ve spoken a lot about starting early but also building some flexibility into your plans. Housing needs can change really quickly. Being adaptable is key to managing these unexpected challenges, because, as we all know, they certainly do happen. And then finally, just focusing on creating a positive intern experience. I mean, ultimately, that’s the dream. That’s what we all set out to do, ensuring that it’s comfortable and convenient, and that their convenient housing contributes significantly to overall satisfaction and retention.
Chris, what did you think about that?
Chris: Claire, thank you. I’ll echo Claire by just saying definitely provide corporate housing in an intern program or housing services. It’s really, from our perspective, one of the most important things to one’s experience living in an area or acclimating quickly to an area, in terms of how it removes a lot of anxiety. And from that experience, to focus really on the task at hand, and that task at hand is enjoying their intern program and working with colleagues and really getting the most out of that program.
So, I think it is an important aspect of the success of a program. And personally, I’ve seen companies, in my experience, that have decided to move away from housing assistance and quickly go back to housing assistance after experiencing what it looks like without having someone in place to do that. The only thing else I’ll add is really just realistic expectations of the time frame and processes going through finding housing for a program. It’s very challenging, and housing is really challenging these days, more than ever. And although Claire mentioned getting involved as early as possible, no question, but also setting expectations in terms of how long it is going to take to secure this and the steps involved in actually getting there. So, we may want a full host of housing options five months in advance, when in reality it’s going to be 90 days to really set everything up and have your final arrangements planned and then start plugging in the names of interns and doing room assignments and whatnot.
So, Claire mentioned communication, and that can’t be more important. Communicating directly with the interns in terms of all the different logistical arrangements and then keeping everybody in the loop. That can’t be more important in today’s complicated world of logistics and working together in partnership. So can’t be stressed enough.
Terri: Wonderful. Thank you so much again. I think that you’ve given a lot of really good advice and insights. I think that it’s a lot to think about, but I heard planning, so making sure that you give yourself enough time, understand what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and how much it’s going to cost you to do it, and making sure you’re giving enough time to your suppliers so they can plan and really hit those numbers for you as well.
I want to thank all of my guests today. This has been a wonderful conversation. I think it’s been a really great engagement between all of us. But I really wanted to just thank our listeners for dialing in today; and we look forward to another Mobility Matters episode coming up soon. Thank you.
Kristi: That’s a wrap for today’s episode of Mobility Matters. Thanks so much for tuning in.
Terri: If you haven’t already, be sure to subscribe through your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode.
Kristi: And if you have any burning questions or topic suggestions, get in touch with us at cartusolutions@cartus.com. See you next time.
Visit cartus.com/podcast for more episodes of Mobility Matters.
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