Goldman Sachs, Reliance, Samsung and others onboarding interns virtually during the lockdown

• This year, companies are adopting digital platforms to facilitate virtual internships, thanks to the Coronavirus lockdown.
  
• So far, at least 500 students are set to undergo internships in a remote setup.
  
• From induction to the real time projects — Reliance Industries (RIL), Samsung, Bharti Airtel, AB InBev, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan are onboarding interns virtually.
  
• Starting today, 98 Goldman Sachs interns will start their internship virtually.
  
• Other companies like Ola AB InBev, Realme PaySa have also hired nearly 100 interns, despite the lockdown.

Across industries, recruiters rely on internships heavily to assess potential candidates, to hire for full time roles later on. However, this time around, companies are adopting digital platforms to facilitate internships, thanks to the Coronavirus lockdown.

So far, at least 500 graduate students are set to undergo virtual internships — in a remote setup.

From induction to real time projects, companies like Reliance Industries (RIL), Samsung, Bharti Airtel, AB InBev, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan are onboarding interns virtually with its e-mentoring sessions.

In fact, a few companies are also enabling virtual company tours via video conferencing to ease the learning process. Shantanu Das, chief HR officer at Amway India told Mint how the company held a ‘virtual walk the floor’ to introduce new interns to the team.

Starting today, 98 Goldman Sachs interns will start their internship virtually. The company hired over 700 interns in total this year. While JP Morgan has kicked off its summer internship programme with nearly 150 interns.

Oyo Rooms also said that it is hosting over 200 interns across roles such as finance, revenue management, operations, sales and more. The interns will be hired for 4-8 weeks for MBA and graduate students.

Samsung virtually onboarded 36 interns this academic session from top b-schools. “I would call this batch of interns one of the luckiest because the first lesson that they have been taught is that with technology and innovation, everything is possible. They have joined Samsung in our endeavour to make remote working and social distancing a success,” said Sameer Wadhawan, Head HR at Samsung India.

In a LinkedIn post, RIL said that it is onboarding 84 interns digitally under its 'Virtual Reliance Summer Program'. “From introducing gamified learning for 84 Summer Interns and virtually inducting 130 new hires, to helping over 30,000 colleagues develop the right skills to cope with COVID-19, RIL is helping teams stay right-skilled, motivated and productive,” the company said.

Meanwhile, telecom operator Bharti Airtel also onboarded 50 summer interns digitally from management colleges like Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) , Xavier School of Management (XLRI), Faculty of Management Studies (FMS) Delhi, Management Development Institute (MDI) Gurgaon. They will work on real-time industry projects.

Samit Deb, CHRO at Airtel told ET that the company is making sure that no processes are delayed. “Right from induction to mentorship to final reviews, the entire program will run virtually,” he added.

Other companies like Ola, AB InBev, Realme PaySa have also hired nearly 100 interns, despite the lockdown. "We are planning fun and engaging activities for our interns to come together as a part of Ola’s community. They are part of daily team meetings, informal catch-ups and cross-functional team webinars which maximizes their learning opportunities as well. All the interns are connected across social platforms and some of them have in fact collaborated to perform for all employees at the weekly e-gathering as well," Rohit Munjal, CHRO, Ola told Business Insider.

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