When the market is uncertain, leaders tend to make fast decisions about where to cut. Programs that don’t tie directly to next quarter’s revenue get lumped together, and internships often end up in that pile. Not because anyone’s done the math and found them lacking, but because they appear easy to label as optional. That’s a mistake.
With 65% of HR leaders forecasting flat or reduced budgets and hiring projections for the Class of 2026 showing just a 1.6% year-over-year increase, early career teams are under real pressure to demonstrate impact. That pressure brings an opportunity to reposition the program as one of the highest-returning investments the business has.”
That takes three things: a clear business case, rigorous data, and a story leaders can rally behind. Here’s how to bring all three together.
Phase One: Build the Business Case
The first step is reframing how leadership sees your internship program, moving it out of the cost center conversation and instead showing it as one of the most efficient talent acquisition strategies the business has.
Consider the competitive landscape. Three out of four employers globally are struggling to find the skills they need, a near-record talent gap. And 78% of HR professionals rate internship programs as effective in addressing those shortages. Whether your organization competes for engineers, cybersecurity talent, data specialists, or skilled tradespeople, the talent you need is increasingly difficult to source externally. Internships give you a way to identify, evaluate, and develop that talent in-house, on your terms, in your environment, aligned to your culture.
The economics reinforce this. On average, filling a vacant role takes 42 days and costs $4,700. Converting an intern bypasses much of that: no agency fees, no job board spend, and less time onboarding someone who’s already proven they can do the work. And in a market where internship postings have declined by over 15% across major platforms in the past two years, the organizations that maintain their pipelines now will have an outsized advantage when hiring accelerates. Programs cut during a downturn create gaps that are far more expensive to fill later.
Phase Two: Do the Math
A compelling narrative opens the door, but data keeps it open. To move internship investment from feel-good strategy to business strategy, ground it in defensible metrics from your own organization.
Start with conversion rate. In 2024, employers extended full-time offers to 62% of their intern class, with in-person programs driving offer rates as high as 72%. Organizations using internships as a recruiting tool should aim to convert at least 50% of eligible interns. According to data from our National Intern Day program, the average intern offer acceptance rate was 71% in 2025. If your number falls below that, it’s a signal to refine the program, not eliminate it.
Then calculate cost-per-hire through conversion versus external recruiting. Add up every dollar spent on recruiting, supervisor time, compensation, and onboarding. Divide by the number of full-time hires produced. Compare that to what you spend filling similar roles externally. That side-by-side comparison resonates in a budget conversation.
Finally, measure quality of hire, the metric that connects your program directly to business outcomes. Track performance ratings, time to productivity, and retention at the one and three-year marks. The data here is compelling: 76% of interns who accept full-time offers stay for over a year, that’s 25% higher than new hires without internship experience. When you can demonstrate that intern-converted hires outperform and outlast external hires, the ROI becomes undeniable.
Phase Three: Tell the Story
Data builds the case. But leaders don’t approve investments based on spreadsheets alone. They invest in a vision they believe in. The final step is turning your metrics into a story that people can see themselves in.
And some of the most powerful stories in corporate America start with an internship. Michael Fiddelke, CEO of Target, joined the company as a summer intern in the finance department in 2003. Twenty years later, he’s running a $44 billion retailer. Doug McMillon started at Walmart as a summer associate, unloading trailers at age 17, and went on to lead the company as CEO through over a decade of transformation. Latriece Watkins began her Walmart career as an intern in 1997 and was just named President and CEO of Sam’s Club U.S. earlier this year. And Ursula Burns started as a summer engineering intern at Xerox in 1980 and became the first Black woman to lead a Fortune 500 company.
These aren’t outliers. They’re evidence of what happens when organizations invest in early talent with intention and give people a real path to grow. Every company has a version of this story waiting to be told, the intern who converted, excelled, and is now driving impact from a leadership seat.
Identify those stories inside your own organization and bring them into the conversation. Pair them with your data: conversion rates, cost savings, retention advantages. When leadership can see the people behind the numbers, the investment stops being abstract and starts being personal. That’s what earns long-term commitment.
The Long View
Economic uncertainty is real. Budget scrutiny is real. But the organizations that will build the strongest workforces over the next decade are the ones treating early career programs as a strategic advantage, not a line item to trim when things get tight.
Build the business case. Ground it in your own data. And bring it to life with the stories that prove your program isn’t just developing interns. It’s developing future leaders. That’s a case worth making, in any market.
