Intern Programs as a Human Resources Management Tool for the Department of Defense

The Department of Defense now faces the challenge of responding to the imminent retirement of a large proportion of its civilian workers and the impending U.S. military transformation that will likely require a larger civilian workforce to support a new force structure. One way in which DoD plans to address this challenge is through recruiting "the best talent available." In its efforts to determine effective ways to recruit such workers, DoD asked the RAND Corporation to look at intern programs, characterizing DoD's current intern programs, identifying best practices for intern programs among private-sector firms and other government agencies, and recommending approaches for improving such programs. This monograph describes RAND's response, presenting and synthesizing insights and findings from interviews the authors conducted with managers of DoD and corporate intern programs, from a review of literature on intern programs, and from analyses of personnel data, and making specific DoD policy recommendations.