Training Interns in Profiles
The three traits of a good profiles researcher are Thoroughness, Accuracy, and Speed, in that order. This guide to training new interns/staff should help emphasize these traits.
- Have the new intern read the profiles wiki pages: BioGuide, all tabs under the Biography Tab, Offices Tab, and Address Tab. There is a lot of information in these guides and interns may not understand everything on the first read through, but they will develop a better understanding of what you are going to be talking about in training.
- In initial training, there are also useful presentations that can be utilized for initial training for Profiles Interns.
- When the interns are done reading the wiki pages, take them into the conference room for further training, as it is the easiest way to train Profiles interns. Using the Vote Smart website, show the intern the Biography section so they know what the 'final product' of their work will look like. Expand all of the Bio information and point out the different data that we add: Birth Place, Education, Campaign Website, Office Address, Social Media, etc..
- Next, open up Admin and show interns the different ways to get to a candidate's profile and then point out where the same information seen on the website is stored in admin. Making the connection between what it looks like on our website and how the data is entered into admin might help emphasize the importance of accuracy.
- At this point, it is time to go over the step-by-step process on how to collect and enter data into admin. This includes showing interns how to enter data under the Biography Tab, Additional Biography Tab, Addresses Tab, and Offices Tab. Make sure to take your time and allow interns to take notes and ask questions.
- To start off, assign interns to lower priority states, such as an election that is far off, so that they have time to learn. Show them how to get to the appropriate place on the Google Drive. It's important to remember that interns won't be able to finish what is assigned to them in one day and that is perfectly okay. Part-time interns should be able to cover 5-10 candidates per day when they are first starting out. Full-time interns should be able to cover 15-20 candidates per day when they are first starting out. However, their speed should pick up week by week. If not, you should first talk to them and see if there is something in particular that is slowing them down or if there are any strategies you and your intern can come up with to increase his/her speed. If this does little to help, you might have to think of assignments where their research strengths will be more beneficial, such as collecting addresses and websites or updating photos.
- Next, show interns how you go about your routine. Emphasize how a good routine will help with thoroughness, accuracy, and speed. Say something like:
- Now that you have the schedule and Admin open, show them how to get to their sources. Open up a candidate on Admin and, in a different window, open up Google. Some standard searches include: [candidate's name] for [state] [office], [candidate's name] for [state] [office] [district], and [candidate's name] for [state] [office] Facebook. Another way to access information is to check the Secretary of State's website because some SOS sites list candidates' email addresses and/or websites.
- Let the intern observe you as you do a candidate that has little to no information and explain to them that there are candidates with very little information to collect and that as long as they've been thorough, this is totally okay. For candidates that have a lot of information, stress that it is important not to have duplicate information. As you enter information, take your time and point out little tidbits of information that might be hidden throughout a candidate's website, so they know to look out for these things. Show them websites that are good to use and websites that are not. Remember to give interns plenty of time to ask questions.
- While they are observing you, stress the importance of clicking the "save" button because if they don't hit "save" and accidentally close out of something, they will lose all the work that they had entered. Also stress the importance of using the tracking sheets to keep track of their work.
- Finally, switch positions with the intern and have them go through the motions of researching a few candidates. For at least the first 2 candidates, walk them through the process and point out any mistakes along the way. If the intern is comfortable, let them do the next 2 candidates by themselves while you watch and keep track of any errors made. After each profile is done, explain to them what those errors were and how to fix them before letting them do the next profile. After this, if the intern feels comfortable, let them do 5-10 profiles on their own, without you watching over their shoulder, before you go back and make corrections. While this process might make interns feel slightly awkward/uncomfortable, it's best for them to have that kind of hands-on experience before you set them free to work on bios by themselves. Once you've let interns work on bios by themselves, correct their work everyday for the first 3-4 weeks of their internship using a Google doc*. If by the end of the 4th week they have managed to limit the number of errors they make to 3 or less, you can start randomly correcting their work 1-2 times per week. In the case that interns are struggling and continue to make many errors past the 4th week, have a conversation with them where you can come up with some tactics to help the intern out, while continuing to make daily corrections.
- Be available more often than normal when you have new interns. They will have questions...LOTS of questions. This is normal and encouraged! Don't forget to go over and ask them how they're doing, too.
"When I arrive to the office, the first thing I do is open my email in one window. Then I pull up my schedule from the Drive. Next, I pull up Admin in a different, half page size window. In a different window, also at half page size, I pull up my sources." And so on.
Training Remote Interns
When training remote interns, many of the above points still apply, however there may be adjustments in the way these training's can be delivered (utilizing Google Hangouts for example).
It is imperative with remote interns to do the large majority of intern training via Google Hangout, in order to ensure comprehension from the intern, and provide the avenue to ask questions throughout the course of training. In addition, when navigating the first, and even second round of corrections, discussing these over a Google Hangout can be helpful to ensure understanding, as is done with in-person supervision.
For additional resources, feel free to check out Managing People page for further tips on supervision.
*Note: These Google docs should be in the Google Drive under Staff/Intern Corrections > [year] and should be saved using the interns name. Once you create a Google doc for each of your interns, you should ONLY share it with that intern. No other intern should have access to another intern's corrections.
