Interns’ experience with human resource practices and loyalty toward host internship sites

Purpose To study students’ experience with human resource management practices during their internship journey and its effects on interns’ loyalty toward host internship sites. Design/methodology/approach In this quantitative study, we surveyed and analyzed the experience of 213 college interns with human resource practices. We used multiple regression analyses to test our hypothesis of the effect of the interns’ experience with human resource practices on interns’ loyalty toward host internship sites. Findings We found that the interns’ experience with two human resource management practices positively affected their loyalty toward host internship sites. We also found that supervisor support played a paramount role in explaining the interns’ loyalty variance. Originality/value In this study, we use the recent employee experience conceptualization. To our knowledge, no study has inquired about interns’ experiences with human resource management practices during their journeys in host internship sites.