There’s a noticeable drop in the office air conditioning bill as the month progresses; parents everywhere are letting out sighs of relief, as they no longer need to think of ways to occupy their little ones for eight hours of the day; and the promise of waking up to a pumpkin spice latte is on the horizon. Yes, fall is just around the corner.

And with the coming of fall comes the time to decide what next steps to take with your summer interns. Hiring summer interns is great for a lot of reasons: you get to introduce some new, fresh faces to the rest of your team to help liven up the company culture; you get some extra help around the office while helping someone to gain real-life experience in a field they’re interested in; and, most importantly, you get to give potential employees a test run in the form of an internship.

Now that you’ve seen what your interns have to offer, how do you know who stays and who goes? Ask yourself these three questions to see if you’ve found the perfect fit!  

Do they show genuine concern and care for your business?

Especially in the world of small business, it’s more important to find someone that truly cares about your company rather than someone from a top university, or with the best recommendation. Do they show up on time? Do they occasionally answer emails outside of the office? Do they ask questions rather than just clocking in, putting in the work, and leaving? All things to look for when measuring how much a summer intern cares for your business.  

Do they maintain a healthy sense of work/life balance?

Another important quality to look for in any potential hire is if they have a good handle on their work/life balance. It’s important to have a life outside the office, but it’s also important to not cross the line of bringing your personal life into work to make things professional. Look to see if they take personal calls at their desk frequently or share a little too much about their personal lives too quickly. It’s totally fine to tell the office about your significant other, but it’s a little less appropriate to detail the last argument you had for all to hear.  

Do they get along with the rest of your employees?

It takes a lot of time to build a strong, positive company culture. You don’t want to shake that balance by hiring someone who doesn’t mesh with the rest of your team. Even if they’re a perfect candidate in every other sense of the word, you need to really evaluate how a person will work with your company’s employees before taking someone new on. Luckily, you have a couple months to go off of to judge how well your interns worked with everyone else. 

Visit salesforce.com to learn more about hiring the right talent at the right time, or download the free e-book.