The purpose of this quantitative study is to examine how the onboarding practices of students' internship organisations influence their willingness to seek future employment with the organisation or recommend it as a place to work. Five years on from the COVID-19 pandemic, the hospitality industry remains plagued by a significant talent shortage. One way to address the talent shortage is through student internships, which have long played a key role in hospitality education programs (Collins and Pearlmann, 2023). Smith and Green (2021) found that organisations invested in internships as a way to build a talent pipeline for future full-time roles. From a student perspective, internships provide them with a direct and realistic view of what it is like to work in a particular organization, which in turn may influence organisational attractiveness (Sekiguchi et al., 2022). Consequently, creating quality internship experiences is essential to an organisation’s talent acquisition strategy, both directly and indirectly. As interns may be more willing to join the organisation after graduation (Neelam et al., 2018) and/or provide positive word-of-mouth to others seeking employment (Breitsohl and Ruhle, 2016), this is a crucial aspect. As socialisation of newcomers shapes their initial experiences (Neelam et al., 2018), onboarding takes on particular significance (Klein et al., 2015). Studies have shown that onboarding impacts factors such as commitment, engagement, and retention (Pico et al., 2024). The research problem of this study is that, despite the well-documented role of onboarding in enhancing organisational outcomes, little is known about how internship-specific onboarding practices
influence interns’ perceptions of organisational attractiveness and their willingness to seek future employment or recommend the organisation to other job seekers.
This study addresses a key literature gap by shifting the focus from general internship experiences and satisfaction (Mensah et al., 2023) to the specific impact of onboarding on newcomer perceptions of the organisation (Díaz-Muñoz and Andrés-Reina, 2024), and in examining temporary employment relationships, which are crucial yet understudied (Kupczyk and Kubicka, 2018). By applying Klein and Heuser’s (2008) Inform-Welcome-Guide (IWG) onboarding framework and analysing intern perceptions, this study aims to identify which onboarding practices have the most substantial impact on organisational attractiveness
and word-of-mouth recommendations. This study employs a quantitative research approach to examine the relationship between internship onboarding practices, interns' willingness to seek future employment with the organisation, and their likelihood to recommend the organisation through word-of-mouth. A survey-based design is used to collect standardised responses, enabling statistical analysis. Convenience and snowball sampling are employed, where final-year undergraduate students at several Swiss hospitality schools who have completed a mandatory internship will receive the survey questionnaire. Data will be collected
through an electronic survey, incorporating validated scales from existing literature, including Klein et al.’s (2015) Inform-Welcome-Guide (IWG) categories for onboarding practices, Highhouse et al.’s (2003) organisational attractiveness measure, and Breitsohl and Ruhle’s (2016) employee word-of-mouth scale. The study will utilise correlational analysis to examine the relationships between onboarding practices, interns' willingness to seek future employment with the organisation, and their likelihood to recommend the organisation to others. This analytical method is chosen for its ability to identify statistical associations between variables, providing insights into which onboarding practices are most strongly linked to interns' perceptions and experiences. By adopting correlational analysis, this study provides meaningful findings
that can inform both academic research and industry practices in hospitality talent acquisition. This research makes an original theoretical contribution by extending onboarding theory to the context of temporary employment relationships, specifically internships. While onboarding research has primarily focused on full-time employees (e.g., Klein et al., 2015), this study explores how short-term onboarding experiences shape longterm organisational perceptions and employer branding in the hospitality sector. It also extends the literature examining relationships between onboarding practices and newcomers’ perceptions of the company itself, a research avenue which has been underexplored to date (Díaz-Muñoz and Andrés-Reina, 2024). The study also adds to the quantitative research on onboarding as previous studies have focused more on qualitative research methods (Pinco et al., 2024). By integrating internship onboarding with measurement of organisational attractiveness (Highhouse et al., 2003), this study develops a new perspective on how structured onboarding can function as an early-stage employerbranding mechanism, influencing interns' career decisions and industry reputation. Given the limited resources organisations may have to invest in internship onboarding, examining the perceptions of students in relation to specific onboarding practices and organizational attractiveness will allow HR representatives to focus their efforts more effectively on practices which contribute to students’ willingness to return after graduation. For higher education establishments, a deeper understanding of students' perceptions of their onboarding process will help strengthen partnerships with industry in designing a well-structured internship program that meets the needs of both students and hospitality establishments.