Bringing someone in (usually a young person, although not always) for work experience can be a rewarding system for both you, the company, and the individual in question. It's very common for companies to have people in for work experience, but of course they are always allocated someone to look after them. What if that someone is you - how would you be a good mentor to them?

Get the background information

Try to learn about your candidate before they arrive. If they are still at school, what subjects do they enjoy? What are their aspirations? Why did they choose your company? If you know why they picked your place of work, you can help to set objectives about what they want to achieve. Are they being paid? (some work experience candidates get no wage; they are literally just there for the experience). Can you motivate someone enough to be interested and engaged, knowing that they aren't being paid to do it?

Set out what you want to achieve

So many companies make the mistake of giving the work experience person the worst job in the office because it's unpaid labour. This is terribly unfair and often leaves a bad impression of the company. Why would you want to work for a place that just had you opening envelopes? You can do that anywhere and it really doesn't speak to the person what the true ethos of the company is about. At the same time, they can hardly sit in the CEO's office during a more exciting meeting if the nature of it is manically busy and confidential - they'd only get in the way.

Understand what your limits are in allowing them to gain experience but ask them what they want out of it - do they see themselves working here in the future? What role? Perhaps they can shadow someone doing what they aspire to do. Ask them to list their objectives and try to help them achieve them the best you can.

Guide, but don't oppress them

Very often someone in the position of mentor will oppress their subject by being with them every second of the working day. Trust your candidate to get on with the job by themselves, it's more rewarding and they will feel more in a position of responsibility. As best you can, treat them like any other valued employee, it should encourage them far more than you watching over their shoulder and taking their breaks with them.

Observe and feed back where possible

Remember that work experience is often a person's first foray into the life of work, and the politics of it. Some things that are obvious to you will be new to them. Do they understand procedures, know how the office works? Do they know who they can go to for help, do they know that being 5 minutes late can impact other people? Give gentle feedback often and sometimes don't be surprised if you're stating the obvious - they are not just new to your company, they are new to the world of work and are relying on you for a gentle introduction.

Overall, the key to making work experience rewarding for you, the mentor and the candidate is engagement - take an interest, encourage and feed back, and you'll be surprised at the input you can get, instead of the output of doing a menial job that neither teaches nor rewards them.