Phillips Edison & Co. isn’t kidding around with its college interns. The company’s robust PECO Internship Program provides a steady stream of talent, aids the next generation of job seekers and burnishes the company's reputation in the community and the industry.

“The program has been a key pipeline of talent for the organization,” said senior vice president and chief people officer Keith Rummer. The program also gives junior managers at Phillips Edison a chance to test out their skills as they work with the interns. “It’s kind of like a workforce development and training ground for future managers,” he added.

Of the firm’s current full-time employees, 11% started at the company as interns. And 67% of interns who have become full-time staffers are still with the company, according to early talent development specialist Brian Fanelli. Fanelli manages the PECO Internship Program, which involves 15 to 20 interns in any given college semester. “We are always, always recruiting,” he said, “whether we have jobs [to fill] or not.”

The Cincinnati-based company has close ties to local universities, including the University of Cincinnati, whose co-op program provides Phillips Edison with a steady influx of intern talent all year long. Fanelli also works with student groups and visits colleges like The Ohio State University, Miami University, Xavier University, Northern Kentucky University and University of Kentucky to scout.

The company always has valued young talent, but its current robust program didn’t begin to take shape until 2013, when vice president of human resources Emily LeFevre joined the firm. She brought experience running a strategic program from her previous job at a financial institution.

Phillips Edison now offers internships during fall, spring and summer semesters. During their time in the program, interns tackle real issues for the company, Fanelli said. “This semester, they’re working on evaluating our bad-debt assessment and then understanding the impacts of AI and e-commerce on our business. They’ll be presenting back their findings to some senior leaders here.” The company views the intern program as a supplement to its workforce. “These interns are doing actual real-world work,” Fanelli said. “They are crucial to the business. That’s a big part of why we invest so much into it.”

Allison Lembright and Ashley Selers are two of those former interns who continue to climb the ladder at Phillips Edison. Lembright, a senior marketing manager who guides the current marketing interns, started as an intern in 2014 when she was a senior majoring in informational graphics and publication design at Ohio University. She moved to Cincinnati from Cleveland to intern in the marketing department designing leasing postcards, flyers and other graphics.

After her internship, she joined PECO full-time and now her responsibilities include branding, social media and overseeing consumer marketing. “I have someone who now reports to me, and I help her develop, grow and work on her skills. I also loop her in on the things I’m doing so I can get her more experienced,” Lembright said. Another of Lembright’s duties is coordinating the company’s booth at all ICSC events.

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Senior leasing professional Ashley Selers became an intern at Phillips Edison as a junior finance major at Xavier University in 2016. She started out in the finance department, working on budgets and reforecasts at the property level, and after her internship joined the firm full-time. She loved working with numbers but wanted to have a more direct impact on the company’s balance sheet. “I like to find that last puzzle piece to create a story,” she said, “but I did it behind paper in that role.” Eventually, the energetic pace of leasing properties attracted her. Selers transitioned to that side of the business in 2019, leaving Cincinnati to work in leasing at the firm’s Park City, Utah, office, where she is still based today.

Selers is one of many at Phillips Edison who have changed disciplines within the company during their careers, Rummer said. “We’re still a very small company in many ways and very entrepreneurial,” he said. “If you’ve got talent … we’re going to tap you on the shoulder. We’re going to move you through the organization. We’re going to stretch you … and give you different opportunities to grow and develop.”

ALSO CHECK OUT: Phillips Edison’s Joe Schlosser worked six other jobs for the company before becoming COO this year.

The company surveys departments about their hiring needs and posts very specific intern positions, Rummer said, “but there are occasions where you meet somebody that is really talented and you say: ‘Gee, I don’t necessarily have a fit but we have got to find an opportunity.’”

Ultimately, the PECO Internship Program educates more interns than it could ever hire. Why is the company producing skilled talent for competitors? “For some of them, we are a stop on their journey, not a destination and that's okay,” Rummer said. “The internship program gives us a very strong brand in the Cincinnati community and really helps position us as a place where people want to work. Because we've got 20 interns with us every semester and they go and tell their friends about the great experience they've had that leads to a better brand positioning.”

Lembright and Selers are nostalgic for their intern days. Both fondly recall going to Cincinnati Reds baseball games and working on volunteer projects as a group. “Being a former intern, what stuck out to me and why I stayed at PECO was purely the culture, the experiences, the things I was working on,” Lembright said. “So, every semester, I want to give our interns that same experience of feeling very involved, feeling included.”

Selers is still in touch with many of her fellow interns. “There were some of them that have stayed in the industry and that’s another resource that I have. The bond that we all formed going through this program was fun and it's exciting to see how the program has evolved since I was an intern.”