Are you looking forward to the new intern's arrival? There are so many things that you'd like her to do. In your vision, she does more than run for coffee and make the copies. Look at your to-do list: write copy for the Facebook posts, check on the social media chatter, identify new features and functions that would be useful for the millennial customers, edit the videos ...

Now, look at what interns actually know about your company, your products and your services. Nothing beyond what might be on the website. Quite the disconnect. In reality, they know as little as you did on your first day on the job. By the time they figure out what's going on, the summer will be over.

It takes time to to learn the language of your workplace. Here’s the formula for learning the new vocabulary of a new job: 7-20 repetitions of a word/term used in multiple contexts over time. This includes reading, speaking, writing and listening — active plus passive input. It also includes different tense, construction and usage variations of meaning and significance.

This is how people pick up words on their own. It sounds logical. The key challenge for the intern's productivity is that this takes more time than we want it to take. Learning new words and phrases and new concepts requires days and weeks.

It is imperative for the intern to hear and read the language specific to your workplace again and again that won't be difficult since he'll be in the environment. The discouraging thing is that by the time he learns the lingo he'll be done with the assignment.

How do you intend to bridge that gap? Is there a way to speed up this process?

Yes. Here's a great project for the intern(s). Using pen and paper, ask them to write down every new word or phrase they hear during their first week on the new job. Chances are that some of these words have become second nature to you, so you won't realize how your language has changed.

The 10 minutes it takes to review the list at the end of the week will accelerate your intern's ability to learn the lingo. Doing that again, during the second week, will make it easier for the intern to be more productive.

Keep the list and start building your office glossary for all new employees and contractors.

The hardest part about building that list of words and phrases is recognizing which words need to be included. The newest members of your team are in the best position to identify the special words of your workplace.