Ring the Bell – February 2016

Stephanie Akker joined our Career Path Services family in June 2014 serving Dislocated Workers in Benton Franklin. She continues to strengthen and solidify her role within our team and as a support specialist to the job seekers she serves.

Her passion for service and the commitment she brings daily to meet the needs of her caseload is noteworthy. She always goes the extra mile to ensure participant’s expectations are exceeded through timely enrollment processes, aids in the appeal of unemployment decisions as warranted, facilitation of mentorship to the long-term unemployed, connections with integral community service, and mining for unique training opportunities through providers like Coursera and Ed2go. Stephanie embodies customer service.

She has been an integral part in brainstorming and implementing this year’s recruitment and placement effort. Stephanie LOVES data: analyzing, identifying trends, and determining how today’s results may effect future outcomes. This attribute of hers has aided our team in identifying the unique needs, tendencies, and characteristics of long-term unemployed job seekers as we executed our Rapid Response Long-term Unemployed contract.

Additionally, her skills have been essential throughout the implementation process of our Sectoral  National Emergency Grant  (NEG). She has used a variety of reports to help target specific employers and recognize needed skill upgrades of our job seekers.

Hard work leads to performance, and the investment upfront with each job seeker leads to their ability to achieve self-sufficiency. Stephanie led the team last year in placement wages and is on track to exceed 100% of her performance goals this program year.