First Stop on Our Achieve Adventure: The Island of Intake

Workflow Series | November 27, 2018

Let’s travel back in time a bit…let’s go to that point in your childhood when checking the mailbox was always exciting and hopeful. When a letter or package had YOUR name on it. It wasn’t junk mail either, it was genuine and unexpected, intended just for you! Now hang on to that feeling and remember it when your next Career Lattice step certificate arrives!

The Achieve Intake Team: Amanda, Sawe, and Laura

For you to receive that special piece of mail, a few action steps need to happen first. Let’s begin your adventure on the island of Intake! Intake is the first step in Achieve’s application workflow process. Sure, you’ve submitted your application in Develop and while sending documents to Achieve remains optional, you’ve indicated you will be sending documents, but our Data Intake Specialists can’t do anything until your documents arrive via the mailman, fax machine, or email. That’s right, much like your childlike self, our Intake department made up of two Document Intake Specialists and one Data Verification Specialist (who serves as back-up), anxiously await the arrival of your achievements (documents).

As mentioned earlier, achievements arrive at our office in many different ways. Some days we receive large boxes filled with hundreds of training certificates for multiple people. Sometimes people save on shipping costs and send an email with 50+ attached training certificates; others may send 50 separate emails each containing one attachment. Scanning and emailing documents to support@mncpd.org seems to be the preferred method. Snail mail addressed to:

Achieve – The MN Center for Professional Development
2908 Marketplace Dr. #103
Fitchburg, WI 53719

comes a close second. Faxed documents to 877-379-2467 are not too common these days but, remain the chosen method for some.

Whichever method you choose, you can be sure that when your achievements reach us, our Intake department will:

• Check them in and date stamp them.
• Match *every single document to the correct account/application.
  • *Tip: If applicable, always include a maiden name on your Develop account’s personal tab, we receive many official transcripts that don’t match-up to an existing account in Develop.
• White-out private information like Social Security numbers and Student ID numbers on official transcripts.
• Individually review each account holder’s application status in Develop and update the status to show that materials have been received.
• Send an email confirming receipt of documents along with an application status notification.
  • How many emails could our Intake department possibly send out in one month? We’re glad you asked! Our main Data Intake Specialist, Sawe sent out a total of 1,132 emails last month, it was almost a record high!
• Scan and save all documents for electronic storage.

It’s true, there are many details left unshared in this blog post. That’s because the intake process is super detailed. We actually have a 35-page internal procedure document outlining every last detail, but blogs are supposed to be quick and easy — pretty much opposite of the application work we do. No two sets of documents are ever the same; special care is given to everything we receive here at Achieve. If we could leave you with one piece of advice that would speed up the overall process, it would be to review the Acceptable Documentation policy on our Achieve website and do your best to only send acceptable documents with each application.

Let’s shift the focus to our awesome Intake Department! Meet them in the video below.