If I ran MedQuist - this is how I would do it.

If I ran MedQuist: 

Pay Rate:  No Tier 1, 2, 3.  All MQ MTs would have to be Tier 3 and paid as such.  Starting off at 9cpl with cost of living increases.  ASR rate would be paid 25% less MT rate.  25%!!!!!!! 

Minimums:  Minimums will be set up at $$ amount each day, ASR or MT lines, daily minimum must me met at least 4/5 days worked and will be set at $100.00 (based on the new pay rate would be doable).

Incentive:  Absolutely floors me this is a production job and no incentive is offered.  Incentive would be in three tiers: 

Tier #1 $10.00 if MT reaches $125 for the day.

Tier #2 $25.00 if MT reaches $150 for the day

Tier #3 $50.00 if MT reached $175 for the day. 

Incentives will be paid per day and not cumulative, so as to avoid the MT who waits to the end of the pay period to produce. 

QA Support:  QA support would be a live feedback and accessed by a quick call from MT who requires an additional ear.  There would be no penalty for accessing QA unless it is abused.  That is, if MT produces 30 reports a day, she may access QA up to 3 times.  However, if QA is not able to help with blank, this will not be counted against MT.  QA will be cumulative (i.e. if MT may just have a run of bad reports and needs assistance), and at the end of the month if QA ratio is equal to reports produced, no penalty.  If QA ratio is higher, then MT’r may need training or reassessment in her ability to perform this job.

Quality:  Quality should be 98%, not 99%  I would like to see what ever industry requires their workforce to be absolutely correct 99% of the time.  And the quality should only be deducted for obvious carelessness and incorrect medical information, not commas, periods, the’s, a’s, or the ever changing BOS.

Schedule Source:  No time clock.  MT would pick a block of time  10  or even better 12 hours but I could live with 10..and be required to produce minimum for that day.   No swapboard (anybody ever use this thing anyways??).

Compliance:  This and other micromanaging tools need to GO.  I promise - you pay MTs a decent wage, with incentive, and not hold them to every microsecond of their day, you will get quality production.  Very simple, if an MTr is not producing their minimums in their agreed block of time, if their quality is not at least 98%, then discipline measures to be taken. 

How could MQ ever afford this??  First off, it would help if they were not greedy corporate dwellers..However, I have a very real proposal that this will weed out the MTs who are not up to this job in the first place.  With those MTs who are willing to work to increase their production and make incentive, MedQ would be able to reduce their workforce by a minimum of 20% (yes this is off the top of my head, but based on my own personal 20% increase that I would do, I feel safe in assuming this would be across the board).  This would save $100,000s in salaries and benefits and streamline the MQ workforce.