Introduction to QA

The following document will cover the essentials of the QA Role at TranscribeMe, including team policies and expectations, instructions for navigating the Sessions tab, as well as tips and tricks to help you along your QA journey. Note that within the umbrella of the QA role, there are four main teams of QAs: 2-step, 1-step (QuickStep), ASR, and Stampers. Be sure to carefully read all instructions and documents pertaining to your respective QA team(s) before beginning work.

What is a QA?

The term QA stands for Quality Assurer. 2-step, 1-step (QuickStep), and ASR QA files are TranscribeMe's Polished product offering, which comes with a 99% accuracy guarantee. As such, QAs are responsible for ensuring that the client receives a clean, consistent document which adheres to this 99% accuracy guarantee.

2Step QAs are expected to strictly adhere to the Advanced Style guidelines, correcting and rejecting transcribers' work as appropriate and combining multiple individual jobs to form one cohesive document.

1Step QAs (such as QuickStep) are expected to follow, at minimum, the Basic Style guidelines laid out in the first half of the Style Guide. Stylistic expectations are therefore less strict, but the same quality and accuracy standards apply as for 2-step work. Of course, you are welcome to apply the Advanced guidelines if you wish!

ASR QAs edit files that have been transcribed by a virtual transcriber (ASR, or Automatic Speech Recognition), fully QAing them to comply with our Clean Verbatim style.

Stampers DO NOT edit or alter the transcribers' text, barring specific circumstances outlined in the FD Stamper Guide. They are still responsible for beginning the session with a capital letter, ending the session with terminal punctuation, and merging any misaligned chunks within the file. Unlike other QA teams, the Stampers are not responsible for the document's text. Only the timestamps and speaker IDs must be 99% accurate for Stamper files.

QA Transcription Quality

Outlined below are the main responsibilities of a QA. Failure to meet these expectations may result in the loss of your QA status. Remember that, for Stamper files, you do NOT edit the text.

Accuracy: You are expected to capture all speech relevant to the audio without paraphrasing, editing, or otherwise changing what the speakers say. Every effort should be made to make out even difficult audio. The text must be 99% accurate to the audio. This includes removing [inaudible], [crosstalk], or Guess tags where the speech can be made out.

Consistency: Each file must be consistent within itself in regards to punctuation, numbers, symbols, spelling of names and terms, etc. Please refer to your respective portion of the Style Guide for further details.

Timestamps and Speaker IDs must be accurate and timestamped within two seconds of the speaker's first utterance. Each speaker is assigned the same ID throughout the file, based on the order in which they appear in the audio. Timestamps must be in chronological order by the second. Every paragraph must have a timestamp - except in the case of the [silence] tag - even in a single-speaker monologue.

Research: Every name, company, and term mentioned in the audio should be researched to determine the correct spelling and formatting. If there is more than one accepted spelling, choose one and be consistent.

Professionalism: You are expected to have a strong grasp of correct sentence structure, punctuation, and spelling. Be sure to thoroughly proofread for typos or formatting errors before submission.

QA Guidelines located on the right of the WorkHub screen must be strictly followed for each file. This is especially important to note if you are on more than one QA team, but all teams may have special instructions appear here from time to time. The text must be broken up into logical paragraphs and stamped appropriately, even in single-speaker monologues. The transcript must begin with a capital letter and end with sentence-ending punctuation, even if the first or last sentence is a fragment.

QA Policies and Expectations

Activity: We ask that QAs strive to complete a minimum of 2 audio hours per month to remain on the team, which can include any work done on the Sessions tab: 2-step, 1-step, or Stamper. If you plan to be away and will not be active, please notify the team of your absence via the Inactivity Notification Form. For long absences, your QA status may need to be deactivated until you are ready to return to work.

Communication: It is CRITICAL that, while you are working, you keep tabs open for the Watercooler and your work email in case we need to contact you regarding a file you are working on. TM Watercooler is mandatory for all QAs. You should also strive to frequently check the Watercooler and your work email for other hub-related updates.

Turnaround Time - Extension Guidelines: The WorkHub will calculate an appropriate turnaround time for each file based on its length, represented as the Due date you see on the session. Please strive to complete every file within this calculated due time in order to meet the clients' deadlines. As such, you are expected to adhere to our Extension Guidelines to the extent possible.

Lost Sessions: You must follow our Lost Sessions Policy if you lose a file or find one that may be lost. Failure to adhere to this policy may result in you losing partial or full pay for the file in question.

Session Drop Rate

Once you hit Commit, we expect that you will follow that file through to completion. After committing to the session, if you then fail to complete the file, either by canceling or by allowing your extension to expire, it is considered a dropped session. The percentage of sessions dropped - whether you worked on it or not - of those you commit to is referred to as your drop rate. QAs are expected to maintain a drop rate of 25% or lower each month. QAs must also maintain a drop rate of 10% or less overall. This means that no more than 1 out of every 10 sessions you commit to, all figured, can be dropped.

We understand that everyone occasionally drops a session. Sometimes something comes up unexpectedly in life, or you start on a file and then find that it is too difficult for you and you'd prefer to let it go. Just please keep in mind our policies before committing to a file to avoid unnecessary drops. Every hour that you hold onto a file that you won't complete is one hour less that the next QA has to work on it before it is due to the client.

What does NOT count as a dropped session:

• A lost file that you later submitted
• Any session you did not commit to

Payments

TranscribeMe does not pay for partially completed files. You must complete and submit the full file to receive payment.

All submitted work is subject to review prior to being approved and payment being made. The standard expected quality level is 99% minimum. Work must be submitted in accordance with provided instructions, style guides, and format. We reserve the right to reject work, with or without pay, at our discretion, for work that does not meet the 99% quality threshold. Work may also be reviewed by the admin team after the submission is complete. Work that does not meet the 99% quality threshold in this admin review may result in lost pay, additional probation files, or removal from the team.

Accidental/Early Submissions

If you accidentally submit a session, create a Help Desk ticket immediately so we can return the file to you. If you did not write down the Session ID (which you should always do first thing), you can retrieve the ID from your Work History page. Send a ticket via the purple beacon at the bottom right of your WorkHub screen and select (QA) Accidentally Submitted a Session as the reason.

Note: If your session was marked for review, the Help Desk may decline to return the session to you, advising that the Reviewer will find and correct any remaining errors. If your session was marked for delivery directly to the client, then that client may already have a copy of your incomplete transcript in hand. Please take every precaution to minimize accidental early submissions. Repeated errors may jeopardize your status as a QA.

Tips and Reminders

• Capitalize the first letter of the session and end with appropriate punctuation.
• Timestamp the first speech, even if it's filler words that are not included in the transcript.
• Timestamp every new paragraph, even if it's the same speaker.
• NEVER paste into the WorkHub from an external program such as Word or Grammarly.
• When dealing with a large number of speakers, you can use Alt+0 to create a stamp and have the speaker box pop up immediately, allowing you to type in the number.
• Check for updates on TM Watercooler.
• Early submission: If you accidentally submit a session incomplete, please create a Help Desk ticket immediately and include the Session ID, found on your Work History page, so it can be sent back to you.
• Silent file: If you come across a file that is all or mostly silent, please send a Help Desk ticket with the Session ID.
• Foreign files: If your full file is any language besides English, please create a Help Desk ticket and include the Session ID. We sometimes receive bilingual files, which will usually be indicated by the style guide for that session. Never transcribe the non-English parts.

Support

TM Watercooler is mandatory for all QAs. Your Watercooler name MUST match your WorkHub name. The QuickStep Team, QA Corner, and Stampers groups on the Watercooler are treasure troves of important Resources posted on the right-hand side of the group. Please make sure to always post QA-related questions in these groups and NOT All Network, as this may confuse transcribers. Failure to join TM Watercooler and your respective QA group could result in a suspension of your team status.

Help Desk: If you have any issues with a file or have a question, please create a Help Desk ticket.

Invite a Friend: Whenever you invite someone to join TranscribeMe, fill out this form with their WorkHub email and/or full name before they are activated as a transcriber. If they become a successful QuickStep or 2Step QA, then you will both be eligible for a $5 bonus after their first 5 audio hours completed following probation!

Thank you for your interest in becoming a member of our QA team! There are ample opportunities to have a rewarding career with our fast-growing company, with positions from Transcriber all the way up to Project Manager. Best of all, you can enjoy this challenge from the comfort of your own home.

We look forward to seeing you online!

TranscribeMe! Operations Team