I have a question for any shoppers that have worked for the Baird group. All I see on their job board are certifications. Does this mean that you have to take the certification before you can see the jobs; or does this mean that there are no jobs in my area. Thanks.

Thanks for asking this.
I was wondering whether to start those certifications before finding out if they ever have work in my area.

I just took the certification for the phone shops. It wasn't hard. I just watched a video and took a short test. You can't see what shops are in your area unless you do the certification. It takes 48 hours for them to grade your test because some of it is written. Since I just submitted it, I am sure someone will probably get back with me by Tuesday. I bet the shops pay pretty well. I think it is highly likely they are going to have shops in any major areas, because it's healthcare industry so if you live in or near a good sized city, they will probably have plenty of work for you to do. I would go ahead and do it!

Jasflalmt- Thanks for that info.

I've only done their phone shops so far. I think you need to do 3 phone shops before you can complete the certification for the on-site shops. The shop fees seem to be relatively high for the on-site shops, but I haven't done one yet, so I don't know how involved they are. They haven't had any on-site shops near me yet, but they have some in neighboring states.

Thanks everyone. Now I know to do the certifications.

How bad are the reports for the phone shops? Pay doesn't appear to be enough ($5) unless you are getting more for your area.

Well, I was being recruited to do the onsite shops. They have one of particular interest to me. So I did the 3 phone shops to become certified. Really easy. Then came the feedback.....
FIVE clarifications for THREE shops! One of the e-mails even showed that the program director had already approved it! I understand that their shops require a different perspective, but at some point you're just taking out a thesaurus and adding words.

So then I took the onsite training although I'm leary of the jobs by now. They pay you $5 and the program director keeps contacting me to do it. WOW! The training actually says that you can expect to take 150 photos or something like that. Yikes! I finished the test and actually get a "clarification" on that! Mind you, nothing difficult, but holy cow! For $5!

Now the program director has stopped contacting me after all her "I really need you" proclamations. I'm not sure I even want to work for them any more anyway.

@SansyAigo HUH?

They want 150 pictures for the training certification?

The on-site shops I have seen on their job board pay $150. Would you be doing something different?

Hey Angela,

What was said about the 150 pictures wasn't so much _for_ the training certification-- it only says that you may need to take that many photos for some of the on-site shops. Having done several on-site shops, I can say that 150 photos is about the max you'd have to do, but you can expect to take 100 photos easily per location.

The $5 shop that Sandi mentioned was actually their phone shops. I have to say... there was a time when doing phone work for Baird was a dream. I loved it. I loved everyone I worked with and I loved the job and even though it took a little time to write up, I still really had a good time with it.

Things have drastically changed, however, in the last six months (and no one likes change). I know that the internal structure has changed and that some of the people who used to be there aren't and that some of the new people have been promoted after only being there a short time. Unfortunately, that's made the $5 phone shops ... exceedingly extraneous. I have been working with Baird for almost two years now, and as "seasoned" as I am, even I end up making less than $2/hr. I have come to the conclusion that (at least _for me_) the shops just aren't worth it. I would do on-site work, I really love on-site work, but the phone shops with the edits and re-edits and unclear directions and with one person saying to write it up one way and another person saying to write it up another ... just aren't worth it, anymore.

It's dumb, but I'm sad about it. And if that makes me Stompy whatever, so be it. I really loved working with these folks.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/2013 04:25PM by jentodd.

Thanks for the clarification! I've done two of their phone shops so far. I've applied for quite a few others, and I even received an email from the editor after my second shop encouraging me to apply for more, but I've had no luck completing a third, so I haven't done the on-site certification yet.

angela12 Wrote:
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> They want 150 pictures for the training
> certification?
>
> The on-site shops I have seen on their job board
> pay $150. Would you be doing something different?

Not for the training, but they say you can take that many during a job. They want as many photos of negative and positive things as possible. The onsite you are seeing is probably the same type of job.

Eric in Tampa Wrote:
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> @SansyAigo HUH?

What?

Jentodd--Thanks for your post! I thought it was just me.....

Not just you, no. =( I know of a lot of shoppers who feel this way. =X

I completed the phone certification, but really, really don't care for the health facilities and scenarios in my area. They only have one client and I am not ready to deal with alcoholism, addictions and depressions. They have very specific locations and most are in the NE US. I am pretty sure if you contact them, they would let you know if they have clients in the area. The certification is time consuming. Even with the phone clients, you have to live within 60 miles (I think I got that right) of the medical facility. I might reconsider if they have other clients in my area. I heard of shoppers who ms'ed knee surgery, etc.

jwolpert Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have a question for any shoppers that have
> worked for the Baird group. All I see on their job
> board are certifications. Does this mean that you
> have to take the certification before you can see
> the jobs; or does this mean that there are no jobs
> in my area. Thanks.

jwolpert Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have a question for any shoppers that have
> worked for the Baird group. All I see on their job
> board are certifications. Does this mean that you
> have to take the certification before you can see
> the jobs; or does this mean that there are no jobs
> in my area. Thanks.


I have worked for them. You will see the jobs available if they have any in your area. They will be at the bottom of the list.

cubbiecat Wrote:
- Even with the
> phone clients, you have to live within 60 miles (I
> think I got that right) of the medical facility.


They don't always stick with the 60 mile rule for the phone shops.

I passed the phone certifications but they changed the locations to another state. The offices were no longer local, they became state-ly. Which meant that I was no longer able to shop them. The way it sounds, they will be offering nothing close to me. Good riddance

I registered with the Baird Group last year.

Phone Shops: With excellent writing skills and speed, you can do a shop in 30-45 minutes. There are three issues I have.
1. There is zero consistency in the volume of shops you request versus shops assigned - and they refuse to offer any explanations about this - this is unfortunate if you are trying to project income for yourself.
2. The phone shop pay stinks. 5 dollars a shop for almost an hour's worth of work - and they expect top notch quality - the pay can drop to 2 bucks an hour if you get multiple send backs for clarification. It is almost not worth doing phone shops. I wonder if Kristen Baird - the owner - ever looks at the poor wages she pays her contractors. So far below minimum wage it is laughable.
3. They refuse to accommodate volume requests even if you are an experienced operator with them.

You should clarify before taking the certification if they have clients in your marketplace - they seem to have NE and Mid Atlantic clients - I would look for their competitors in your marketplace if you don't see shops in your area.

The On sites and walk throughs pay is much higher and worth your time if you can find the right medical scenario.
You do have to do 3 phone shops first to qualify, take the on site certification and pass a background check (felonies and fraud).

The personnel are approachable and are responsive to email. They would not need to continually recruit if they developed and took care of their shoppers by paying a decent wage - I personally think they need to double the current rate of pay if not triple - especially for shoppers that are highly skilled and experienced.

I have not heard from them since last year. Maybe they detected that I was not happy with the constant badgering for clarifications on simple answers.

I just started with Baird within the past 2 months. You have to complete 3 phone shops before you can take the test for on-site shops. I have done 3-4 onsite shops and would gladly do more! The most pix I have come back with is 33 for a walk-thru visit. Have not yet done one where I portray a patient, and which pay 3-4 times as much.

I find the walk-thrus very easy to do and have had almost no requests for clarification. I was asked to amplify a couple of remarks about how something made me feel, but nothing onerous. The phone shops are the price of admission to the on-site shops. They really want to make certain that you can report well in their preferred style before they turn you loose on the on-site stuff.

I have worked mostly with Bridgit as a scheduler and think she is just great. The editors have also been thoughtful and easy to work with. The narratives become quite easy after the first one or two times. I just write up the whole story first, in the order that the short narratives appear in the survey. Then I cut and paste pieces into the short narrative boxes and the whole thing into the "Tell us the whole story" box, and away we go! I have had a lot of negative things to say about some locations and they have no problems with that.

Yes, "amplify" is a good way to put it. I did a patient consultation shop and they asked me less about that whole process than they did about the phone shops. I ended up with 39 photos, some of them duplicates, all positive observations. Still considering going back for the procedure.