Learning Insights

Learning Insights Radio: Tammy Cohen with InfoMart

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Tammy Cohen (SHRM-CP, PHR), a background screening pioneer with three decades of experience, is a nationally honored entrepreneur, a successful businesswoman, and a recognized thought leader.

Founder and Chief Visionary Officer of InfoMart, one of the top 10 largest background check and identity screening companies in the industry, Cohen is known professionally as the Queen of Screen and was named among “Atlanta’s Top 20 Women-Owned Firms” and “Top 500 Women-Owned Businesses in the US.”

Recently, she was recognized as a WBE Star, the Most Influential Woman in Background Screening, and “Maverick of the Year” by the Stevie Awards. She lends her expertise to renowned publications, including contributions to Forbes, Entrepreneur, HR Executive, and HR Technologist.

Driven by Tammy’s passion, InfoMart continues to be instrumental in the development of processes and technology that are now the industry standard, including ASAP ID, a mobile ID authentication application that utilizes biometric technology to simplify onboarding.

Tammy’s drive has modernized hiring and given her clients a competitive edge when recruiting top talent.

Connect with Tammy on LinkedIn and follow InfoMart on Facebook and Twitter.

Transcript

Intro: [00:00:01] Broadcasting live from Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for Learning Insights. Featuring learning professionals, improving performance to drive business results.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:14] Lee Kantor here. Another episode of Learning Insights, and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, TrainingPros. We could not be doing this show without their support. Today on Learning Insights, we have with us Tammy Cohen with InfoMart. Welcome, Tammy.

Tammy Cohen: [00:00:32] Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to be here.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:35] Well, before we get too far into things, tell us about InfoMart. How are you serving folks?

Tammy Cohen: [00:00:40] Well, InforMart does background checks globally. And right now, we have innovated a COVID-19 fact platform. So, we’re sort of doing a little bit extra on the side of screening now for employers.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:54] And then, can you talk a little bit about how you got into this line of work?

Tammy Cohen: [00:01:00] I actually started the business 30 years ago when background checks were not really known for the industry. It was definitely in its infancy. And I’ve been through the industry as, you know, data has become available. We started with a fax machine. So, it’s been an interesting journey of data and information to bring us now to an age where data just moves in, you know, milliseconds.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:24] And then, as part of the growth of your company, it’s grown in terms of not only just size and people you serve, but your organization is growing quite a bit as well, right?

Tammy Cohen: [00:01:34] Yes. InforMart is considered in the top 10 largest in the industry. We’re known for our work culture and our employee engagement and as well as being an innovator of the industry.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:47] So, now, as you’ve grown and had to kind of evolve as the times have changed over the years, are you seeing this kind of new world of work kind of bubbling up where, now, this hybrid of in-person remote, you know, not only just in one office, but globally? Like, there’s a lot of the challenges today.

Tammy Cohen: [00:02:08] There is, but, I mean, I’m really excited about it because it’s given us an opportunity to really pioneer this new world of work. And to create the work force in the work environment that we really want to have. So, it’s sort of as much as it is a challenge, I think it’s also a really exciting time.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:27] So, now, how is your firm attacking it?

Tammy Cohen: [00:02:32] So, we are attacking it from all angles. Everything from, you know, a lot of research, looking at best practices, and wanting to be a best practice. But everything from, you know, now it changes how does your managers manage the workforce. How do you train your workforce, that’s changed. How you answer your phone, that’s changed. You know, even getting your mail. There’s so much in the workforce that’s changed. And I think one of the things that’s so important to have people like TrainingPros is that, as a workforce, you’re probably not equipped to make all these changes. And if you could have someone to take your policy, your procedures, and put them out to your workforce, you’re really moving quickly into the new world of work.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:16] And then, how did you kind of maintained that culture when some of your workers are, maybe, third party in their contract and then you have your existing employees? Like, how do you kind of get them all, you know, singing from the same page?

Tammy Cohen: [00:03:34] So, what we’ve done is lots of surveys. We do so many surveys and send them out, get the sense of what’s going on, and then put together a policy. And then, we watch it and then we make sure that it works. And if it doesn’t work, then we keep revising and just keep working things out until we get to the perfect norm for our workforce and contractors.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:59] And then, how are you deciding which kind of things to test and to explore? Is that from the leadership team? Are you listening to the folks, you know, on the boots on the ground? Like, how do you have that kind of line of communication where the information, not only can be shared, but also the best practices can be implemented?

Tammy Cohen: [00:04:23] You know, I think it all begins with the work culture you started out with pre-COVID. So, we have a work culture of, you know, give us your ideas, we want to hear them. There’s no bad idea. We embrace change. I think that’s the only way you can be an innovator is if you have a workforce that understands. It might change overnight. So, having that attitude already. So, in Slack, we have, you know, a water cooler channel and anybody and everybody. We encourage them, you know, put your ideas there. It doesn’t matter. There’s not a bad idea. So, we sort of take a lot of information from there. We’re looking at what other people are doing and just trying to see if that would work in our workforce.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:08] And are you looking at what other competitors are doing? Or are you just looking for best practices it doesn’t matter what industry?

Tammy Cohen: [00:05:17] I think as far as in our industry, InforMart is really a leader when it comes to work culture. So, I think that our industry sort of looks at InfoMart and what we do. But we’re just looking out across the world. You know, what’s even happening in Australia? I mean, what’s happening in Europe? What’s the best practice here in the U.S.? And my H.R. team is really driven to constantly be, you know, catching this information and putting it out to the entire workforce. “Hey, there’s a great article today.” Or putting it on our intranet. Trying to just constantly give people pieces of information that they’re involved in. But then, we can look at what we think would really work for us and put that into practice.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:59] So, how does that happen? Like, say, somebody finds something in Australia, some company is doing this innovative thing. They bring it up to, I guess, leadership and say, “Hey, is there a way that we can implement a version of this that might fit into our organization?” And then, do you do like a pilot of it? Like, how does it kind of go from the idea to actually, you know, it being implemented?

Tammy Cohen: [00:06:23] So, generally, what we do is, we take that idea and we look at all the components of it, and then we put out a survey. Are you interested in this? How would you see this work? How are you working? So, we can see where it fits. And then, we’ll usually put out – so, say, an interesting one was we had a tailgate event that we wanted to do. So, we put it out in a survey. You know, how many people would enjoy it, blah, blah, blah. And when we all get down to the end, only four or five people signed up. So, it’s sort of that experimenting all the time but asking all those questions of who wants to be involved, will this work, before you put it out. And then, sometimes you put them out and then they’re flop. And you just got to know that that’s the way it’s going to be.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:07] So, you measure all the results and then if it’s a flop, that’s not the end of the world. You just try another idea.

Tammy Cohen: [00:07:16] Oh, definitely. People tease me because you might not like my first idea, but that’s okay because I got 100 more behind it. So, we’re constantly changing. I mean, I think a good workforce has to embrace change and have to constantly be looking to change and understand things don’t work. And when they don’t work, you don’t get upset and complain. You just say, “This is not working out for me.” And then, we move on to the next type of event. So, we’ve tried to now go to more, like, virtual events of special, you know, groups. So, if you have children, you want to be in a special group we just have 30 minutes to talk. You know, with people that were into gardening. We were trying to look at putting people together in groups and that worked really well.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:00] Now, can you share us one of these experiments that worked, like, beyond your wildest dreams? Like, something that was a big home run.

Tammy Cohen: [00:08:11] So, I think that I would look at – I know this sounds silly – but Slack. You know, we’ve used Slack for years. And then, we finally just really said, “Hey, everybody. We need to communicate on Slack to eliminate email and that type of thing.” And I thought that we were going to really have a hard time of it, but it has really picked up quickly. And the entire organization is communicating so quickly and so fast that, I think, in many ways we’re performing better than when we were all in an office together. It’s small, but some of these small things are major in the big scheme of things.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:49] And then, let’s talk a little bit about how when the pandemic hit and then it’s kind of an all hands on deck that this is a real thing, how did your leadership team kind of navigate kind of that point of crisis?

Tammy Cohen: [00:09:05] I am amazed with my leadership team, because, you know, when it first hit, I was the girl who went to Michael’s to get my craft and then I went to Home Depot to get my flowers. Because I sort of thought, “This could be, you know, some time off. Let’s enjoy it.” Never thinking that this is really what was going to happen. But, fortunately, I have a team that really saw this big picture. And immediately within a week, we deployed 150 people to their homes. And because we do background checks, the level of security that had to be implemented across the board was huge. It was a huge list. And my team did it seamlessly. But I think a lot of that goes back to your employee culture. And that if you have a culture where you foster a long tenure, when things of crisis happen, people jump in and know exactly what to do and how to handle it and they’re very committed to the organization. So, I think that our culture created this immediacy and the need to make sure that we serve our clients and nothing fell through the cracks. And, actually, nothing fell through the cracks. It was amazing.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:13] And then, having gone through that exercise for yourself, did that help you have the confidence and the ability to then transfer that knowledge to your clients?

Tammy Cohen: [00:10:24] I think that our clients could see it in the sense that because of what we do, we are accessing information sources in courthouses for criminal histories. Well, when the pandemic hit, so many of the courthouses closed and many of our competitors couldn’t operate. But because we’ve been in business so long and the tenured employees that I had, they knew the more manual ways of getting information and back to days that, you know, 50 years ago, the way things work. So, we were actually able to service our clients. And I think that made a huge difference. And then, recognizing the strength that we have as far as being a leader in the industry.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:07] And how do you kind of capture that institutional knowledge that, like you said, that becomes a superpower because you’ve been doing it for a while. So, there is that kind of history and that historical context on how to do things. And there might be other ways that aren’t the current way that you can get around things. How do you kind of capture that and then how that flow through to your newer employees that, maybe, don’t have that history in the business and industry?

Tammy Cohen: [00:11:36] So, that is a challenge in a remote workforce. And it goes back to training, having constant and consistent training, constantly learning. I think that has been huge. And companies like TrainingPros, when they’re able to come in and give you that resource and help you get down that road with your employees, it’s invaluable.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:00] And, for you, at this stage in growth of InfoMart, what do you need more of?

Tammy Cohen: [00:12:09] Time. And I think every entrepreneur is out there right now and saying, “I feel like I’m running a race every day.” In everything that I do, I end the day and say, “Oh, wow. It flew by and I still have all of this I can do.” So, I would actually say time.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:31] Like, from your prospective clients standpoint, what is the pain that they’re having where your service is the solution?

Tammy Cohen: [00:12:43] The pain point that we were having, you know, up until, probably, two months ago was getting information. So, doing a background check, the courts were closed. Colleges were closed, so you couldn’t get education verification. Employers were closed, so it was challenging to get an employment verification. But, actually, employers stopped hiring, so background checks sort of stopped. And that’s when my team sort of pivoted and we created this COVID fact platform. And, fortunately, it has really taken off. So, that has sort of filled a really unique gap for our clients. And that we now have the solution for them that’s sort of handling a lot of problems they are having right now. Even though they’re not necessarily hiring and screening, they can now take care of their existing workforce.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:33] Now, do you have any advice for the folks out there that, maybe, haven’t had the experience in managing a remote workforce like you have? Any kind of dos and don’ts?

Tammy Cohen: [00:13:46] You know, I would say, you have to be just open minded and really look at all areas and explore them and think about them. Just do not close your mind to anything that might seem like it’s too odd because it’s a new world of work and it’s exciting to look at the different things. As well as, you know, listen to your workforce. Listen to the people that you lead, what do they really think is best for your organization, and just keep working it through. It’s not a make a decision in this world today. It could break tomorrow. And you just got to pick it up and figure the next step out. I think, looking at it as being exciting and fun and an adventure is a lot easier than looking at this as a heavy lift.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:30] And then, it sounds like you’re a big believer in taking shots and experimenting, but measuring the results and, like, doubling down on what’s working and then discarding what isn’t.

Tammy Cohen: [00:14:42] Exactly. You have to. I mean, in this day and age, you can’t waste time. And if something’s not working, you just don’t do it because it looks good on paper. You do it because it works for your workforce or it works for your customers.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:55] Well, thank you, Tammy, for sharing your story today. If somebody wants to get a hold of you or somebody on your team, what’s the website?

Tammy Cohen: [00:15:04] It is backgroundscreening.com.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:05] Backgroundscreening.com. Well, thank you again for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Tammy Cohen: [00:15:16] Thank you.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:17] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We will see you all next time on Learning Insights. And remember, we could not be doing this work without our good friends at TrainingPros. So, please support them so we can continue to share these important stories.

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