The Power of Partnering (POP) is a half-day event where women entrepreneurs, business leaders, corporations and procurement professionals come together to train, network and create matchmaker opportunities to help create and reach procurement and business goals.
Each agenda includes educational resources from thought leadership and subject matter experts and the opportunity to showcase your capabilities statements in a meet the buyer setting or matchmaker sessions.
Tammy Cohen, an industry pioneer and expert in identity and employment screening, founded InfoMart over 30 years ago. Deemed the “Queen of Screen,” she’s been a force behind industry-leading innovations. She was most recently the first-to-market with a fully compliant sanctions search, as well as a suite of identity services that modernizes talent onboarding.
Tammy revolutionized the screening industry when she stepped into the field, developing the first client-facing application and a due diligence criminal search that has since become standard for all background screening companies.
Cohen has received national awards and honors for her business and civic involvement, including Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Top 25 Women-Owned Firms in Atlanta, Enterprising Women Magazine’s Enterprising Women of the Year award, the YWCA of Northwest Georgia’s Kathryn Woods Racial Justice Award, and a commendation in the 152nd Congressional Record.
Connect with Tammy on LinkedIn.
This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.
TRANSCRIPT
Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for GWBC Radio’s Open For Business. Now, here’s your host.
Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here broadcasting live from the GWBC Power of Partnering event at Georgia Power Headquarters. I’m so excited to be talking to my guest right now, Tammy Cohen with InfoMart.
Tammy Cohen: Hi.
Lee Kantor: Hey, it’s been a hot minute, but I hear you got some big news.
Tammy Cohen: It has. It has. Besides this has been an exciting event for all of us, learning a lot, getting Georgia Power to present and give us tips on how to get into business with them, but InfoMart is 35 years old this month.
Lee Kantor: Congratulations. Thirty-five years is an amazing achievement. Any tips for our other entrepreneurs out there on how to have a business make it for 35 years?
Tammy Cohen: You have to hire a good team. You have to have good people support. You can go as long as you want to go, as long as you have that team behind you.
Lee Kantor: So, for the few people out there who aren’t aware, can you share a little bit about InfoMart? How are you serving folks?
Tammy Cohen: Yeah. So, InfoMart is a global background screening company, and we do the background checks on candidates, and that’s the criminal and driving type of records. But we also screen suppliers and volunteers, all types of different people. Anybody that you’re going to have in your business or in your systems, you want to mitigate that risk with a background check.
Lee Kantor: So, how has the business evolved? Because 35 years ago, there wasn’t an internet, there wasn’t a lot of things that we take for granted today.
Tammy Cohen: So, Lee, you’re showing your age in that fact that you knew that to ask that question. So, yes, when we started, it was all fax machines.
Lee Kantor: Fax machines.
Tammy Cohen: Yeah. We had one computer. Our database was index cards. In the early days, they came out with voice mail where you could just leave a message, you could push a button yes or no. You know, we were very innovative with the technology, but, yes, a long way.
Lee Kantor: So, what is it like today for your clients? Like, how are you doing a background check today that kind of can be as fast as it has to be, but as effective as it has to be as well?
Tammy Cohen: It has changed a great deal in the speed of time and how fast it is to get a background check. As you can imagine, it used to be anywhere from three to five days. Now, you’re looking at under one day to get a good background check done. And what’s really interesting about our industry, it hasn’t had a lot of changes in that you submit the information, we go out and procure that data, and then we distribute it back to the customer.
Tammy Cohen: Now, compliance has really changed, so that’s put a lot of layers in that InfoMart takes care of for customers. But one of the things that InfoMart is innovating, which is really exciting, is the Career Wallet, and that’s where you, as the candidate or the supplier, will basically now have your data in a wallet that you can share with me. And when you share that data, some of it I don’t have to go do a background check and the employer doesn’t have to pay for because you already shared it with me.
Lee Kantor: Because that is vetted information that’s kind of blessed so that this is real and that’s good enough for everybody involved?
Tammy Cohen: Yes, yes.
Lee Kantor: And that’s a new development?
Tammy Cohen: Yes. Believe it or not, it is. No one in our industry has done this, and I’ve been actually working on this a long time. But I’ve have now some of my competitors that are going to work with me, because we look at this as a whole industry-wide change that needs to happen.
Lee Kantor: But it was proprietary to InfoMart?
Tammy Cohen: Yes. Career Wallet, trademarked and everything.
Lee Kantor: Trademarked and everything. So, when you develop this idea, then you had to create kind of a marketplace for it, right? You needed the corporates to say, “Okay. I’ll accept that because if InfoMart said they vetted it, then that’s good enough for me.” So, that 35 years helped that go along, right?
Tammy Cohen: Oh, definitely. And, you know, when I first came up with the idea, the technology wasn’t out there. You couldn’t do a mobile wallet. You couldn’t even do a web wallet. Basically, it’s been going on for years because it came out about with your credit report. So, we’re doing credit reports for employers. and it was like, “Gosh. I really wish the candidate could own their own information and share it with me. That way, we don’t make a mistake and the employer doesn’t get a mistake.” And so, the technology first had to come along, and keep figuring that out and figuring that out.
Lee Kantor: Because it can’t be alterable, right? It has to be kind of locked down and saying this is the facts as it is at this moment in time.
Tammy Cohen: Right. And there’s only certain data you can do that, like in education. So, criminal history, you can’t. It’s not static. But an employment verification, you can certainly do that. But now what’s so great is that employers are looking at skills, so as much as your verification is important, how long you worked at a certain place, what you learned and what you know is far more valuable to the employer.
Lee Kantor: Are employers being more flexible in their thinking when it comes to they have to have a degree, or are they looking at some of these certifications that maybe I can get through some of these organizations when it comes to cybersecurity or for digital learning, or those kind of things where it shows that I have competency in these areas and they’re saying it but it’s not an official kind of college degree. Are those becoming acceptable?
Tammy Cohen: Absolutely. And you used the exact word, competency. A lot of people don’t realize that, but that’s what employers are looking for, what is your competencies, and that could be a skill, that could be where you worked. But all these different levels of education and certifications and experience, even volunteer work, means a lot to the employers when they’re making these selections.
Lee Kantor: So, if you’re working with somebody and you are verifying their employment, are you going to that individual that you’re verifying and saying I can put all your stuff in this wallet that you can take with you and you don’t have to do this step anymore?
Tammy Cohen: Exactly. And after we do the background check, we basically ask the candidate if they want to open a wallet and have all that data in their wallet, and most of them say yes. And if they don’t, the employer then can ask them after they get the background check, would you like to have this data. Because on the other end, what makes this really great is that the employers have a module where they can add other competencies into it, and it’s also in that wallet. So, when the candidate leaves, there’s certain information that the employer can let them have because they paid for, say, the education. But then there’s other things they might have got at another part-time job or Uber or volunteer that stays in the wallet.
Lee Kantor: And that way, the candidate is ready for the next one, and then it’s more value for the next person to verify because the bulk of it is already been verified?
Tammy Cohen: Yes. And it leaves money in the budget for employers to do more of the criminal history more in depth, because cybersecurity is huge. And then, just sanction searches on people so you can see who is not allowed to work in the medical industry. I mean, there’s all kinds of searches like that that employers don’t do because they’re looking at budget, so it sort of helps in that regard.
Lee Kantor: And so, you’re helping them kind of prioritize, really, what is most important, and they don’t have to pay as much for the things that are more static and they’re not really changing, but the things that could be changing minute by minute are getting checked.
Tammy Cohen: Yes. It makes it very robust. The background check is going to become more and more robust as the years go on and adoption happens. And it’s exciting because I think there’s a lot of other things that can happen inside this wallet as far as education and QR codes and seminars.
Lee Kantor: And this is why it’s so important, I think, to partner with experts like you. You’re thinking about this 24/7 and you’re really trying to kind of get in the weeds of any opportunity and anything that has to do with it where your clients aren’t. This is one thing that’s on the checklist of a lot of things that they got to pay attention to, and they’re not spending as much time and energy on this specific challenge that you are, and that’s why InfoMart is so important to the marketplace.
Tammy Cohen: It really is. And my title is Chief Visionary Officer. You know, I’d always had a CEO because we’re in security. And I got where I was like, “I want a title with a C in it too.” So, I went to my team and I’m like, “Ken, will you give me a title?” And so, they came back and they’re like, chief visionary officer, because that is what I’ve done, is really looked at the future.
Tammy Cohen: And it’s not just what the employers need, but what candidates need, and what us, as consumers, think of how much aggravation we’ve eliminated with like LifeLock. That’s what you’re sort of doing with your background check, because courts make mistakes all the time. They’ll send you a record on somebody and it’s not them, and it gets sent to the employer.
Lee Kantor: Right. It could be a typo. There’s like a million places it could go wrong.
Tammy Cohen: Absolutely. Especially in the courts, courts only use your name and a date of birth, and many times it’s what you told them. And I’m going to tell you why, criminals usually don’t use the correct information.
Lee Kantor: You know, believe it or not, they might not be telling the truth.
Tammy Cohen: Exactly.
Lee Kantor: Shockingly. So, if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team, what’s the website? Where should they go?
Tammy Cohen: backgroundscreening.com.
Lee Kantor: And then, before we wrap, why is it important for your firm to be part of GWBC?
Tammy Cohen: Wow. You know, I have about five of my team members here just to meet other women business owners, because people don’t realize, you know, we’re women business owners and, yes, we’re involved because we want to do business with the supplier diversity people here, the Georgia Power, the Emory University. But there is just as much value in doing business with other women. So, that’s been my focus today, is, getting my team spread out through all these women business enterprises.
Lee Kantor: Yeah, that’s great advice. Don’t neglect the network because your network is where the power is, really, ultimately, because relationships matter.
Tammy Cohen: Well said.
Lee Kantor: Well, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.
Tammy Cohen: Thank you.
Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor, we’ll be back at GWBC Power or Partnering event.
