At the PBSA Annual 2024 Conference, the InformData team heard many stories of challenges and successes, learned what’s on the horizon for your businesses, and discovered new ways we can support you. And, speaking of challenges, we know it’s been tough recently for CRAs and background screening companies, but we’re in this together, and there are many reasons to feel optimistic about the future.
So, we took our insights and crafted a webinar presentation to share our positive takeaways from the conference and the industry at large, including middle-market regeneration, pockets of opportunities, capitalizing on the current economic landscape, and more.
The best of the best—Jeff Anop, Vince Pascarella, Vince Brodt, and Nick Fishman—explored how you can leverage the good things happening in the industry and position your company to thrive.
By the way, this post summarizes what was covered. You can watch the full, on-demand webinar for free here: Exploring Growth and Opportunities in the Screening Industry: PBSA Conference Takeaways.
Here’s an overview of what was discussed in the webinar:
1. Market Trends and Economic Drivers
Nick Fishman shared some stats highlighting positive economic signs, noting that inflation has cooled to 2.5% and interest rates are starting to decrease, which could stimulate investment in employees and technology. While unemployment remains stable, job churn is a concern for the background screening industry. The Jolts report for July showed growth in accommodation and food services, but a decline in healthcare and government job postings. Despite challenges, Fishman anticipates consolidation in the industry to pick up by early 2025, and he emphasized that smart businesses invest during downturns to emerge stronger. He remains optimistic about improving trends.
“Remember, many of us have been in this industry long enough where we saw recessions... But what always happens afterward is this industry ends up having pretty hockey-stick growth. I'm confident that's going to happen and I'm confident that while some of these market trends and some of these drivers are a little bit challenging right now for the industry, we are starting to see positive signs of improvement.” - Fishman
2. Emerging Industry Opportunities
Jeff Anop explored some emerging industry opportunities, sharing that, over the past 90 days, InformData has had numerous conversations with industry experts, customers, and prospects, identifying three key trends shaping the future of the market. First, sectors like healthcare, transportation, manufacturing, higher education, and the gig economy present "pockets of opportunity" that are expected to grow as interest rates drop and economic activity increases. Second, businesses are seeking innovation and differentiation, looking to leverage AI and new technologies to stand out in a competitive, consolidating market. Lastly, there is a strong focus on technology transformation, with companies investing in data and tech to improve efficiency, speed, and cost structure. InformData is aligning with these trends to help its customers take advantage of these opportunities moving into 2025.
“And as the industry consolidates, as there's a lot of competition … the small business, kind of lower end, of the marketplace and mid-market customers … they really want to find a way to stand out and be unique. Just like in any business, you want to have a differentiator.” - Anop
3. Leveraging the Supply Chain for Growth
Vince Brodt emphasized that successful background screening companies during economic downturns adopt a redirection strategy by reallocating internal resources to focus on external growth. Instead of hunkering down and maintaining the status quo, companies should streamline operations by consolidating supplier networks, thus reducing costs and internal resource demands. This enables more focus on sales, marketing, and service efforts, which are crucial for growth. Leveraging fewer, more efficient suppliers through platforms or APIs also enhances cost efficiency and operational speed, preparing companies to scale rapidly when the economy recovers. By doing so, businesses can avoid the typical hiring bottlenecks post-recovery and instead focus on front-end growth.
“The real benefit of that is just simply that it's going to require fewer resources internally for you, less costs, more efficiency, and more focus on that external growth. And at the same time, you can also lower your total cost of ownership because not only are you potentially reducing your operating cost by having less people managing a whole lot in the supply chain, but you can leverage your collective volume to that half dozen or fewer suppliers.” - Brodt
4. Hiring and Talent in a Slow Economy
Vince Pascarella highlighted that the current economic downturn presents unique opportunities for companies in the background screening industry. While economic contractions—whether due to a global pandemic or a short-term recession—can lead to layoffs, particularly among experienced professionals, this creates a hiring opportunity for well-prepared companies. Many skilled individuals, including those in technology, sales, marketing, operations, and compliance, are now available in the marketplace. He also emphasizes the importance of background checks during these times, as making a bad hire in a down economy can be especially damaging to a business. Investing in the right people now, whether for project work or full-time positions, can help companies be better positioned for future growth.
“Making a bad hire is costly to an organization... Making a bad hire in a down economy when your company might already be financially struggling can be devastating to a business.” - Pascarella
During the webinar, we offered two polls and found that our attendees overwhelmingly see the economy as their biggest challenge in 2025 and are most optimistic about new products and technologies.
Feeling Optimistic?
While the session included expert advice throughout, we closed the webinar with a few final tips from our panelists for future success: Be flexible, invest wisely in downturns, focus on sales enablement to drive market diversification, and take advantage of the top talent available.
And, as Vince Brodt mentioned during the webinar, it's important to leverage the supply chain for growth—to do more by doing less. Having a reliable partner with the scale to support your business as the economy rebounds is essential. At InformData, we're ready to be that partner for you and want to know how we can best support your goals.
Thanks for reading. If you prefer to listen to these updates or if you’d like to dive deeper, I encourage you to watch the on-demand webinar recording.
