background investigator

researcher

insurance verification specialist

employment specialist

technical support specialist

Ballast-Research-1

Working here has some negatives, but for me has more positives. The job in almost all roles is very flexible. You're able to work remotely and can easily leave early and pick it up later.

Pay is not a strong point of the company, but the people hired are. The people and flexibility, as well the way of work, make this a job worth having for me. There is room to move up, but it isn't as frequent as it was before the merger.

The merger has brought a lot of great things, but also a lot of pain points. The bad parts of the merger are sadly more visible: confusion over who is responsible for what, frustration over new system platforms and policies, and changes in management. A lot of it isn't bad, but it is different. It isn't helped by a HR department too understaffed to properly function. If it was then we may see better employee relations. Plans change often, but the bad part is there is little communication or thought put into what the new plan is or why the change happened. 

A typical work day for myself involves answering a lot of questions from employees and helping them navigate unique situations. I also research information for the quality department and client experience so that they can give information to our clients. I make sure the work is getting done and isn't too old as well as always look for ways up improve resources and make better processes.

There are a lot of different supervisors and managers and you may not get one that you particularly like. All of the leadership people are thoughtful and nice, but they're not all equally knowledgeable and helpful. It isn't necessarily their fault because the company does not offer nor provide any amount of training for leadership. Once promoted you start the job and you either have experience and do fine or you get really good at asking/researching for an answer. Everyone tries to be helpful, but sadly this gap can lead to frustration for front line employees. All supervisors advocate for the people under them, but upper management doesn't always take these concerns seriously, nor do they really understand the frustration front line employees feel when abrupt changes are made, especially when it's a loss of a perk/benefit, because they're not the ones who have to deliver the information. If there is a reason that makes it easier, but generally none is given.

The good parts of the merger is that it thankfully brought in a lot of great people who work well together. There are great ideas, great innovations, and more work being brought in means more job security. Myself and others try to remain positive about the direction of the merger, but without more transparency it's difficult to see how it's going to get there. Trust is hard to give when recent decisions don't seem to support stated goals.

Research and data jobs aren't for everyone, it can be repetitive and dull. If it's not for you, that's okay, but that doesn't mean the job is bad. Be honest with yourself and most importantly never forget it's just a job, don't take it so seriously. 

Company went downhill fast after the merger. There’s the WSS side and SJV side. It feels like WSS took over and they employed the worst managers. Managers will take hours or even days to assist if you don’t get ignored completely. It’s been years but they still seem to have an “us” vs “them” mentality. 

Good luck trying to learn when the trainers don’t even know half the stuff they’re supposed to be training you on.

I would not consider it a safe environment to ask questions. I’ve seen first hand, group chats where people make fun of others for asking so many questions. Even the manager joined in on ridiculing. 

The pay is low, not at all sustainable. They introduced bonuses with no cap, but I guess people were making a livable wage with that and they just can’t have that. In one of the meetings a manager stated “some people are making upwards of $40 an hour with the bonus” like it’s a terrible thing. They nerfed how much money you can get and changed the requirements needed to even be able to get the bonus. Now the bonus is just a slap in the face. “Thank you for working hard, here are your bread crumbs.”

They opened up an office overseas, while telling everyone their jobs are safe. That was a false statement. They do a round of layoffs and then say “we were restructuring but we have no plans to do anymore restructuring.” Two months later there’s another round of layoffs! And the cycle repeats. What a joke. Based off of this, it seems every few months there will be a round of layoffs. You either quit or just wait for your time. 

Once a year they will host a town hall meeting with everyone in the company. It’s just the higher ups congratulating themselves on getting more money while we get chump change. They won’t even let you ask questions live. They pick and choose what questions will even show up. They lock the chat all together because they wouldn’t be able to handle employee comments. 

This company never follows through with it's promises. You're given "broken" tools to do the job with. They always promise to fix everything that's broken but never do, yet expect you to deliver results based on a "perfect" system. They barely invest in new employees at all to succeed, which is a red flag. What they're really doing, is now that the system is fixed in their favor, they're using it to "prop" up the employees they like while sacrificing others. They'll use the newer people to waste all the "extra work, or first attempt" cases on while feeding all the "easy closing, final touch" cases on those they deem worthy. They force you to take meetings that have nothing to do with work, then have the audacity to tell you that you're responsible for making up that lost time.  And that's just one major example of how this company shoots itself in the foot, then gets you to somehow fix it. To me that tells me there was never an investment in the first place. If you value your mental health, and i don't say that lightly, stay away. I worked longer than 6 months and in different departments just to get a better feel for the company. I was always a top closer until the merger and system changes. Pass these guys up unless you're really in a tight spot.

I worked hard for this company for 3 years and they fired me for a policy issue without ever letting me know. They change policies constantly and I believe after opening in Manilla they let go of US workers and this company prides itself on working with Military wives.  I got great reviews two days before my firing and when I begged to know why I was being fired they said it was a "policy" issue and not keeping up with my quota? I had an A grading the whole 3 years and was never told I was doing a bad job or anything was wrong. They ran out of research work for me and asked me to volunteer to do Processing.  I passed their ridiculous tests and got emails saying I was doing great.  I was out sick from work, stressed over learning the new position and was asked to fix a few orders. I did so on my own time and then got fired for using the company computer on off hours.  I don't recommend this company to anyone , the pay is low and they will drop you with no problems or reasons. 

I worked for Informdata for 3 weeks. As soon as training started, it was apparent that the company does not care about their individuals. They constantly push their touches and closes metrics while on the clock, of which, is all luck of the draw. The management does NOT care about the people doing the actual work. You can get 200 touches in an eight hour shift but if you don’t meet their requirements for closes, they’ll put you on a performance improvement plan. That happens once a month. If you get 3 of those in a year, they fire you. I ended up having to go to the hospital for an infection and even after notifying my manager, I was fired since I was admitted for more than 3 days. HR also makes it clear that they won’t work with your schedule as only full time employees are permitted for the first 6 months. All in all, the job is easy however, you spend all of your time stressing over meeting their metrics that it outweighs the benefits. Worst company to work for. 

Company was recently formed from a merger between two background screening companies. By far the worst company I have ever worked at. The pay is horrible, and they will cut pay at every corner to avoid paying you what you are worth. Any company that says "We're a family" - run. This toxic "family" gives horrible benefits. this "family" will work you until you're maxed and then mandate that you work past that until you're literally drained of life. Productivity goals that are established are unrealistic. Training consists of people who have no idea what they are talking about... ultimately setting you up for failure, and trust that you will be written up or fired when you inevitably fail their unrealistic standards.  This company is extremely numbers driven, you are a number and that is it. You line their pockets and you're lucky if they throw you a slice of bread and call it a "bonus". Please, please look elsewhere for your mental and emotional wellbeing. 

The overall job is relatively easy. You log into the software and call places to verify information requested by most employers. Reference checks and such. The majority of calls are outbound using an auto-dialer but sometimes inbound calling is also required.

The real issues in my experience were with management and the metrics and quotas required. The expectation when I was there was between 20 to 30 calls an hour but the workload never seemed to facilitate that. We often had to work on a small manual outbound list and there was never enough to go around. We were given a report card and an overall score. If you scored poorly due to forces outside of your control like the broken and outdated software, which happened frequently, then you were essentially put on probation. 
The management on my team was ever-changing and often very unprofessional. Publically calling out low performers in chats and singling certain people out due to personal biases. 

I first started with the company in 2023 as a verifications call specialist and was able to move to my current department of International Operations later in that same year. I can say that as long as you are willing to put in the time and hold yourself accountable, the leadership that I have dealt with have consistently gone above and beyond to support all things that have occurred. I was promoted to a support role in 2024 and then supervisor earlier this year; and I felt the transitions were smooth ones as I made it clear what my goals an strengths were and requested mentoring for the areas that could be improved. 
The benefits of having the remote role is that as a mother and caregiver to my own mother, there is the flexibility of being able to have the work/life balance that is needed to ensure that they get the care they need along with me getting the mental breaks that I need while still feeling like I am making a positive impact with my work team.

This company is a joke, I do not recommend this place to anyone! They like to preach "we are family" but they can care less about you. When my dad died, I lived 18 hours away from him and they made me work instead of allowing me to take time off to spend what little time I had left with him. They make up reasons to fire you and refuse to show you proof because they don't have any. The mass fire people for nothing on top of mass layoffs only to hire new people over seas at a cheaper price. They say you can advance and move departments to learn more but that rarely if ever happens. The only saving grace this place had was the people I met while working there but still if you joke in the chats you get in trouble. You have some chats you get in trouble, even if it is to help coworkers. I am glad you be out of this company, I would never recommend anyone to work for or even hire this company. 

Pros: Easy job to do. Mainly outbound calls to HR or schools to verify peoples employment or education so you're not dealing with "customers"  
Supervisors are incredibly helpful and kind.
Time off is easily available if you have PTO time.
Cons: You have quotas that at times are harder to meet and higher ups don't care. For example, if its summer, you cant really get a hold of anyone at a school to complete a case. You make the calls but get the verification completions you need per hour.
The pay is low.
They set up an incentive program then changed it because people were bonusing too much. Some of us burned ourselves out working at 150% instead of 110% and they saw it as we should always give that 150% not realizing we cannot always give 150%. 
They opened a call center in Manilla because it was cheaper. Then laid of employees here in the US after being told not to worry.
Company meetings never really touch on employee relations.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Background investigator 43 salaries reported	$15.23 per hour
Researcher 54 salaries reported	$15.53 per hour
Insurance verification specialist 4 salaries reported	$13.00 per hour
Employment specialist 10 salaries reported	$12.00 per hour
Technical support specialist 5 salaries reported	$17.20 per hour

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