The Electromagnetism-like algorithm is a relatively modern metaheuristic based on the attraction-repulsion mechanism of particles in the context of electromagnetism theory. This paper focuses on improving performance of this metaheuristic when solving binary problems. To this end, we incorporate three elements: pre-processing, repairing, and transfers functions. The pre-processing allows to reduce the size of instances, while repairing eliminates those potential solutions that violate the constraints. Finally, the incorporation of a transfer function adapts the solutions to a binary domains. We illustrate experimental results where the incorporation of these elements improve the resolution phase, when solving a set of 65 non-unicost set covering problems.