How Blockchain can change the job search

by | May 22, 2018 | Jobs Featured

The blockchain is founded on the premise that large groups of users from various parts of the globe interact without using intermediaries. The very nature of its operations creates trust between these large groups of users and it is on that basis that other groundbreaking solutions have been sought to embrace other industry disciplines.

Though Bitcoin may have been the first “gold rush” to be explored by blockchain, it is far from being the last. One industry that has already positioned itself to benefit from the blockchain technology is the Human Resource in its laborious task of identifying and screening talent for the purposes of employment.

Background

During the conventional hiring process, prospective employee’s resume is screened for validation. The problem with this is that the hiring Manager has no absolute certainty that the information contained therein is absolutely correct. A prospect can indicate a certain University as the college of learning, and there is no absolute proof to check against the facts. The information can be faked or the certificate purchased from a backstreet printer. The time and cost involved in undertaking the hiring process to get talent can be way too laborious as information has to be verified by multiple vetting agents.

It is upon such a background that blockchain can be instrumental. The use of a distributed ledger system across the network, with no alterations, would make the work of the HR managers less tedious. With this consideration, trust in employee suitability won’t be an issue for employers.

Blockchain job search

The blockchain aims at developing a provision for digitizing all possible information that may be required from the prospective employee by all the sources involved. This involves having digitized certificates issued by the respective colleges, the signatures appended therein from the institution and any other vital information. When the skill history is put together by consensus, the HR can launch into more important aspects of determining whether the prospect is a good fit into the company’s culture as compared to their personal aspirations.

The reason why organizations hire external recruitment companies is that the internal resources required to undertake the vetting process is simply not present or is just not adequate. The external sourcing of another hand is no longer necessary.

  • Trusted data sources are used to identify what an organization actually requires. A search for more specific skills is carried out like one would conduct a Google search to source for a required item.
  • This is quite cost-effective and time beneficial to organizations as the need to collect a pool of prospective employees, vet them, shortlist them, vet them again and then select is all eliminated.
  • The blockchain does not solve the problem of vetting and verifying skills and credentials only; it is also important in the human aspect of the employee.
  • It is worth noting that an employee who is moving from one job to the next has a history behind them. Humans, unlike robots, do not come with a mark of quality stamping on them. They are not in black and white but in shades of grey as it is normally said. They do not come with a reputation badge.

What this then means is that to recruit a person moving from one company to another, you would have to conduct a background check on the person from the previous managers. This is not always possible and leaves a lot of grey areas. In the first place, the references that you would be contacting are provided for by the employee themselves and may not necessarily the best judge of them. It is also possible for collaboration to be done where the referee stated is someone who will speak in your favor irrespective of the actual truth.

  • Blockchain can correct this anomaly by recording key information regarding every employee in a standard format.
  • This information can be updated at various points, namely at the start of employment, during employment and also at the exit.
  • Only authorized people within the organizational structures can make these records on the blockchain about a candidate.
  • It is important to note that these records cannot be altered as blockchain does not allow for alterations.

This feedback as outlined above forms an employee’s reputation trail. The next employer would know things about the employee that would not have been possible by any other means.

Challenge

  • The normal teething problems for such an ambitious project are foreseen. To make it feasible, a large number of companies would have to come on board. The team members would have to have an extensive network of HR’s who would buy into this idea and sell it to their company directors.
  • Also, putting information on the blockchain to form data on an employee’s reputation may take time to adapt. Though when a company looks at it from a selfish point of view and realizes it stands to benefit from such an undertaking, then why not?

The exchange of data and information between different parties throughout the recruitment process via the blockchain has changed the employment landscape. The employer can now hire with confidence that the employee is actually qualified in the ways that they say they are.

Blockchain and career opportunities

From a different angle, more jobs are actually now available owing to the blockchain technology. As this technology becomes widely recognized, increased businesses are entering the marketplace offering innovative solutions to existing problems.

This diversification is creating a need across so many industries for skilled technical workers. The development and maintenance of day to day operations requires specific expertise.

The speed at which technologies are developing is so rapid that there are not enough people with the required skills to fill the growing requirements. It is therefore prudent for people to invest in studying software development to capitalize on this new wave of career opportunity.

Final word

Blockchain can safely, without exaggeration, be considered to have disrupted the standard way of conducting business as more industries embrace the technology. The HR landscape will receive a total overhaul of the way screening and hiring of new employees is conducted. The beauty is the authenticity that comes with this innovative concept and the reduced cost and time involved. Searching for a job has never been easier, thanks to the blockchain.

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