3 steps to take-off Recruitment with Blockchain
Blockchain, this sounds like some buzz word to me. Blogs and tweets flooding on the social media over the internet did make me inquisitive about what it is.
After somewhat research and reading if there’s a one liner explanation of Blockchain that I am sure of, it is a decentralised system used to maintain an ever growing list of records, called blocks.
Various articles and talks about Blockchain dwell a thought in me, is it of any relevance to me (being a recruiter) if I am not going to invest in Bitcoins or for that matter any cryptocurrency. Well, ‘yes’ is the answer that popped up after giving it a thought deeper.
Being a People Operations professional talking to people day in and out, it looks like I have a guess and display job. So when I learnt of Blockchain, taken the entire setup of decentralised validations, easy to use and implement, it did tickle my mind.
This disrupting technology has been found of some or the other implementation in each industry and it won’t be late when each and everything that we know of, today being managed by a company or a community, will be put up on decentralised system of blockchains.
Blockchain does seem like too far fetched as of now, but so was electricity to start with and then the onboarding of internet is something that we all remember clearly.
Getting back to the point of how Blockchain can be implemented in Human Resources/ People Operations/ Recruitment; Blockchain is a synonym for transparency, decentralised transparency. So, few things which blockchain can solve with better efficiency and authenticity for hiring are:
- Validation of Educational qualifications
A lot of jobs these days involve strict educational qualification: a doctor’s degree, a CA’s, high end certification, etc. It will be really interesting to see universities getting onto Educational passport terming the educational details being verified by the alma mater and then put up on a Blockchain. This in turn, would sort out the Recruiter’s task of ensuring the authenticity of prospect’s certification.
2. Reference checks
No more reference check validation from past employers will be required (since the records are impossible to tamper with & the imposters will have no way through it), neither the educational documents will be in the need of confirmation (if at all, the Universities and schools land up on Blockchain confirming the degrees and certificates provided).
Difficult to validate credentials of the candidate, as resume fraud is very easy to achieve (there was a high profile case in Australia a few years ago when an executive at Myer lied about his background and credentials). With the movement of labour across borders, it’s even more difficult.
3. Legal offer-letters/contracts
Authorised signatories signing the Offer/appointment letters, through digi sign or in person at some companies, is a highly time consuming process. That taken to Blockchain will really streamline the onboarding process. Will save a lot of time around high volume hiring companies and contain all important information we have in our appointment- letters/contracts (position, reporting, payments, rights etc)
Bonus: Professional journey (may be?)
Yet another thing, can a detailed progress record of an employee right from his onboarding be set up on a blockchain? In case of different domains, say IT: there can be a list of skills which cannot be validated during interview, but really helps employer if valuable record on this is available on blockchain.
Challenges (Costs/ Adoption/ Legal)
Wondering how feasible will it be to nestle up these things onto Blockchain for implementation. Not even that I have finished writing about it yet, that I, myself, see pretty many challenges coming through. If there’s a blockchain for reference check for all companies, who bears the cost to maintain it (all the companies involved maybe?). How will companies be convinced whether or not get onto this Ref check chain. Will all the companies be happy to adopt such a structure? Will prospective hire be okay to join a company that ‘ll set across his data publicly? Are there any legal implications involved in using Blockchain for making it an easily accessible database for head hunters?
To infer thoughts stated above, ain’t it just making the process more efficient and freeing the space to do something worth doing!
“Theodore Roosevelt’s famous dictum, “Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”
― Reid Hoffman, The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age
Pretty excited that I am on the implementation of this fast spreading technology, it ‘ll be interesting to watch and experience Blockchain being a part of Recruitment.
Thanks for reading! :) If you liked it, please support by hitting that wave button below.
Happy recruiting!
