Competition for talent was intense in 2022, given that unemployment was at its lowest level for half a century and the jobs market was extremely tight. Yet, every day is not Sunday. In a macroeconomy wrecked by deep global recession, wave of corporate defaults and turbulent geopolitical instability, work landscape in 2023 is getting loosening. This employment trend signals a shift from a candidate-driven market to more of a buyer’s market. Employers have assumed more control over hiring decisions, while job seekers face increasing competition for opportunities.
According to the latest global HR pulse survey in 2022 [1], 46% of HR leaders are struggling to find talents with the skills needed to fill in-demand roles, like product development and technology. Candidates need to put in more efforts to stay ahead of the competition by making their own space for their evolved needs.
In this article, I bring to you the automation in recruitment of how blockchain using chatbot, discoverability and SBTs can build a pre-verified candidate talent pool; while freeing up a whopping 80% of recruiter’s time on manual candidate sourcing and allowing them to focus on more high-value tasks that improves the experience for employee.
Chatboting: A More Efficient Hiring Process with Less Prone to Human Error
Applying blockchain-empowered chatbot increases security and transparency. It streamlines contract execution between employers and candidates with its smart contract feature, ensuring compliance with agreed-upon terms. On the other hand, chatbot leverages user data to provide coherent responses based on the real-time interaction that takes place 24/7. With the production efficiency of AI along with the transparent and equitable production relationships of blockchain, value of data can be easily maximized.
Candidate Screening: Tapping the Non-Traditional Candidate Market
The data sharing ecosystem in HR is broken — Information Discontinuity. Nowadays, the most valuable career records are held outside of a company because candidates tend to build a career portfolio where these slashers work at several paid activities for a never-ending source of discovery and fulfillment but not a linear career path which is a singular career pursuit to what is straight ahead. As a result, the traditional ways of hiring based on the outdated modes of resume where the amount of professional footprint is tracked while working a single full-time job have made it difficult for recruiters to navigate through the ocean of these disconnected metadata and make sense of the value on the future performance of a candidate.
Blockchain streamlines how career records are shared, empowering individuals and businesses. The discoverability of rich metadata, designed for all career data, extends beyond a single platform and labor market data aggregators, such as LinkedIn. It facilitates the job search and discovery of getting a diverse range of job candidates through the door by piecing up their holistic picture with blockchain’s traceability, the ability to trace their digital footprint to their original source and issuer.
Employee Verification: Soulbound Tokens (SBTs) Ensures Authenticated Records are Tied to a Specific Crypto Address
Recruiters have relied on costly, self-reported and unverified methods to exchange data about job seeker’s academic references, past employments, professional achievements (certifications and licenses), and criminal records. All of which are keys to hiring efficiencies. Yet, according to a study by CareerBuilder, 75% of recruiters have caught lies on the resumes where fraudsters use false personal information to illegally acquire a job.
Blockchain allows candidates to turn their multiple dimensions of professional records in their ownership into easy, secure and verifiable digital credentials that back their credibility; while reducing recruiter’s hiring costs and meeting regulatory compliance with the verified data. The verification solution helps reduce the pre-employment process by 80%, resulting in a reduction from 5.5 weeks to just 7 days. This is how non-transferable “Soulbound” Tokens (SBTs) work. Utilized as blockchain-based CV, they are issued by other wallets that reflect social relations and are circulated in real-time with recruiters/other labor market stakeholders to access more job opportunities.
SBTs not only provide hard, trusted and publicly visible evidence of the candidate’s abilities and values but are Sybil-Attack-resistant as they differentiate between unique Souls and probable Bots which can be instantly identified due to the lack of richness in their Souls. These tokens are stored in people’s “Souls”, utilizing certain mechanics to encode the trust networks of the real economy, forming a comprehensive image of a Web3 user.
Yet, there is skepticism surrounding SBTs.
- Firstly, it can become a tool for social credit system where it promotes positive behavior and trustworthiness in socio-economic situations while discouraging undesirable actions. This may raise a red flag on privacy, surveillance, and potential implications for personal freedoms, which are what decentralization is made of.
- Secondly, SBTs could be public, but there is no requirement for a Soul to be linked to a legal name, or to ensure “one Soul per human”. A Soul could be a persistent pseudonym with a range of SBTs that cannot easily be linked.
- Lastly, issue of trust — As soon as any input is required from the outside world — e.g., an academic degree or attestation — a question arises as to the trustworthiness of that input. Shifting the mentality of trust” from centralized institutional trust to trusting networks could take some time to achieve.
Example from Velocity Network Foundation — Reinventing How Career Records are Shared with Career Wallet
The Velocity Network Foundation® is a decentralized utility layer replaces the outdated, fragmented way talent is often represented across the labor market. Its public, open, trusted, and self-custody blockchain nature is pushing through any potential bias against the candidates and focus only on the ability for them to easily and safely turn their professional career portfolio into verifiable digital credentials that are owned by them in what’s called a career wallet. It opens the door for a more inclusive and fair hiring process that is centered around indisputable skills.
Conclusion
The goal of using blockchain for hiring is for people to find meaningful work that aligns with their skills, for organizations to seek new talent pools and broaden their thinking around what defines success in a role, and to make faster and informed hiring decisions as well as improve the costs associated with hiring. Blockchain-enabled SBTs have become the proof of digital identity which can be viewed as being connected to, rather than separated from an ‘offline/real’ identity. This allows us to see how our sense of self may be ‘digitally’ extended in our ability ‘to do’ and to ‘express ourselves’.
Blockchain democratizes hiring experiences for an incredible pool of talents. Yet, talent acquisition is as important as talent retention. The awareness of a positive and people-first employer branding have increased among today’s talents where they prioritize values over compensation. CareerBuilder study shows 75% of job seekers consider company culture and workplace demographics when assessing a job offer. Employers will need to take a proactive approach to share more authentic employee stories that speak to themselves and make sustainable/inclusive company practices with potential candidates.
Web3 is an amplifier to Web2 services and products. The technologies led by AI and Blockchain can be an excellent complement and realization to human ingenuity. But in the end, it all comes down to human who share the passion for supporting causes we care about and making a global impact.
References:
[1] Aon Global HR Pulse Survey #8 conducted in December 2021 and January 2022 with 812 respondents
Top 5 hiring trends to look out for in 2023
A New Era of Recruiting Promises to Democratize the Hiring Process and Boost Inclusion and Diversity
How Blockchain is Changing the Recruitment Process
Powering the future of work with employee digital ID
2023 mid-year trends: labour market loosens as flexible work debate rages on
