Role of blockchain in recruitment

Recruiting is an increasingly complex practice. There are a multiple layers and complexities that candidates and employers go through before a hiring decision can be made. Throughout this process, candidates and recruiters alike invest a lot in the exchange of sensitive data. Job seekers must provide a plethora of personal information that is necessary to push their candidature throughout the recruitment process. When passing this sensitive information over, job candidates trust that the potential employers handle this data with care. Recruiters further endorse that all of the provided information is accurate. Failure by either party to uphold their end of the bargain may result in major delays or issues that could potentially prevent the best fitment for an open role.  

One of the major flaws in recruitment is the use of intermediaries – recruitment agencies – in communication.  I strongly believe that candidates are competent enough to deal directly with the employer who is looking to hire them; they don’t need to communicate via a third party. It just adds a day or two to the hiring process.

On the other hand companies calculate the amount of revenue they make per employee per year, so if the vacancy isn’t filled in the defined period of let’s say 45 days, it’s going to have a massive impact on the bottom line.

A blockchain is a digital record keeping system which, in this case, will verify information within a candidate’s CV, from workplace to education and training qualifications, to ensure its validity.

To eliminate these concerns, job seekers and companies could leverage blockchain technology to create a chain of personal records and information when applying for jobs. When evaluating candidates, companies or recruiters could easily access an individual’s public blockchain for past work experience, contact information and other personal data required throughout the process. This use of blockchain technology would vastly improve the candidate experience, enabling job seekers to create a singular account of their experience and information that could be used across all job applications. Seamless relevant communication!!

This verifiable chain of data would also eliminate the time and concerns associated with manually sourcing this information resulting in optimised costs and lean and robust recruitment.

This collaboration will ensure that the information an employer gets at the application stage is correct and with an added element of agility.

There are numerous benefits in enabling recruitment through Blockchain:

• Biometric ID verification will ensure validity of candidates
• Standardised resumes will ensure quality of CV content over its layout
• QR Codes on each candidate profile will record and track their continual professional development and load it straight into their profiles
• It ensures validated content which means superior quality of candidates at reduced costs.
• There will be reduced referencing requirement which implies that  recruitment process and on boarding will be quicker and cheaper
• It will be GDPR-compliant. Whilst information on the Blockchain cannot be deleted, the platform will be able to retract candidate data. And thus the ‘right to be forgotten’ is applied.
• It will ensure security. As it is on the blockchain, the information is secure and it cannot be altered. There is no single point where the system can fail or be compromised.

Blockchain will decentralise recruitment and remove intermediaries which, in the recruitment process, is typically the recruitment vendor. 

Add this increased speed to the cheaper transaction costs involved in hiring using blockchain, we will be experiencing a more cohesive and agile recruitment process.

Blockchain is bound to transform the recruitment with added advantages of efficiency, quality and low costs.