There is no denying it: blockchain is slowly but surely entering the mainstream. As discussed in a previous blog post, when it comes to actually implementing this promising new technology, finance and government remain by far the most active sectors on the Belgian market. But as the online recruitment platform quidprojobs.com proves, in the HR industry too, blockchain adoption seems to be growing.
Blockchain, still mainly known as the technology behind the bitcoin, ensures that data is digitally encrypted and stored. Everyone in the blockchain network can view and check that data, just as changes to the data are also visible to everyone. And when new data is added, the rest of the network must also validate it. As an employer you can, to give an HR example, confirm the employment period and the duties of a former employee.
Blockchain abroad.
A number of foreign cases already showed how blockchain could be applied in HR and, more specifically, for recruitment purposes. In Japan, not surprisingly, Recruit Technologies was one of the first companies to use the technology to create an authentication database with CVs for people looking for a job. The aim was to create transparency and combat fraud. But also to save time, since blockchain automatically verifies the official certificates and contracts: a process which is still done manually to this day. Consequently, doing background checks on job candidates and verifying their employment histories have long remained very time-consuming tasks. By storing employment and criminal records in a blockchain ledger, free from the possibility of falsification, human resources professionals can now streamline this vetting process.
The Australian platform ChronoBank.io, which mediates people for short-term positions, went one step further yet. They basically used blockchain as the basis for a financial system that pays freelancers and contractors in their own working hours. Their goal is to make a difference in the way people find work and are rewarded: in a more decentralised way and without the influence of financial institutions.
Quidprojobs.com.
And now there is quidprojobs.com: closer to home and less ambitiously disruptive perhaps, but no less innovative or even transformative, I dare say. This new business model for online recruitment, based exclusively on referrals, was developed and launched by the Belgian job referral platform QuidProJobs and Hexalina, a technology company from Luxembourg. The idea, in a nutshell, is that anyone can use quidprojobs.com to propose interested companies a candidate for a specific job. If a recruitment follows, the person who introduced the candidate will be reimbursed. This allows companies to come into contact with so-called hidden, i.e. non-actively searching, talents that traditionally remain outside the reach of recruiters.
Quidprojobs.com is based on the Reputation-as-a-Service concept, set up by Hexalina, whereby everyone can build an online reputation that is validated from their network and stored in a blockchain. Consequently you can have, among other things, your CV and work experiences confirmed by third parties. But your reputation on different platforms can also be stored in the blockchain. In this way your online reputation is made transparent, so you can use it on different platforms and don’t have to start over from scratch every time. Which leads me to conclude that the hunt for jobs and talent has suddenly become a lot easier.