A New Era of Recruiting Promises to Democratize the Hiring Process and Boost Inclusion and Diversity

Published: February 2022

 

More companies and job candidates are using blockchain technology to change traditional ways of hiring based on more outdated modes of resume building. We explain what exactly this means for the hiring process and what employers should know about this emerging technology.

The competitive market for skill-specific talent continues to rise as companies respond to labor trends, including the Great Resignation. According to our latest global HR pulse survey[1], 86 percent of HR leaders are kept up at night thinking about talent shortages, and 46 percent are struggling to find talent with the skills needed to fill in-demand roles, like product development and technology.

Broadening talent pools is one way to address today’s complex hiring market, allowing for increased diversity and opportunity. Getting a diverse range of job candidates through the door is the most important, and often the most challenging, part of the process. Many employers are starting to consider what it means to give more power into the hands of the individual to own the hiring process and their own career data.

The Velocity Network Foundation®, for example, of which Aon is a founding member, engages leading HR tech vendors to deploy and run Velocity Network™. This game changing, blockchain based, decentralized utility layer replaces the outdated, fragmented way talent is often represented across the labor market. Through verification keys, this tool has the potential to revolutionize HR processes and improve recruiting for all parties.

The data sharing ecosystem in HR is broken.

With the right data, companies can more accurately and effectively match employees to the right job, while personalizing people management, rewards and recognition. Yet, there is a broken data layer underlying the global labor market. Take, for example, today’s younger demographic. Candidates just out of school tend to move jobs more frequently or opt into portfolio careers (e.g., gigs, freelance). As a result, the amount of data footprint tracked while working at each company shrinks, becoming potentially insufficient to make accurate predictions on the future performance of a candidate.

In many cases, the most valuable data is actually held outside of an organization and divided between various platforms or labor market data aggregators, such as job boards and LinkedIn, each maintaining pieces of the holistic employee picture. Therefore, we must reinvent how career records are shared, empowering individuals, businesses and educational institutions.

“Faced with the mega trends affecting the future of work… all bets are on innovations in human resources technology to tackle these challenges,” says Dror Gurevich, founder and CEO of The Velocity Network. “Yet, we still rely on costly, self-reported and unverified methods to exchange data about previous employment, professional achievements, and educational certifications, all of which are key to hiring efficiencies.”

The Velocity Foundation allows individuals to easily, safely and securely build and own their digital, verified skills and career portfolio. No-one else can access this data. Only they have the power to decide what to do with it and when to share it. Meanwhile, companies can rely on this verified data, which can help reduce their hiring costs while meeting regulatory compliance. Put simply, the network benefits both sides — the potential employee and employer. Watch this video to learn more.

What it means to credential your skills and experience.

The ability for candidates to turn their professional records into verifiable digital credentials that are owned by them in what’s called a career wallet is the future. These details can then be shared instantly with employers and other labor market stakeholders to apply for jobs and access more opportunities.

Anyone can embellish their resume, and many candidates often do in order to catch the attention of busy recruiters and hiring managers. Resumes commonly get passed around and only key events are usually added to LinkedIn profiles. However, Velocity’s career wallet can continuously update the changing picture of a person's career records in real time, with verified checks along the way.

“Using blockchain technology to democratize the hiring process is empowering for individuals and employers,” comments Jouko van Aggelen, Chief Portfolio & Innovation Officer of Aon’s Assessment Solutions practice. “Candidate information and career credentials can be stored and shared via your career wallet and the individual is in complete control. It is your data, and you can decide when and with whom you want to share it.”  

Opening the door for a more inclusive and diverse workplace.

Blockchain technology in HR gives people more control over their career and provides a safe and efficient method of verifying skills for employers. Credentialing talent helps individuals vouch for themselves on their own terms and ultimately get the right job, bringing capabilities to the forefront of the decision-making process, regardless of background or education.

If a company is looking for someone with a specific skill set in the near future, it can use the data provided by blockchain networks like Velocity to push through any potential biases and focus only on the hard, trusted evidence of the candidate’s abilities and value. In turn, this will likely result in more diverse applicant pools, as it opens the door for a more inclusive and fair hiring process that is centered around indisputable skills.  

“We see too many organizations shutting the door to prospective job candidates who have more diverse backgrounds in terms of race, ethnicity and experience because they don’t have the traditional education or skill sets expected for the role,” says van Aggelen. “Many times, candidates do possess the qualities to be successful and organizations are not seeing them because the hiring process ignores unconventional ways of obtaining skills or working independently.”

Next Steps

A person’s experience and skills are essential personal assets that individuals should own and use at their own accord to push their career track forward in the direction they wish. Ultimately, the goal of using blockchain technology 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 improve the efficiency and costs associated with hiring.

To learn more about Aon’s partnership with The Velocity Network and for questions about this topic, please reach out to one of our human capital experts at humancapital@aon.com.
 

[1] Aon Global HR Pulse Survey #8 conducted in December 2021 and January 2022 with 812 respondents.

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