It is common to read about blockchain technology with respect to financial services and cryptocurrency. However, the applications of the tool are more diverse than one can imagine. Apart from other industries, blockchain holds the potential to transform the recruitment process of India’s corporate sector.
Blockchain has several applications in streamlining and guiding the hiring processes. This blog shall discuss how blockchain can be used by HR leaders to make recruitment more efficient.
Overcoming the Main Challenge: Fraud Prevention and Information Verification
The offering of any emerging technology is evaluated on the basis of one key factor: what problem is it solving and how efficiently is it doing so?
On the surface, blockchain may have little to do with human resources. However, seasoned professionals know that is not the case and are actively integrating the technology within their recruitment pipelines.
The major hiring challenges that blockchain solves correspond to issues related to incorrect or misleading information provided by a potential candidate. People sometimes tend to distort information on their resumes to make up for a lack of experience. They wish to appear more qualified in a job market that is becoming increasingly competitive.
Effective background checks can mitigate the long-term consequences of such practices. However, they result in significant wastage of a company’s time and resources. With blockchain, filtering out fraud applications takes a more proactive stance.
Blockchain as a Solution
In layman’s language, blockchain is defined as a ledger that stores and fiercely protects the integrity of the data it secures. Thus, it provides a platform where HR leaders can store and verify sensitive information related to potential candidates.
With blockchain’s decentralized ledger system, there’s a guarantee that once information is recorded, it cannot be altered without consensus from each stakeholder. This feature is especially meritorious in verifying candidate credentials, reducing the risk of fraud, and expediting the overall hiring process.
Beyond facilitating the exchange of information between recruiters and job-seekers, blockchain has some other applications. It also streamlines the hiring pipeline by automation verification processes. This results in significant improvement in time-to-hire and associated costs.
Thus, the adoption of blockchain is a key step in future-proofing the organization against fraudulent job applications. It also plays a role in improving hiring operations and bringing down the overall costs related to HR activities.
The Key Challenge in Blockchain Adoption
The corporate sector in India is not completely acclimatized to the benefits of blockchain in recruitment. This is primarily because of one key challenge: there is a definitive shortage of skilled professionals who demonstrate the necessary skills to work with the technology.
There is a notable demand-supply gap in all sectors in India; reports suggest that this gap will increase by 3.5 times by the start of 2026 (NassCom, 2023). The same report also indicates that this gap is especially wide in the case of technologies like AI and blockchain, sectors where 2 million jobs were expected to be left unfilled by the end of 2023.
The lack of availability of skilled talent, therefore, is a key challenge. To address it, companies should invest in training programs and collaborate with educational institutes to develop a workforce proficient in blockchain technology.
Conclusion
Blockchain has the potential to serve as a transformative force for the recruitment sector in India.
However, there is a need to bridge the talent gap to fully realize the potential of the technology. Once addressed, this tool will successfully future-proof the workforce and provide the much-needed competitive edge to proactive firms in a highly competitive corporate landscape.
References
Nasscom. (2023). Talent Demand & Supply Report: AI & Big Data Analytics. In Nasscom. https://www.nasscom.in/knowledge-center/publications/talent-demand-supply-report-ai-big-data-analytics
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