India Employer Forum

Technology

Technology Trends in HR : Challenges and Rationale (Use of Blockchain to Solve HR Challenges)

  • By: India Employer Forum
  • Date: 09 May 2019

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Technology and machine learning have given a new horizon to the Human Capital space. It is very likely that AI will become an integral part of people resource operations in the next few years. AI technology can now build a job description or resumé in less than a minute, and also tell companies which candidates match jobs and are likely to respond! A few more areas where AI have been swerving the operations of HR are : Smart recruitment, efficient compliance, magnificent analytics and strategic domain.

  • Recruitment involves time and budget but AI has reduced the cost and streamlined the process to a great extent. From automated resumé screeners to robot interviewers, a wave of these recruiting tech solutions have hit the market.

AI is starting to outperform humans at making hiring decisions in certain areas, such as evaluating hard skills,” says Harj Taggar,  which helps recruiters to focus more on conducting soft-skill and culture-fit evaluation in a more structured way.

  • Compliance work often requires enormous paperwork and information. Cloud-based solutions have streamlined the process of compliance and the challenges with storage.
  • Betterworks CEO Doug Dennerline says, “HR will see a new level of data competency in 2019 with the rapid and widespread adoption of people analytics that help managers and executives make decisions about their workforce.” Data Analytics can be applied to support decisions around promotions and compensation and can also help HR to identify the opportunities for up-skilling and training.
  • McKinsey & Co.’s 2017 Diversity Matters II report says there’s a positive correlation between a more ethnically and gender-diverse leadership team and an increase in profits. Consumers are also more frequently looking for companies that value diversity, and that will have an impact on recruiting strategies.

Technology has improved efficiency and accuracy by simplifying recruitment, record keeping and payroll which also leads to high employee morale. HR’s role as an administrative function is transforming into a strategic advantage for the organization with the help of technology. The HR department, in the times to come, will focus on implementing marketing tactics for recruiting. This includes fostering and attracting talent to the organization. This might answer the talent crunch that the industry is currently experiencing. 

Today, HR specialists have to deal with the uncertainty in resumés, the reliability of recommendation letters and overall problem with the trustworthiness of candidates. Most of the time people can’t get the position in the company because of their poor pitching skills even if they are great at the job. Blockchain has a potential to create a new ecosystem where achievements can speak for themselves. The questions around a good candidature, qualifications, previous assessments, achievements, overall performance, talent etc have been concerning.

Skilled human capital helps a company to grow and succeed in business. Blockchain technology has possibilities to solve all of these problems. Decentralized power of Blockchain makes it possible to create a reliable and transparent reputation system for candidates and employers. Personnel selection is the area where the blockchain will give a new leap in the development of relations between businesses and people. A unified system of verification and performance indicators will open new opportunities for recruitment. It will help:

  • Employees with credentials to find work faster
  • Companies to save time and cost on hiring
  • Quick assessment

Such a system has to meet the following conditions:

  • Data transparency – Anytime any participant can have access to the initial data to make sure that they are right.
  • Data reliability – Not any company or person can change the data to their advantage.
  • Process automation- The system should work on mathematical algorithms without intermediaries to exclude or reduce human factor.
  • Independence – Should not belong to any company to maintain objectivity.

All these conditions are met by the technology of the Blockchain, which is the base for ‘Aworker platform’. The goal is to create a global system for assessing professional skills and integrating this information to build the good reputation for employees from all over the world. With the help of blockchain technology, the human capital market will become more transparent and understandable for all.

Possible scope of blockchain in HR could include :

  • Verification and assessment of the potential candidates on the basis of their education, skills and performance and directing them to be allocated appropriately.
  • Making available an extensive and reliable blockchain-based record of education, skills, training and workplace performance to people concerned.
  • Managing cross-border payments and employee mobility, including international expenses and tax liabilities, with the potential for organizations to create their own corporate currencies.
  • Enhancing productivity by automation of time consuming and costly  processes like tax administration and payroll.
  • Facilitating fraud prevention and cybersecurity in HR for both employees and contractors.

Blockchain can be applied to the whole of the employee lifecycle processes starting from selection of the candidates to an employee exit. Along with immense noticeable advantages, there can be challenges for Blockchain-based HR Information model. The potential downsides could be: Government Data Privacy Regulations, Human Error in entry, Despondency in the data, if it is non-transparent to the individual and most importantly, the possibility -‘With time change in Human behaviour is real’, is ruled out and the previous history may lead to bias and increased prejudices. There could be more risks like exposing competency systems on the Blockchain to competitors, surveillance of employee data for a probable misuse and others.

Organizations must follow a tapered approach to adopting a Blockchain-based HR operating model that tracks and validates the different methods of HR information, ensuring disintermediation, and segregating authentic data. Blockchain deployment is at the inception which sparks a risk in most of the areas. Adopting an agile approach for a Blockchain setup that meets the essential requirements of HR operations, grows progressively, and is more user-friendly and empirical, is critical until it becomes indelible like other technologies, such as Cloud. Is your organization prepared to adopt a blockchain model?

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