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Is blockchain a lie detector for the digital age?

We’re almost to the point when people no longer hear blockchain and think Bitcoin. Blockchain is now helping businesses and organizations tackle a variety of issues. For instance, Walmart has turned to blockchain to keep customers safe from E. coli-tainted produce (read about it here). The United Nations World Food Programme (UNWFP) recently provided cryptocurrency-based food vouchers to thousands of Syrian refugees. Healthcare organizations are beginning to utilize blockchain to better track patients after they’ve left the hospital. Several real estate companies have turned to blockchain to manage the cumbersome legal procedures and processes related to the sale or transfer of property. And blockchain is now addressing the age-old question that has haunted hiring managers for years—are job candidates being truthful?

8 out of 10

A 2017 study conducted by HireRight, a background screening company, found that eight out of ten people lied on their resume (actually, the figure is 85%, up from 66% just five years ago). While the study doesn’t distinguish between the magnitude of the lie (slight fib vs. claims of inventing the cure for polio), it’s still a shocking number, especially considering the current job market is the best in decades. It’s a candidate’s job market; why the need to lie?

The Gig Economy

The word gig economy is gaining steam. If you’re unaware of its 2018 meaning, it refers to the move toward hiring contracted workers for set periods of time. Recent studies predict that the percentage of contracted workers will be anywhere from thirty to forty percent (30-40%) within the next couple of years. But with the increasing velocity to hire contracted workers comes some downside, at least for hiring managers―how can they vet candidates better and faster? With the gig economy, there are a lot more candidates to scrutinize.

The process of vetting, selecting and onboarding candidates is timely and laborious. It’s already costly, but in the event a candidate slips through the vetting process with a lot of creative writing on their resume, the cost skyrockets. The entire process starts over, but there’s no guarantee it won’t happen again.

It’s ingenious

Blockchain’s encrypted public ledger structure is actually an ideal—and certainly creative–solution for the staffing industry. For instance, a blockchain could be used to verify a candidate’s work history, including their tenure, job title, achievements and supervisor. A candidate’s former employer can easily add to the public ledger as it relates to their company, and hiring managers and recruiters can simply check the ledger for verification purposes. The candidate would have to provide the past and any future employers access to their wallet, within which the credentials are located. And if they refuse to provide access, you’ve now got a big, red flag waving in your face.

Once employment has been verified, it’s time-stamped and doesn’t require additional action. Future employers can easily check candidates’ work histories, which would greatly speed up the hiring process. No more waiting for days to get a call back for employment verification. And once employment, education, references, certifications and accreditations are verified, they can’t be altered by either the candidate or the verifier.

But it doesn’t just benefit the hiring company

Candidates can provide access to whomever they’d like, and, with a cryptographic key, they can protect their background information with the level of privacy and security they’d like. And with blockchain, they can start earning a paycheck much faster.

Questions? Turn to the Experts

If you have questions about what to look for in an IT staffing solutions firm, contact the staffing professionals at Staffing@gdt.com. They’d love to hear from you. Some of the largest, most notable companies in the world have turned to GDT so key initiatives can be matched with the right IT professionals to drive projects to completion. GDT maintains a vast database of IT professionals who maintain the highest levels of certifications and accreditations in the industry. And they understand the importance of finding professionals with the right soft skills. In addition, the IT professionals they place have access to the talented, tenured solutions architects, engineers and professionals at GDT.

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