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How Could Blockchain Affect the Recruitment Industry?

June 5, 2018
 
iCIMS Staff
3 min read
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Can you imagine a world where job candidates could only provide employers with one verifiable set of records, enabling recruiters to easily access their entire work history? While this may sound like the premise of a new sci-fi film, blockchain technology is poised to forever revolutionize the way candidate data is sourced and managed across the recruitment industry.

You’ve probably heard about the likes of Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency that’s emerged as the first decentralized digital currency. After a short period of time, Bitcoin has become recognized on a global level for its ability to quickly and securely facilitate transactions. Leveraging cryptography, each transaction is recorded as a new record within the Bitcoin blockchain, forming one immutable ledger of activity.

How Else Can Blockchain Technology Be Used?

Following Bitcoin’s worldwide phenomenon, many have recognized the power of blockchain technology and are looking for additional use cases. Data management has been recognized as one potential opportunity for use across a multitude of industries.

With GDPR having just gone into effect, there’s been a spotlight on data privacy – an ongoing issue in the recruitment industry. With new laws and regulations in place, companies need to use caution in handling sensitive information. As seen with Bitcoin, blockchain technology has the ability to create a single set of verifiable records. If harnessed as a means to record and showcase personal information, blockchain technology has the ability to increase efficiency as well as establish a strong level of trust both internally and externally throughout the entire recruitment process.

How Can Blockchain Technology Impact the Recruitment Industry?            

Recruiting is an increasingly complex practice. There are a multitude of layers and measures that job candidates and employers must go through before a hiring decision can be made. Throughout this process, candidates and recruiters alike place a lot of stock in the exchange of sensitive data. Job seekers must provide a slew of personal information that is necessary to advance them throughout the recruitment process. When passing this sensitive information over, job candidates are trusting that potential employers handle this data with care. Recruiters are entrusting that all of the provided information is accurate. Failure by either party to uphold their end of the bargain may result in major delays or issues that could potentially prevent the best possible candidate from filling an open role.

To eliminate these concerns, job seekers could potentially leverage blockchain technology to create one, immutable chain of personal records and information when applying for jobs. When evaluating candidates, recruiters could easily access an individual’s public blockchain for past work experience, contact information and other personal data needed throughout the process. This use of blockchain technology would vastly improve the candidate experience, enabling job seekers to create a singular account of their experience and information that could be used across all job applications. This verifiable chain of data would also eliminate the time and concerns associated with manually sourcing this information.

With the advent of technologies such as Google for Jobs and text recruiting, iCIMS is moving with the recruitment industry towards an improved candidate experience. With blockchain technology, there’s a realm of possibilities to streamline candidate data within the job application process, creating an efficient and pleasant experience for candidates and recruiters alike.

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