HR’s BRAIN ON BLOCKCHAIN

HR’s BRAIN ON BLOCKCHAIN

A day in the life

Is 3:57 am.

I am being interviewed by a major HR publication (SHRM Online) in several hours, and yesterday’s prep went horribly. The writer’s topic is: “Blockchain’s potential impact on HR”, and he is mainly interested in payroll and recruitment applications. But during the rehearsal I was tripping all over myself trying to find the words.

I write to discover what I think… so now have a fresh cup of coffee, and am going to figure out how to communicate this vision in a simple and compelling way, once and for all.

For challenges like this I always fall back to the “a day in the life” approach, vignettes of the vision in action. So here we go, in no particular order:

PAYROLL/Micro payments: My iPhone-based blockchain wallet buzzes and I see that that another bitcoin micro-payment came through for the last technical article I published. The smart contract for this arrangement automatically pays me every time the download count hits a new threshold.

PAYROLL/Currency of choice: I am a human capital blockchain programmer by trade and generally elect to be paid in bitcoin because my adopted country is experiencing above-average inflation of the local currency. The regular payments come directly to my blockchain wallet; I have not used a bank as custodian of my money for quite some time. I also send regular remittance to the family back in the home country directly from my digital wallet; I sure don’t miss the outrageous 3rd party transmittal fees I used to pay before blockchain. (Of course employers still report all payments and I still report all income; blockchain has no impact on that truism about death and taxes.)

RECRUITMENT/Background Check: Am applying for a programming gig with a new employer. Have just authorized the sharing of my blockchain-based reputation score for this type of work. If they decide to move things forward, I will release access to my background data: public records, credit check, and employment history. These entries are digitally co-signed on the blockchain by Deloitte, the identity custodial service provider I have chosen. The smart contract does not allow them to release any information about me (except to authorities) unless I have cross-signed the request with my private key.

RECRUITMENT/Certifications: The new potential employer wants to verify that I am really a Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Senior Certified Professional. I release access to the blockchain entry cross-signed by SHRM. The smart contract warns me that my certification will expire in 6 months, so I make a mental note to study up for the re-certification exam.

RECRUITMENT/University Degree validation: Things are moving along with this new employer. I authorize the release of my University degree blockchain entry, which is cross-signed by the University. No need for my new employer to reach out to the school to verify. This is what we mean by a blockchain-based ‘trustless’ system, very efficient, and very secure.

SELF-SOVEREIGN IDENTITY/I own and control the data about me: Employers are still allowed to retain certain information about me in their HR systems, but most just dynamically link back to my blockchain data to make sure they are looking at the one true source of information; this approach also minimizes their liability for corporate data hacks and keeps them compliant with all the various data privacy laws around the world. Is also great that no one is allowed to sell data about me; I do occasionally authorize the selling of my non-PII demographic data, if the price is right, but it is me that gets paid every time that query is run. Nice.

HAPPY HOUR/Age validation: Great news: new Employer just forwarded their offer and the authorization to review their blockchain-based financial viability and employer reputation scores. I stop by my favorite bar on the way home, wave my iPhone wallet at the doorway scanner, and the color shows green to indicate I am over 21. No longer need to show hard-copy ID which used to reveal unrelated PII to the bartender. Of course I will pay for my friends’ round of drinks with bitcoin. Life is good.

5:16am

Not really so much about HR, right? I guess that is the point.

Wish me well, and be on the lookout for the article. So nice that the HR press is finally waking up to the potential of blockchain in human capital.

Am tired of FinTech having all the fun.

Now, back to bed.