Coming quickly — a resume-validating blockchain community for job seekers
A basis that features a number of big-name software program distributors and tech companies has launched a self-sovereign id service the place employees can retailer verified credentials to make use of when making use of for jobs. In flip, employers get on the spot entry to verifiable credentials for hiring.
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An on-line resume-validating community has garnered help from than a dozen board members from corporations whose ranks embrace Aon, Oracle, SAP, UKG, and ZipRecruiter with the purpose of decreasing the time and value of vetting job candidates.
The community is a part of a development by governments, faculties, and companies to create verifiable digital IDs — self-sovereign digital identities — that can be utilized to confirm every part from credit score worthiness and faculty diplomas to licenses and business-to-business credentials.
The Velocity Network mainnet, now being piloted internally by company members, would allow employers to confirm a job candidate’s diplomas, certifications, and work expertise virtually instantaneously. Employers utilizing HR software program also can problem verified credentials to staff, who can then entry and share that info via a blockchain-based, on-line ledger.
A job candidate utilizing the community would basically be given a digital pockets secured via cryptography by way of the ledger. They might then select to supply potential employers no matter verified info they select by way of a public key.
The community was created and is run by the Velocity Network Foundation, a Delaware-based nonprofit whose mission is to permit employees to retailer and share verifiable instructional, licensing, and expertise credentials on-line with job prospects.
“Verifying applicant career records can take days, weeks, if not months, to complete,” said Dror Gurevich, founder and CEO of the Velocity Network Foundation. “Hiring methods are severely outdated to the point that one in three Americans have admitted to lying on their resumes, which slows the hiring process immensely.
“There’s literally no easy way of verifying records today other than making phone calls and procuring information from various sources,” he said. “And that drives a $17 billion screening services market made up by professional third-party providers. Organizations spend millions of dollars on this. But it’s not the cost that’s the issue. It’s the time it takes; it’s a ball of friction that is the blocker for most of the innovation we need in the job market.”
How credentials are saved and shared
Essentially, employees method issuers to say their credentials, whether or not from a previous employer, authorities company, or college. The issuers take the information they’ve, then signal them with their non-public keys to create a tamper-proof file that is issued to a person’s digital pockets.
That digital pockets software will be put in on no matter gadget a person chooses to connect with their work, college, or license issuers to say digitally-signed proofs of their employment historical past, instructional background, expertise, and {qualifications}. For every credential, the issuer writes a cryptographic key to Velocity Network’s blockchain, making it verifiable and trusted. The private knowledge is saved privately on the person’s gadget, and the verification keys themselves maintain no personally identifiable info.
“This allows individuals to stack proofs of their employment history, educational background, skills, and qualifications; store them privately; and share them [with employers] when needed,” Gurevich mentioned.
Once the validated knowledge is uploaded to the Velocity Network, employees would personal it and might select to share some or all of it by providing a public cryptographic key to potential employers. Job seekers might management precisely which information an employer can entry relying on job necessities.
“We currently support 25 different credentials, from basic identities to work permits, education credentials, courses, badges, assessment results, driver’s licenses, and professional certifications,” Gurevich mentioned.
Via the blockchain ledger, the Velocity Network would additionally run a token-based, cryptocurrency cost and rewards system. Organizations that problem credentials and different profession info contributors are rewarded with Velocity Credits. Conversely, corporations can then purchase credit on the Velocity Credit Marketplace to pay for entry to the blockchain ledger to confirm credentials.
Gurevich pointed to the Great Resignation as one cause a resume-vetting community is required now greater than ever as staff are quitting and altering jobs at unprecedented charges.
“We’re currently relying on self-reported, unverified resumes, LinkedIn profiles, and the like as the source for candidate and employee records,” Gurevich mentioned. “If you want to hire a developer in Serbia, you can’t do that because you have no idea who they are and you don’t have that trust factor to comply with regulations. For most employers, that requires the vetting of the individual’s credentials or risk being responsible for negligent hiring.”
Velocity Network Foundation
The Velocity Network’s failure or success will largely rely on what number of organizations select to leap on board and share knowledge with it. For instance, schools and tech bootcamp companies might want to hook up with the community and share their verified knowledge. And company HR methods must agree to connect with the service to share worker work expertise.
That mentioned, curiosity is rising within the portability of employee expertise and compensation info amongst enterprises, based on Matthew Merker, a analysis supervisor for IDC’s Talent Acquisition & Strategy apply.
IDC, Merker mentioned, is consistently seeing talent-acquisition distributors pop up with methods to deal with a job market hurting from traditionally low unemployment numbers, significantly for knowledge-based and technology-centric jobs.
“The trouble is convincing employers to accept these third-party companies at face value,” Merker mentioned. “The other challenge is how effective it will be in terms of portability because it’s dependent on employer adoption. They have to say, ‘I trust Velocity,’ and for a lot of these companies they’re likely to say, ‘I’ve never heard of these companies before, so why should I buy into this?’”
Other distributors who’ve jointed Velocity Network’s board embrace: Cisive, Cornerstone, HireRight, Korn Ferry, Nation, Randstad, SHL, and SumTotal Systems.
SAP now testing the system internally
Alex Chudnovsky, vp of product technique at SAP, is a founding member of Velocity Foundation’s board of administrators, which was created in 2019. He mentioned SAP is at present testing the blockchain-based credentialling community internally and with just a few companions to coach staff and HR workers on the way it works.
Verifying simply one of many lots of of 1000’s of job candidates SAP fields in a yr can take from 5 to 14 days and prices from $75 to $200 per candidate, Chudnovsky mentioned.
Velocity’s community can be centered on connecting to present HR methods via an API credentialing agent, with plans to make it a seamless a part of the hiring course of.
“Most HR systems today typically struggle quite a bit with interoperability with various other systems,” Chudnovsky mentioned. “So, unlike lots of cool technologies out there, this is really designed for career credentialing of an individual through self-sovereignty. That’s very important from a data privacy standpoint — that you have their PII [personally identifiable information] property secured.”
The community relies on the idea of Web3, a brand new iteration of the World Wide Web that features knowledge decentralization, blockchain, and token-based economics.
Web3, Chudnovsky admitted, remains to be very a lot in its early days, and most methods are connecting to blockchain networks in a considerably customized, advert hoc trend.
Velocity Network Foundation
“I think there are a number of reasons things will come together. First, if you look at our [board] membership, you’ve got a number of HR-focused vendors involved. We’re all agreeing on a set of rules to transfer ownership of the data to the individual,” Chudnovsky mentioned. “If we’re all doing it in a similar format, and this can be just one of many future formats…, this will allow the issuer and inspector to connect instantaneously.”
For instance, a latest graduate who applies to 10 completely different corporations and needs to share a licensed diploma with potential employers both has at hand every one a licensed copy or ask the establishment for entry to the digital certificates 10 instances.
Using the Velocity Network, an issuer might merely share a tamper-proof digital diploma or different certificates as a verified credential with the coed, who might then grant entry to that single copy to the ten corporations.
“SAP participates in lots of different consortiums, but this was a learning and a research and contribution effort. I think one of the reasons we like Velocity is there’s an execution plan on how to get from A to B to C,” Chudnovsky mentioned. “Knowing you’re standing up a network and people agreeing on specific rules is no small feat.”
There are 3 ways Velocity Network customers can hook up with credential issuers:
- Use their pockets to scan a QR code supplied by the issuer by way of electronic mail or introduced on their web site or software.
- Click a hyperlink supplied by the issuer by way of electronic mail, or introduced on their web site or software.
- Use their pockets to go looking the issuer’s catalog.
IDC’s Merker mentioned the Velocity Foundation community isn’t a “bad idea,” and utilizing blockchain to safe delicate private info is sensible each from a privateness standpoint and advertising perspective.
Velocity Network Foundation
“But it’s just a matter of understanding that when it comes to background screening, credentialing and employment verification, organizations all have their existing vendors that they use and a lot of them are very well established,” Merker mentioned.
SAP, for instance, already makes use of numerous worker verification networks. And different corporations generally use verification companies from ADP, Endera, Experian, Equifax, or TransUnion when hiring staff.
“Equifax and Experian have been around a long time and have a very good reputation for the most part,” Merker mentioned. “They’re additionally huge, which helps. They have the assets to again up their companies.”
What makes Velocity completely different, Chudnovsky mentioned, is that will probably be constructed on a layer of trusted credentials on a decentralized community versus a single firm and single level of administration. And it may well supply extra info — versus a easy prison background verify, credit score verify or employment verification — on a job candidate that may be accessed instantaneously.
Velocity Network Foundation
The Velocity Network Foundation was established by Velocity Career Labs, a developer of blockchain know-how for sharing profession credentials. The Velocity Foundation exists to control the usage of the Velocity Network by all concerned events, to repeatedly construct the rulebook (or the frequent framework that ensures operational consistency) and to advertise adoption.
The Foundation additionally guides the event of the decentralized protocols and helps analysis and growth of functions and related companies.
Past surveys of company executives discovered enterprises are on the trail to deploying blockchain ledgers for enterprise automation and transaction effectivity. So there’s a degree of belief for the digital ledger to immutably safe delicate info.
Blockchain is a decentralized public digital ledger — just like a relational database — that may be brazenly shared amongst disparate customers to create an unchangeable file of their transactions. Each entry is time-stamped and linked to the earlier one. Each digital file or transaction within the thread is named a block (therefore the title); it permits both an open or managed set of customers to take part within the digital ledger. Each block is linked to a selected participant.
The blockchain accommodates a real and verifiable file of every transaction ever made within the system. That means if a person uploads a digital illustration of their college diploma from an establishment, it can’t be modified with out leaving proof behind. In different phrases, the file is tamper-proof. If an organization uploads an worker’s work expertise and wage, that too is just accessible if the employee gives a public key to a perspective employers.
“Any career fact that can be converted by the issuing authority can now be exchanged through this network,” Gurevich mentioned. “This puts people back in control of their data.”