4 Ways Blockchain is Improving the Workforce Industry
News from the HYVE Coin Development team on March 19, 2021
Back in 2009, and for quite an extensive period afterward, the technology behind Blockchain could be used only by developers and tech-savvy people. Since then, we’ve come a long way, and while the technology has advanced and cryptocurrency became mainstream.
Perhaps the most monumental and controversial period of this technology took place within the past 2 years.
Even muppets joined in on the fun. Granted, not everyone remained unmoved after all the global developments and price changes.
Looking at all this in retrospect, we arrive at the conclusion that from this point forward, Blockchain can have real-life applications. Following that line of thought, we’ll now be focusing on how Blockchain is improving the workforce industry.
Goodbye Third Parties
Third parties have always been a large part of any hiring process, whether we’re talking about traditional office jobs or freelancing. The latter one is ruled by giants like Upwork and Fiverr whereas traditional office jobs are mostly intermediated by human resource companies like Adecco.
First, to understand why this is a problem. In 2017 alone, Adecco had revenue in excess of $23B. While freelancing platforms are lower on the scale due to their relatively short history, they still rack in 8 digits revenue annually.
Adecco charges per/hire, and it’s usually equal to 1–2 salaries/hire, whereas services like Fiverr and Upwork charge a commission on every job completed through the platform, and that fee is around 10%.
Now let’s compare this to a decentralized platform for the workforce, such as HYVE, where fees range between 0.5% and 0.
Say Bob needs a webpage and he posts a task on HYVE and his budget is 100$. Now he has 3 options:
post the task in dollars and pay a 0.5$ fee.
post the task in dollars but pay the fee in HYVE, so the fee becomes 0.25$
post the task in HYVE and pay 0$ fee.
Welfare System
Let’s dive a bit into this. Most countries have developed a welfare system to better take care of the population on the lower side of the income spectrum.
Before we move on, it should be noted that blockchain technology can greatly improve welfare systems in general through globally synchronized provable information (ie: tax forms, the general situation of individuals, etc)
Our main focus, however, is the job board. These job boards have become integral and indispensable parts of Welfare systems all around the world. The reason for that is simply but eloquently described in this Chinese Proverb.
give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime — Chinese Proverb
The easiest solution to helping someone who has found himself in a difficult financial situation is helping that person find a job. Let’s analyze the process of how that usually works. You need to go to one of the job board centers in your city, prove that you’re under welfare through a plethora of documents, prove you don’t have a job, and then request a job.
In most cases, you still need to fill in some additional forms about what your skills are and so on. Then, let’s assume you find a job in the meantime. Go back to the center, announce this and prove it, then renounce your job posting.
Quite complicated when you take into account that the end purpose of these systems is to help someone, and not the opposite.
Let’s try this with Blockchain. You lose your job. The welfare system is already aware of it now. They import your data from the public ledger, including your skills, previous work experience, peer review from those you worked with, the median income, and how soon you need a job. Pair this with some AI and you could be presented with new job opportunities within the next 24 hours.
This might sound science-fiction, but the technology for all this already exists, we’re just not using it, or rather use it for the wrong reasons.
Interoperability between Countries
Let’s go one step further on the previous topic, Welfare. There is a shortage of jobs everywhere in the world. At the same time, there is an ever-increasing shift in the way we work — that is to say, more and more jobs can be done remotely.
While previously remote jobs were reserved for highly technical or specific jobs, nowadays most remote jobs are entry-level. Now that we’ve established this, let’s look at the next point — every country in the entire world is trying to achieve a 0% unemployment rate, yet none has achieved it.
A Different Approach
Let’s assume we have a global job-board, just like an Agora, but completely decentralized. We’ll call it HYVE. Now let’s take the following scenario.
America has 150 unemployed unskilled workers. We will assume these people are fresh out of high-school, desperately need work but have no skills. At the same time, America has a severe shortage of developers.
In a different part of the world, Berlin has too many developers and cannot find English-speaking citizens who want to work in a call center.
Additionally, both these countries have a welfare layer built on top of our global job-board, HYVE, therefore they can easily interact with one another and try to find solutions for one another.
The solution is already quite simple. The 150 American workers can work remotely for the call-centers since their English level is at the very least sufficient and the German developers can work remotely while earning potentially larger salaries than back home.
Both countries win, both countries reduce unemployment.
Now imagine a world in which all the countries and jobs in the world are interconnected with one another so that whenever someone doesn’t have a job, a solution can exist.
Perhaps that solution isn’t in the same city or the same country, but the solution exists, we just don’t have the tools to locate it.
F*CK — Yet Another Resume?
We know how much you hate having to fill in a new resume every goddamn time you apply for a job. What’s worse you also need to remake it every time you change websites.
That’s one of the things blockchain is actively changing though.
Everything is immutable and gets stored on a public ledger, so one CV can now get you any interview out there.
As blockchain progresses, we finally get to the point where there is only one unified resume.
This doesn’t stop only at resumes, but rather at the entire work experience. All the jobs, experience, and reviews you’ve gotten over the years are on the blockchain. In other words, it’s close to impossible trying to bullshit someone and the only way to advance in any type of organization is through hard work and skill.
On the other hand, however, there is no one who can question your authority or achievements in a particular field. There is nothing for you to prove in an interview because everything has already been proven through your experience.
On that note, we do believe that in the future, job interviews will be centered only around interpersonal skills and how well you fit with the team. Because the interview will never even take place if the skill level is inadequate, saving time and money for both the candidate and the employer.
give a man a resume and he’ll have a job for a day; teach a man to use HYVE and he’ll have a job for a lifetime — Blockchain Proverb