emergence of cryptocurrency and bitcoin

In the last few years, the emergence and adaptation of Cryptocurrency and Blockchain technology popularised by Satoshi Nakamoto,has opened up new vistas for a wide range of transactions, which involve exchange of good/services and its value. As organizations go more and more digital, the Blockchain technology allows secure payment transactions in a decentralized system of database like a decentralized ledger. Information is digitally stored and verified and the technology ensures that it is protected from fraud, violation and unwarranted modification. The most famous cryptocurrency is Bitcoin among many others.

At this stage, given that this technology essentially helps in digital transaction of payment, the immediate impact is, of course, in the area of Finance Industry. However the impact of this technology is far reaching and its influence in HR is already visible and potential is huge.

With HR systems now mostly in cloud-based technology, HR services now have now expanded and offer truly digital and innovative offerings anytime, anywhere and any platform. The need for high security and protection from any fraud is critical. This is where Blockchain technology can play a powerful role. The HR system, if integrated with Blockchain based systems, would bring in the security aspect as well as pick up necessary parameters to cater to HR needs. Under the umbrella of HR functions, there are areas where intensive verification is required, extensive integration with third party sources are required and labour intensive time consuming processes and operations are required

This article will explore the possible impact in HR space:

1. Talent Acquisition and Recruitment –

Be it verification of employee educational qualification, skills and work experience verification, background check to asses if any trace of criminal activities. Correct employee profile matching, social network behaviour, psychological balance etc all these can be stored, accessed and analyzed and determined. Some experts are of the opinion that role of career and skill portals will undergo a huge transformation due to Blockchain technology and they may cease to exist.

2. Employee payments –

For global, multi-geography-based organizations, any kind of payments for the employees – whether sundry expenses like car rentals, non-monetary incentives tied up with retail stores, travel and mobility expenses, salary, automated taxes, can be handled well through cryptocurrency. This would help to workaround challenging situations like currency volatility, cross-geo expenses.

3. Performance and Competency Management –

Assessing and storing of behavioural and professional competency for on time and future use like progression or learning needs or external or internal job rotation and opportunities for changes. When employees do any skill upgradation through online courses such as Udemy, Coursera, Lynda etc) the accreditation, certification that are obtained can be stored, authenticated, accessed, updated leveraging the Blockchain technology. Backoffice reconciliation will be eased.

4. Employee separation, Employee Exit and Final Settlement –

Storage of the separation data and feedback using Blockchain technology could help in the onboarding and hiring process for the next firm

The next few years will reveal interesting progress in HR space using the Blockchain technology and cryptocurrency usage will perhaps increasingly become the new normal.

 

About the author:

Sonali Sengupta is a regular contributor on SOAIS blogs and brings to the table 25 years of HR domain & technology experience. She has led several large HR transformation programs and has seen HR evolve from a back-office, operations function to a strategic enabler of customer businesses. Sonali can be contacted at sonali.sengupta2001@gmail.com

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