Age of Intelligence
In recent, there had been many talks around AI (Artificial Intelligence) and machine learning, with the demo of Google Duplex, its latest technology to conduct natural conversations to carry out “real-world” tasks over the phone such as restaurant reservations, saloon appointments. For some of you who had not viewed it, here is the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd1mEm2Fy08
The future world is definitely evolving as we entered into the “Age of Intelligence”. According to a survey at PWC, 37% of the workforce are worried that automation will put jobs at risks by 2030. These built technologies are not going away, in fact it will only get more intense and much better. Employees need to rethink how they can leverage on their skills and experience to deploy into this future world. Life-long learning is even more critical to remain employable. Fact is technology will increase efficiency of work but it can never replace the human mind and emotions.
Another buzzword had been on my mind a lot these days, "Blockchain" – what is blockchain? It had been widely discussed but less widely understood. All I could recalled was it is commonly associated with bitcoin, cryptocurrency, payments, investment and capital markets.
“A blockchain is an open distributed ledger that record transactions between two parties. It allows values to be transacted or exchanged in a transparent and secure manner, eliminating the risk of tampering. Once recorded, the data in any given block cannot be altered retroactively without the alteration of all subsequent blocks, hence creating the interlock and authenticity of data. Today, systems are all about copied and cloned data. With blockchain, it’s the same data everywhere. It established trust between two machines, people or entities, and transfer the value securely and transparently.”
Blockchain will be the future and it could revolutionise and shake up the world of work just like the birth of smart phones, internet and social media.
As a HR Professional, we are keen to know what does blockchain means to the future for us, what are the possible impact and benefits that the technology delivers. How will it transform the workforce, automate processes and the seamless transfer of secured information?
HR oversees tremendous amount of data, sensitive information such as payroll, employee’s personal records, candidates’ skills, education background, workplace performance.
The business process that HR goes through can be laborious and human intensive and as such the potential of blockchain can reduce the mundane work and cost elements by removing third-parties, intermediaries in the value chain. It allows HR professionals to spend more time on the ground with the employees, understanding the business and thus perform value-adding tasks.
The journey of blockchain in HR begins in the employment market when the company looks to hire new talents for work. A “marketplace” to satisfy the growing pool of “talent-on-demand”, potential employers can access the individual’s value passport encompasses of comprehensive and trustworthy blockchain-based records of their skills, competency, education background, salary history and workplace performance. This information are highly portable as individual updates their value passport on the go as it eliminates the time spent and re-validation process as the data are authenticated at source. As blockchain lays the ability to secure data and mitigate fraud, people are also more relaxed when sharing personal information.
The talent market is getting more fluid as the trend towards a gig economy where younger people opt for short assignments, freelance work and portfolio careers. Potential employers then apply artificial intelligence to the data and matches the best talents to the most appropriate jobs.
Once the company found the talents via the blockchain, technology automates the creation of validated employment agreements and subsequent enable the process of on-boarding. The value passport will continue to be updated with the current employment records.
With global workforce, employee mobility is becoming widespread in companies and paying these overseas payroll can be expensive and tedious. Blockchain offers interesting payment solutions and facilitate cross border wage payments, international expenses and tax liabilities.
These are just some ideas off the list that blockchain has impact on HR work, although we still need to battle off human issues such as behavioural and cultural changes in an organisation and workforce.
The landscape of blockchain is in her infancy stage and will take some time to emerge, let’s begin the discovery journey now and not end up eventually as the laggards of the value chain!
Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer.
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