Planning to fudge your resume? Better move quick: Your application could soon be filtered by a system that uses the blockchain, said the billionaire owner of an HR company worth $40 billion on Thursday.
Aneel Bhursi, co-founder and CEO of Workday, a company that creates data analytics tools for human resources professionals, described a system where people could hold their job history on the blockchain, preventing them from lying or editing information, to CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“Blockchain is a technology looking for a problem to solve. We found one to solve, which is credentials,” said Bhursi. “Employees can go from company to company and carry credentials with them in a private network. It can’t be edited by an outside source,” he added.
Bhursi’s proposition comes as a fright to those used to trumping up achievements on CVs, or hiding information that shows them in a bad light—a criminal record that can never be cleared, so to speak.
“Whatever information you want to carry ... it gives employees power over data,” Bhusri said. “Universities can also make sure that diplomas cited by job seekers are real.”
Though Bhusri’s just spitballing, some of the tech has already been built.
Education Index, a UK-based education startup in October launched the Libereka Common Application & Scholarship System (LCASS), which uses the blockchain to help students apply to universities and scholarships. It stores academic credentials, transcripts, and letters of recommendation on the blockchain.
And in December, the International Organization of Migration created a system that logs labour contracts on the blockchain. Its system, built together with Hong-Kong based blockchain firm Diginex, prevents “contract-swapping,” where migrant workers are pressured into signing less favorable contracts at the last second in a bait-and-switch move by crooked employers.
Bhursi also suggested that artificial intelligence “will predict the right next move in your career.” If only it could show us how to secure the role of billionaire philanthropist.