14 industry leaders from across HR and recruitment came together to launch the Velocity Network Foundation. Together, the vendor-neutral, nonprofit organization will define, deploy and champion the Velocity Network: a globally accessible, open-source, blockchain-powered “Internet of Careers.”
Challenges
The Velocity Network Foundation aims to solve some of the most critical challenges for the future of work while addressing the growing need for data privacy and security. With the Internet of Careers HR and Ed Tech vendors, employment marketplaces and freelancer platforms, staffing and recruiting providers, background and assessment processors will be enabled to offer their constituents the ability to issue, share and verify career credentials, and develop new added-value use cases and innovative applications.
Organizations can rely on trusted, immutable and verified applicant, candidate, employee and student data, seamlessly and cost effectively eliminating hiring risks, boosting productively, improving employee and student experience and achieving regulatory compliance.
14 Founding members
Founding members of the Velocity Network Foundation include Aon’s Assessment Solutions, Cisive, Cornerstone, HireRight, Korn Ferry, National Student Clearinghouse, Randstad, SAP, SumTotal Systems, SHL, Ultimate Software, Unit4, Upwork, Velocity Career Labs and ZipRecruiter. The Velocity Network Foundation was formed to reinvent how people manage their career credentials.
Disrupted and Volatile Job Markets
The Fourth Industrial Revolution is driving disruption across global labor markets: skills shortages, accelerated turnover, the shift toward contingent workforces and a growing gig economy. According to a recent study1 from Korn Ferry, by 2030, a shortage of 85.2 million skilled workers will result in lost revenue opportunities of $8.452 trillion worldwide. Research from Upwork and Freelancers Union2 indicates that more than 50 percent of millennial workers are already freelancing while in 2019 alone, 57 million Americans freelanced, representing 35 percent of the entire U.S. workforce.
Reality
Hundreds of millions of individuals will be affected by the Fourth Industrial Revolution trends, many driven to change their careers or risk displacement. In this reality, career credentials become one of the most sought after and valuable assets for workers, enabling them to navigate through the labor market. As noted at the World Economic Forum in Davos,3 73 percent of employees said they want to own their work-related records and take them as they move between jobs.
Businesses, governments and key stakeholders need to accelerate and elevate their game to win against these trends. All bets are on innovations in human resources technology to tackle newer challenges, with increased demand for smart automation, AI and algorithmic matching to connect people with jobs and career development opportunities. Yet, most individuals and organizations still rely on costly, self-reported and unverified methods to exchange data about previous employment, professional achievements and educational certifications, all of which are key to hiring efficiencies. The fragmented data exchange system is holding back the job market and preventing the mitigation of critical challenges facing the job market today.
Verified career credentials
Powered by blockchain, the Velocity Network makes it possible for people to claim and manage their career credentials, including verified education, projects, work history, skills and talent assessments, choosing with whom to share this information and how others use this data. At the same time, employers and educational institutions can rely on trusted, immutable applicant, candidate, student and employee information, seamlessly and effectively achieving significant reductions in the time and costs associated with talent processes, while reducing risk through decisions based on reliable data and supporting compliance in today’s global labor market.
Combined, the Velocity Network Foundation’s founding members have career-related data for more than 700 million individuals in their systems, including billions of professional and student credentials and assessments, as well as employment and contract work records spanning job information, pay histories, competencies and more.
Kickstart the network effect
Dror Gurevich, CEO of Velocity Career Labs, said, “These amazing future-thinking founding members bring to the table what’s needed to kickstart the network effect.” He continued, “The democratic, nonprofit nature of the governance, and the open-source framework will make it a true public utility layer. This is why we are calling it the ‘Internet of Careers.’ It sets Velocity apart from others in this space and attracts many others to join, driving the supply and demand flywheel.”
World of work has forever changed
Constellation Research Vice President and Principal Analyst, Holger Mueller, said, “The world of work has forever changed, and Enterprise Acceleration is real, which means enterprises need to act quickly to get their people platforms and data in better shape. The workforce use cases for what Velocity is doing abound, from talent acquisition and employment verification to competency certification and compensation management. Equally compelling will be the ability for workers to have portable work records that are documented in tamper-proof technology. Velocity’s founding members are to be applauded for coming together and collaborating at an industry level to transform how work needs to happen in this new decade and beyond.”
Now of Work
Digital transformation expert Jason Averbook, a global keynote speaker, industry analyst, and co-founder and CEO of Leapgen, commented, “The Future of Work is really the Now of Work, and it’s important we don’t fall further behind. That means fixing what’s broken while nurturing innovation. The Velocity Network puts people back in control by building a globally accessible, trustworthy foundation that will underlie global labor markets. It’s exciting to see this impressive roster of founding members who share the vision.”
To learn more about the Velocity Network and its founding members, visit the Foundation page at www.velocitynetwork.foundation/foundation.
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