It just got easier to hire the right candidates with the Internet of Careers.

In recent months, one of the last bastions of the analog world – my local council – switched to a fully digital system for purchasing visitor parking permits.

You might find this unremarkable, given that public parking in many parts of the world has been enabled for years by mobile applications combining geo-location data with automatic payments. As a resident of East London, you will understand that the words “technological” and “innovation” are not synonymous with local government services.

You may be wondering what this has to do with the future of work.

There has been a fundamental shift in our expectations of instant, seamless digital experiences. Over the years, we have become accustomed to consumer products that are aesthetically pleasing as well as easy to use. It is unclear why business-to-business equivalents have lagged behind. However, one thing that has been accelerated by the shift to distributed work during multiple lockdowns is a changing perception of what is possible and desirable from the products that we use on a daily basis. In the modern world, it is no longer necessary to rely on slow, bureaucratic systems and poorly executed user interfaces.

As far as I am concerned, that is the aspiration. In many areas of business, however, this vision of the future is not yet a reality.

The work-life balance revolution

In order to illustrate my point, I would like to ask a couple of questions.

There has been a revolution in work-life balance over the past three years – do you agree or disagree with this statement?

Whether or not you agree with my assertion, it’s unlikely that you would argue that something profound has not occurred.

Each month, I speak with dozens of business leaders as a company advisor and all-around enthusiast about the future of work. It is rare that they do not share with each other the challenges they are encountering when it comes to recalibrating and redesigning their organizations’ operations. When it comes down to it, business’ most pressing questions remain human in nature.

One of the most important questions is how do we recruit the right people to assist our company in growing?

Is your ability to identify and recruit the best candidates evolving at the same rate as our expectations about how, when, and where we work?

Among those I have spoken with and surveyed over the past year, the answer is a resounding no.

There is no doubt that certain parts of the labor market have seen significant innovation. Many flexible work-focused job sites are now available to meet the demands for a new way of working, for example. The advancement of machine learning also provides the potential for better talent screening, but at present, it is more of a promise than a reality. In addition, companies continue to face fundamental problems that impede their ability to hire quickly. You can be confident that candidates are who they claim to be.

The method by which career credentials are collected and verified has barely changed over the past century.

The Internet of Careers

There has been a great deal of progress in addressing specific talent and hiring issues, but there remains a significant challenge – combining multiple sources of career information into one trusted source.

In this regard, there is good news – people can collect and control their career data, and they can share it with any employers – present or future – that they choose.

By creating the Internet of Careers, the Velocity Network Foundation is achieving this goal. In order to remedy these fundamental issues in the global labor market, Velocity is a non-profit (of which all the companies listed above are members) that aims to put control in the hands of individuals in order to solve them.

• What prevents a potential employer from having to start a new screening process for their new Sales Director? Instant access to verified data that provides them with the information they require.
• Why not allow your new Facilities Management candidate to share their professional credentials via a personal career wallet rather than worrying about their honesty?
• Rather than scheduling a series of assessment tests for your new Pediatric Nurse to test their skills and certifications, shouldn’t they be able to re-use the results from a few months ago?

Lower risk. Enhanced candidate experience. Cost reductions. Getting people to work takes less time.

With Velocity, all of this is now technologically possible, which will fundamentally change the way you hire and manage your employees.

Does this mean that it is easier to hire the “right” candidates?

Is it likely that the possibility of verifying credentials will facilitate future hiring and improve the hiring process? Without a doubt.

Are you likely to be able to hire better candidates as a result? That depends on the circumstance. When it comes to data or technology, how you use it is extremely important.

A good technology allows people to spend more time engaging in unique human characteristics such as creativity, context, and critical thinking. With innovations such as those being made by Velocity and its members, the labour market becomes more trustworthy and frictionless, allowing employers to concentrate on matching the ‘right’ people with the ‘right’ opportunities.

This is how you will be able to identify and recruit the best candidates as we navigate the greatest work/life transformation in history.