An online CV validation network has been backed by more than a dozen board members from companies including Aon, Oracle, SAP, UKG and ZipRecruiter with the aim of reducing the time and cost of assessing job candidates.
The network is part of a trend by governments, schools and businesses to create verifiable digital IDs – self-sovereign digital identities – that can be used to verify everything from creditworthiness and college diplomas to licenses and business-to-business credentials.
The Velocity Network, now piloted internally by business members, will enable employers to verify a job candidate’s diplomas, certifications and work experience almost instantly. Employers using HR software can also issue verified credentials to employees, who can then access and share this information through a blockchain-based, online ledger.
A job candidate who uses the network will essentially get a digital wallet secured through cryptography via the ledger. They can then choose to offer potential employers whatever verified information they choose via a public key.
The network was created and is operated by the Velocity Network Foundation, a Delaware-based nonprofit whose mission is to allow workers to store and share verifiable educational, licensing and experience credentials online with job opportunities.
“Verifying applicant career records can take days, weeks, if not months, to complete,” said Dror Gurevich, founder and CEO of the Velocity Network Foundation. “Hiring practices are seriously out of date to the point that one in three Americans have admitted to lying on their resume, which slows the hiring process tremendously.
“There is literally no easy way to verify records today other than calling and getting information from different sources,” he said. “And that’s driving a $17 billion market for screening services made up of professional third-party providers. Organizations are spending millions of dollars on this. But it’s not the cost that’s the problem. It’s the time it takes; it’s a friction ball that’s blocking it most of the innovation we need in the labor market.”
How credentials are stored and shared
Essentially, workers turn to issuers to claim their credentials, either from a former employer, a government agency or school. The issuers take the records they have and then sign them with their private keys to create a tamper-proof record that is issued to a person’s digital wallet.
The digital wallet application can be installed on any device a user chooses to connect to work, school or license issuers to require digitally signed proof of work history, educational background, skills and qualifications. For each credential, the issuer writes a cryptographic key to the Velocity Network’s blockchain, making it verifiable and trustworthy. The personal information is stored privately on the individual’s device, and the confirmation keys themselves do not contain any personally identifiable information.
“This allows individuals to stack evidence of their work history, educational background, skills and qualifications; store them privately; and share them [with employers] when needed,” Gurevich said.
Once the validated data is uploaded to the Velocity Network, workers will own it and can choose to share some or all of it by offering a public cryptographic key to potential employers. Job seekers can control exactly which records an employer has access to depending on job requirements.
“We currently support 25 different credentials from basic identities, to work permits, educational credentials, courses, badges, assessment results, driver’s licenses and professional certifications,” Gurevich said.
Via the blockchain ledger, the Velocity Network would also run a token-based cryptocurrency payment and reward system. Credential issuing organizations and other contributors of career information are rewarded with Velocity Credits. Conversely, companies can then purchase credits on the Velocity Credit Marketplace to pay for access to the blockchain ledger to verify credentials.
Gurevich pointed to the large attrition rate as one of the reasons why a resume-checking network is needed now more than ever as employees quit and switch jobs at unprecedented rates.
“We currently rely on self-reported, unverified resumes, LinkedIn profiles and the like as the source for candidate and employee records,” Gurevich said. “If you want to hire a developer in Serbia, you can’t because you have no idea who they are and you don’t have the confidence factor to comply with the regulations. For most employers, this requires the person’s credentials or risk being responsible for negligent employment.”
Velocity Network FoundationVelocity Network’s failure or success will largely depend on how many organizations choose to jump on board and share data with it. For example, colleges and tech bootcamp services will need to connect to the network and share their verified data. And corporate HR systems must agree to connect to the service to share employee work experience.
That said, interest in the portability of job skills and compensation information is growing among companies, according to Matthew Merker, a research leader for IDC’s Talent Acquisition & Strategy practice.
IDC, Merker said, is constantly seeing talent acquisition vendors emerge with ways to address a labor market hurt from historically low unemployment rates, especially for knowledge-based and technology-centric jobs.
“The problem is convincing employers to accept these third-party companies at face value,” Merker said. “The other challenge is how effective it will be in terms of portability, because it depends on employer adoption. They have to say, ‘I trust Velocity,’ and for a lot of these companies, they’re probably going to say, ‘I’ve never heard of these companies before, so why should I buy into this?'”
Other vendors who have joined Velocity Network’s board include: Cisive, Cornerstone, HireRight, Korn Ferry, Nation, Randstad, SHL and SumTotal Systems.
SAP is now testing the system internally
Alex Chudnovsky, vice president of product strategy at SAP, is a founding member of the Velocity Foundation’s board of directors, which was established in 2019. He said SAP is currently testing the blockchain-based credential network internally and with a few partners to educate employees and HR staff on how it works.
Confirming just one of the hundreds of thousands of job seekers SAP fields in a year can take from five to 14 days and costs from $75 to $200 per candidate, Chudnovsky said.
Velocity’s network is also focused on connecting to existing HR systems through an API credentials agent, with plans to make it a seamless part of the hiring process.
“Most HR systems today usually struggle quite a bit with interoperability with various other systems,” Chudnovsky said. “So, unlike a lot of cool technologies out there, this is really designed for career credentialing of an individual through self-sovereignty. That’s really important from a data protection standpoint — that you have their PII [personally identifiable information] property secured.”
The network is based on the concept of Web3, a new iteration of the World Wide Web that includes data decentralization, blockchain and token-based economics.
Web3, Chudnovsky admitted, is still very much in its early days, and most systems connect to blockchain networks in a somewhat customized ad hoc manner.
Velocity Network Foundation“I think there are several reasons why things will come together. First, if you look at our [board] membership, you have a number of HR-focused suppliers involved. We all agree on a set of rules to transfer ownership of the data to the individual,” Chudnovsky said. “If we all do it in a similar format, and this could be just one of many future formats …, this will allow the issuer and the inspector to connect instantly.”
For example, a graduate applying to 10 different companies and wanting to share a certified diploma with potential employers must either provide each with a certified copy or request the institution to access the electronic certificate 10 times.
Using the Velocity Network, an issuer can simply share a tamper-proof electronic diploma or other certificate as a verified credential with the student, who can then provide access to the single copy to the 10 companies.
“SAP participates in many different consortia, but this was a learning and research and contribution effort. I think one of the reasons we like Velocity is that there is an execution plan for how to get from A to B to C,” said Chudnovsky. “Knowing that you’re standing up with a network and people who agree on specific rules is no small feat.”
There are three ways Velocity Network users can connect to credential issuers:
- Use their wallet to scan a QR code provided by the issuer via email or presented on their website or application.
- Click on a link provided by the issuer via email, or presented on their website or application.
- Use their wallet to search the issuer’s directory.
IDC’s Merker said the Velocity Foundation network is not a “bad idea,” and using blockchain to secure sensitive personal information is smart from both a privacy and marketing perspective.
Velocity Network Foundation“But it’s just a matter of understanding that when it comes to background screening, credentialing and employment verification, all organizations have their existing vendors that they use, and many of them are very well established,” Merker said.
SAP, for example, already uses various networks for employee verification. And other companies often use verification services from ADP, Endera, Experian, Equifax or TransUnion when hiring employees.
“Equifax and Experian have been around a long time and have a very good reputation for the most part,” Merker said. “They’re also huge, which helps. They have the resources to back up their services.”
What makes Velocity different, Chudnovsky said, is that it will be built on a layer of trusted credentials on a decentralized network versus a single company and single point of administration. And it can offer more information — versus a simple criminal background check, credit check or employment verification — about a job candidate that can be accessed immediately.
Velocity Network FoundationThe Velocity Network Foundation was established by Velocity Career Labs, a developer of blockchain technology for sharing career credentials. The Velocity Foundation exists to govern the use of the Velocity Network by all parties involved, to continuously build the rulebook (or the common framework that ensures operational consistency) and to promote adoption.
The foundation also guides the development of the decentralized protocols and supports research and development of applications and related services.
Previous surveys of business leaders found that businesses are moving toward deploying blockchain for business automation and transaction efficiency. So there is a level of trust for the electronic ledger to immutably secure sensitive information.
Blockchain is a decentralized public electronic ledger – similar to a relational database – that can be openly shared between different users to create an immutable record of their transactions. Each entry is time-stamped and linked to the previous one. Each digital record or transaction in the thread is called a block (hence the name); it allows either an open or controlled set of users to participate in the electronic ledger. Each block is linked to a specific participant.
The blockchain contains a true and verifiable record of every single transaction ever made in the system. This means that if a user uploads a digital representation of their university degree from an institution, it cannot be changed without leaving evidence. In other words, the plate is tamper-proof. If a company uploads an employee’s work experience and salary, it is also only available if the worker offers a public key to prospective employers.
“All career facts that can be converted by the issuing authority can now be exchanged through this network,” Gurevich said. “This puts people back in control of their data.”
