Looking for the perfect job and trying to stand out from the crowd has become more and more difficult in recent years. Recruiters, current employees and would-be employees all feel dissatisfied with current recruitment methods and have harboured frustrations about these for a number of years. There are issues with how reliable the data is on all sides. Particularly the way that we navigate references is crying out for a refresh.

Whether on LinkedIn, Indeed or any recruitment site, its the network that has control of, and makes money from, the individual’s data. We don’t think that’s right. We believe that individuals should be the ones in control, and feel empowered by the opportunity to earn from this data, or simply by keeping it private. Centralised networking and recruitment platforms seem to work better for the platform than they do the user, so we’ve launched R_Block to put employees first.

Two companies that are already praising R_Block’s professional network are GoCardless and Booking.com. They are two of the test users trying out our network in beta stage. We hope that it will revolutionise the way that employees give and receive references, and Anthony McCabe, Talent Manager at GoCardless has said:

“I’ve had the opportunity to be one of the first users and R_Block is an easy to use intuitive piece of software that I foresee completely rejuvenating employee and employer referencing using intuitive Blockchain technology.” *

For us, disruption of these old fashioned networks is long overdue. We’re replacing them with a decentralised system that rewards workers for interacting with recruiters, sharing their work experience data and rewards managers for sharing detailed competency information.Most importantly gives control back to the employee. So how does it work?

Employees sign up to the network.

They invite somebody to give them reference.

The reference is verified on the blockchain and the transaction is recorded on the worker’s R_Block profile with an immutable timestamp.

Employees add descriptions to their R_Block CV

The data is encrypted and stored safely in the decentralised IPFS system.

This information is owned and controlled by the employee, and can only be accessed with their permission. The employee has the key, which can decrypt or encrypt their information depending on whether or not they want to be visible in the network. R_Block allows job seekers to see and own the references that are written for them so they only have to be collected once and they own their employment and competency proof. The fear of misrepresentation and bias when applying for jobs diminishes when employees have true ownership of their data, and aren’t afraid their data will be abused. This secure and private exchange of information decentralises trust and will also start to reward the originator of the reference with CVTokens when they share their information, which means for the first time employees will be the ones earning from sharing their career profiles.

* N.B — Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer.

Yours,

Luke Shipley

Join us on Tuesday 23rd January at 6.30pm for our first Applying Blockchain Outside of Finance event. To find out more about R_Block follow us on Medium, Twitter, Telegram go to >> https://rblock.co <<