In order to stimulate local and national economies, authorities need to engender greater confidence in the fact that it is, indeed, safe for people to return to their offices, shops, restaurants, entertainment venues and travel (particularly on public transport). We have seen initiatives in cities such as Girona, in Spain, where the Catalan De Blockchain has worked with city officials and technology providers to launch an app which their local football stadium is looking to use to encourage the safe return of fans. Called ‘Obrir Girona’, it is hoped that the Blockchain-powered app will enable the city’s local residents to gather at public events by using this ‘covid-free’ digital passes.

Undoubtedly, public authorities all over the world are vast employees of people. In the UK there are 5.5 million people (16.7% of the work force), in USA 24million (15% of the work force) and in China, back in 1978, it was an incredible 100% of the labour force who were employed by government-run organisations!

Number of people working in Chinese state-owned enterprises

Source: Statista

In view of this, it ought to be of no surprise that there are a number of Blockchain-based apps that are being used to help improve the efficiency in the manner in which human resource departments are run. Listed below is a selection from different jurisdictions around the world:

• the BeSure Network - when working in dangerous/hazardous environments, information can be securely accessed by managers, employees and regulatory bodies 

• Blockeducate - stores and shares educational qualifications

• eXo Platform - used by the University of California and HSBC for staff rewards and recognition, since “47% of staff do not feel recognized for what they do 

• Job.com - uses AI and Blockchain to match job seekers with the right company. Rather than the standard 20% commission, employers pay only 7% of a candidate’s annual salary when they sign up on Job.com. Additionally, 5% of this is immediately sent to the candidate as a signing reward

• Oracle - helps new staff induction processes

• Peoplewave - assists candidate sourcing, selection and screening

• TiiQu - offers a Blockchain-powered platform to create a digital passport to be used as proof of a candidate’s professional trustworthiness, identity and qualifications

• Vault Platform - used to make harassment reporting more transparent:

• Zinc - allows users to upload their skills and experience data, empowering them to decide with whom they share this data, and when. Ensures CVs are always up to date and accessible anywhere in real-time. 

 

Furthermore, Deloitte believes that Blockchain technology is able to support local authorities and governments in a variety of ways in order to make them more efficient as well as improve the effectiveness of the services which they deliver. For example:

• as an official registry for government-owned assets or intellectual property owned by businesses and individuals i.e., offices, homes, vehicles, patents

• to help with the way voting and elections are conducted

• to streamline tendering of goods and services

• to reduce fraud and error by bringing greater transparency and automation of current labour-intensive processes

Unsurprisingly, there are many challenges government bodies face as often they are run in a very bureaucratic fashion and lack the funds to implement change. Often their procurement processes make it extremely difficult for new tech disruptors to even tender. Another factor holding back innovation is education, i.e., those working in government-run organisations often lack the time to undertake the research required to find the so-needed solutions due to cutbacks. In the UK, organisations such as CPRAS are actively engaged with government bodies to help drive through change and bring about more efficient practices. When recently asked, Richard Hallewell at CPRAS responded: “Procurement and education challenges go hand-in-hand and, together, are applying a handbrake to the adoption of tech solutions in the public sector. We need to bridge this gap urgently or we will be condemning our public sector to a default position of high-cost / low-impact cycles. The alternative though is transformational – imagine if we can arm all our public services with the most efficient and impactful solutions available. Together with the CIPFA technology Procurement Association we are building the knowledge base and procurement pathways to release the hand-brake to create a “new norm” where Councils and the wider public sector can benefit from the transformative solutions that are being developed all around the world.”

As a result of there being considerable press surrounding FinTech, RegTech, LawTech and PropTech, it comes as no surprise to see more are more focus on GovTech.