Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Global mobilityWorking from homeHR transformationWorkplace cultureLatest News

Post-coronavirus: How companies can learn from blockchain

by Tamara Haasen 27 May 2020
by Tamara Haasen 27 May 2020

Tamara Haasen describes how blockchain influences the peer-to-peer structure of technology company IOHK and how all employers could apply it to the post-Covid-19 workplace.

When reports of a new virus in Wuhan emerged late last year, few would have imagined the state of lockdown much of the world now finds itself in. With more people working remotely than ever before, the pandemic has raised questions about the state of businesses and their ways of working.

Although mass home working was a daunting prospect, pioneering companies have been able to combat the potential damages to business by altering their systems of working. To become adaptable to disruption, companies can adopt a business operating system based around the core principle of blockchain: decentralisation. With talk of the lockdown permanently altering the way we work, companies that reduce reliance on a centralised system or a ‘single point of failure’ will be better able to weather the storm.

Decentralisation and transparency go hand-in-hand, and companies can increase their fairness by increasing transparency around their pay and conditions.

At IOHK, we engineer blockchain software, which allows all kinds of data to be stored in thousands, or even millions of computers around the world simultaneously, meaning it is immune to attack on any individual computer and loss of data is essentially impossible.

We work in the same way; decentralised business models mean there is no single point of failure. Truly decentralised working models go beyond mere working from home and could mean the eradication of offices, fixed hours, and even conventional business hierarchies like boards and CEOs. At a time when companies are having to adjust fast to digitally distributed workforces, there’s a lot to be learned from the way that blockchain runs a distributed financial system without a central authority.

At IOHK, we engineer blockchains, so we wanted to make sure we walked the walk when it came to decentralisation. Our company doesn’t have a central office, hours or deadlines; all our staff work remotely and to their own schedule, managing their own tasks. Everyone at IOHK is united by our goal to revolutionise finance and blockchain. Hierarchy is circular rather than centralised with remote teams working independently to set their own deadlines to achieve common goals.

Fairness and collaboration

Teams work on a peer-to-peer basis, there are no silos and everyone from software developers to media professionals collaborate. Our methods also ensure that we prioritise fairness; pay formulas, rates and promotions are decided based on transparent rules, using independent formulas and public data. Decentralisation and transparency go hand-in-hand, and companies can increase their fairness by increasing transparency around their pay and conditions.

Although our employees work remotely, we make sure that everyone feels connected across the entire company. At IOHK, we have a whole-company Slack channel that includes all employees, including our CEO. He also hosts open “Ask Me Anything” sessions on Youtube which are open to the public as well as employees.

Employees are also randomly matched using an instant messaging bot, in order to replicate ‘water cooler chat’ online and keep communication between employees strong. This is something we’ve had great success with, hosting virtual coffee mornings so that our staff can connect with team members they wouldn’t otherwise interact with. According to research by Vodafone, two in five workers rate their colleagues as the main thing they miss about the office, so virtual social activities are vital at this time, and HR departments should make facilitating them a priority.

It’s likely that the coronavirus pandemic will result in permanent changes to ways of working. These changes will mean companies have to consider root-and-branch reform of their working models. At IOHK, taking the principle of decentralisation as inspiration, we want to go even further and replace management hierarchy with a system of working based on clear expectations, data and operating roles without a rigid hierarchy, where our employees’ roles and responsibilities evolve and are dynamic rather than static. This will mean that employees have more freedom, responsibility and self-reliance which will increase employee loyalty.

Ultimately, a decentralised model of working can allow companies to build a self-sufficient, remote workforce. Such a model would render businesses more immune to major disruptions such as our current pandemic. This has certainly been the case for IOHK, where aside from travel restrictions, our day-to-day operations have continued as normal. Such a workforce may ultimately not even need a central executive board; our CEO, Charles Hoskinson’s ultimate aim is to render his own job unnecessary.

The global lockdown may mark a permanent change in the workforce and a move towards distributed, decentralised business models that go far beyond remote working. Employers should take the opportunity to build a “new normal” around decentralisation and decisions based on data rather than diktat.

Latest HR job opportunities on Personnel Today

Browse more human resources jobs

Avatar
Tamara Haasen

Tamara Haasen is chief of staff at global blockchain engineering company Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK).

previous post
‘Remote conflict’: What happens when teams work from home?
next post
Investigations and Covid-19: employers need a pandemic-proof toolkit

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

You may also like

HR must help employers adopt ‘ready for change’...

8 Feb 2022

Hybrid working: How to develop a truly agile...

19 Nov 2021

Invest in leadership and learning to tackle productivity...

15 Nov 2021

CIPD ACE: HR faces ‘once in a lifetime’...

3 Nov 2021

Slam dunk for Skillsoft at upcoming Perspectives conference

6 Sep 2021

WeWork: Billion Dollar Loser author talks to Oven-Ready...

23 Apr 2021

Embracing organisational agility as a CHRO: five key...

8 Apr 2021

Personnel Today Awards 2021 opens for entries

31 Mar 2021

How to be a great employer in challenging...

30 Mar 2021

Performance: Why ‘rank and yank’ fell out of...

26 Feb 2021
  • Apprenticeships are the solution to your recruitment problems PROMOTED | Apprenticeships have the pulling power...Read more
  • What it really means to be mentally fit PROMOTED | What is mental fitness...Read more
  • How music can help to ease anxiety at work PROMOTED | A lot has happened since March 2020, hasn’t it?...Read more
  • Why now is the time to plug the unhealthy gap PROMOTED | We’ve all heard the term ‘health is wealth’...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+