The Challenges and the Future of work in Web3 — by BeInCrypto HR team

The Covid-19 pandemic unintentionally triggered a global transformation, especially in the workplace. Millions of people worldwide replaced their daily commutes and water cooler chats with video conferencing, webinars, and home offices.

However, remote work is just one strand of this revolution. One of the core values of web3 is decentralization, so we can expect that to be reflected in the job sphere as well.

Web3 is changing the workforce

Web3 is considered the decentralized form of the internet or an improvement of the current web2. Blockchain, the backbone of web3, is public, and it includes various cryptocurrencies, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and smart contracts.

That also reflects on how companies in web3 operate. These different systems and operations allow people and businesses to create decentralized, remote organizations with little to no hierarchy, flat structure, and collaborative environments.

This model, however, is quite different from the traditional workforce model. Traditional corporate organizations operate centralized, structured in a hierarchy, and give little ownership to employees. In other words, web3 organizations mainly focus on collective work that benefits both companies and their workforce.

Web3 is definitely a promise of a democratic internet, but we’re still in the early stages of it. BeInCrypto is one of the companies that advocates for freedom, autonomy, and inclusion.

The company is remote-first, and it’s at the forefront of revolutionizing the traditional workplace into a shared space that empowers people to create a more collaborative environment.

We’ve asked two members of our HR team, Julia Motorina, Recruiting Team Lead, and Arina Koganelok, HRD, to share what they’ve done as HR professionals in web3, their challenges and what they expect for the future.

What are the biggest challenges of hiring and managing people in a remote working settlement?

Julia: For me, it’s to be able to find people whom I can trust, who are independent and self-driven. So, speaking about the team, if I’m setting the goals and providing them with the necessary resources — they’re performing well without me micromanaging them, it’s more about coaching.

Arina: When you conduct an interview remotely, it’s hard to evaluate a candidate. There is no way to “feel” a person. I believe in professional intuition, which turns on much faster during a live interview.

Many people need this to decide about hiring an employee. Often you are afraid to make a mistake and hire the “wrong person.” And with the remote work format, this anxiety is only more substantial. The same goes for controlling the work of an employee. There is an illusion of control when you are in the same office. In a physical space, the employee is sat on his desk and staring at his laptop — so they work (or at least they are supposed to work). With a remote type of work, you need to use other control points; for many, it is a challenge.

How do you and the BIC HR team manage these challenges?

Julia: First of all, by hiring the right people with objectives aligned with BIC’s values. Secondly, setting clear and challenging enough goals, and KPIs for measuring the results. Another essential task is motivating our employees and giving them the freedom to grow professionally and personally.

Arina: Where it is difficult to turn on intuition, we add more questions to test skills and experience. Sometimes even candidates may find it annoying that a recruiter asks about the same topic in different words. But this technique helps us understand more precisely whether a person has the competence we need.

An interview cannot give a 100% guarantee, so we prescribe goals and deadlines for a trial period for each newcomer. The actual result of our tasks is a reliable basis for making an informed decision on an employee. We create clear KPIs for each position and every employee knows what we expect from them. In this approach, we don’t have to control it every minute. There are control points only for recording progress on tasks. If there is no progress, then the manager will know about it in advance, and they will have time to solve the problem differently.

What is the difference between a traditional workforce and a web3 one?

Julia: People got used to working 9–5, 5 days a week — it’s not the same in web3 and remote environments. People in web3 are more agile: everything is changing fast here, especially during the bear market, so employees should be able to make decisions quickly and be ready for whatever is happening.

Arina: For me, this is a great freedom, but also a great responsibility. Freedom to choose goals, the time you devote to them, and a place to work. Responsibility for the clear fulfillment of their promises and goals on time. Only some people are suited to this approach to work. For many, it is a real stress to independently plan the distribution between life and work and simultaneously be effective.

How BIC is changing/revolutionizing both the traditional approach to work and remote work?

Julia: Web3 space is all about transparency, and it’s also of our core values — during the interviews, with the feedback, and in other ways. We’re also giving freedom to people during their work hours — you have your goal, and you should achieve it by the deadline — the thing that matters the most. People in BIC are also learning how to work in international teams — having employees from more than 60 countries, and different time zones, we should be adjusting to this — and everyone is super excited. In connection to that — in any country I go to, I can personally meet with my colleagues from different departments, creating stronger bonds.

Arina: The uniqueness of BIC is that we are one of the few companies that are 100% diverse, global, and multicultural. But at the same time, no matter how outwardly different our employees are, we are similar inside. Passion for our product and our work on it. The desire to make the best of it, no matter what you are working on. Inspiration from similar people nearby. All this is what unites us. And this is what we are looking for and finding worldwide.

A revolutionary approach to work in BIC — we have no borders. Including in our work. If we have a crazy idea, we don’t say, “it’s impossible,” we say, “let’s try and see what happens.”

In your opinion, how will web3 impact the future of work?

Julia: I’m mentioning here several current trends that are likely to influence jobs in web3: digital nomadism, salary in crypto, verified CVs on the blockchain, and skills verification with NFTs — a new generation of the workforce.

Arina: Now it’s a Wild West market. There are a lot of companies, and it needs to be clarified which of them can be trusted and who cannot. Soon, work in web3 will become more civilized, reliable and stable. But at the same time, I am certain that the spirit of personal responsibility and freedom will remain in web 3 for a long time.

Do you want to work with us? Keep an eye on our jobs board and our careers page.