Merita Consulting

Skills First

In the ever-evolving landscape of business, one truth remains constant: a company is only as strong as its workforce. This is where skills-first hiring and promoting come to the forefront, offering a means to fill positions and a catalyst for driving your company’s growth. When you strategically hire for skills, you open doors to enhanced innovation, heightened productivity, and an overall surge in business success.

Skill Definitions

Determining the skills for each role is a critical first step in building an adaptive workforce. These definitions are the foundation for your job descriptions, job postings, career pathways, and workforce development programs, all of which provide the platform for implementing a skills-first hiring and promotion program.



Skills Assessments

Skills assessments are crucial to the skills-based hiring process. They are the litmus test that helps employers determine if a candidate’s abilities align with the role’s requirements. Yet evaluating technical skills alone is not enough.

You must embrace a holistic approach to skills assessments to find the perfect fit for your team.


The “In Your Face” of March Madness

Posted on by Dwayne Nesmith

March Madness is on us once again and as expected there are more ways than ever to participate in office, neighborhood, online, and even Warren Buffet’s backing of a $1 million, excuse me, $1 Billion bracket contest.  Before we highlight the where and what of the games, we must start with Yahoo’s outage before the first game tipped off:

AdAge suggested Yahoo’s outage was as poorly timed as Chris Webber‘s attempted timeout while down 2 in the 1993 title game. [Personally, I place the blame on Michigan‘s coaches for not making it clear during their last timout called with only 46 seconds left in the game that they had no more timeouts.]

Slate reported yesterday before the final 5 games that only 6 of 11 million brackets were perfect. They updated the report after Memphis poked a hole in all 6 of them, so no $1 billion winner this year and the rich keep getting richer.  Of course, the juicier story is related to the suit against Yahoo filed by SCA Promotions.

There was one person who picked all 32 teams playing this weekend, but Brad Binder did not enter his bracket into the $1 Billion challenge.  We’ll see how well Mr. Binder does this weekend.

Arian Foster selected his 2014 tournament champion via Twitter, saying ” “. Most folks seem to think he’s chosen well.

If you want to get a handle on the business side of the ledger, the 2013 numbers are a good place to start. Seems the NCAA‘s takeover of selecting the best college team in basketball from the NIT was a shrewd move. An interesting series of moves,  including a 10-year buyout to settle an antitrust suit, led to what we have today.