What ever happened to sending in the resume and then going to the interview? If TalentSpring.com has their way, soon we will all have a “merit score” based on your career path and employment choices. They are taking the stance that a job should be filled with a candidate based on merit only (performance, accomplishments and education) and not on who you know, self promotion, and luck (right time, right place).
And you thought it was hard to get a loan. In my opinion, any company that utilizes a system that ranks a person through a piece of paper and some technology is a company that might be around to long. The art of recruiting and adding true value in human capital involves interviewing, testing and learning about the person, not the piece of paper. You learn from the candidate, not a computer, about past performance and accomplishments. You also learn if they are a fit for your company. If the people who write loans just went off credit bureau reports, most people would never be able to buy a home.
The other issue I have with any system like this is the fact that the information being fed into this technology can be easily altered by the applicant. If a candidate ranks high (beats the system) and wastes the time of the company, it would only take a couple of these events before the merit system crashes and burns.
Talent Spring goal is to become an industry standard in merit scoring for candidates. If this ever does work (which it won’t!), the world’s economy will come to a screeching halt! Think about it, some of the greatest business minds in the world failed numerous times before they found their niche. A system like this would prevent the next great mind from ever getting an interview.
