Review: Strictly Talent
The essentials of great recruiting are graciousness, good judgment, good conversation and persuasion. The fundamental transaction is a great relationship that matures into a career opportunity. In order to get there, recruiters sift, sort, evaluate and struggle to stay ahead of the curve.
That’s where StrictlyExecs, the latest project from industry great Hank Stringer, makes its stand. The web recruiting tool is simplicity at its best. The service is a relationship gateway. Recruiters offer opportunities; candidates offer credentials; matching ensues; relationships are started.
The operation is a part of a larger offering called “StrictlyTalent“. The idea is to offer these relationship gateway services to very specific niches. Narrow focus, niche specificity and a ‘no fuss, no muss’ attitude give recruiting relationships a head start. Exclusivity is assured by a fee on both sides of the relationship. Candidates pay $9/month. Employer fees range from $99 to $345 per month.
It’s almost easier to define the heart of the project by noticing what it isn’t. It’s not a resume database, an email tool, a CRM system, an ATS, a recruiting workflow tool, or a multi-site job posting service. You can’t buy enhanced web pages, micr sites, social media add ons. The StrictlyTalent project (of which StrictlyExecs is the first offering) wants to do one thing only and one thing well.
In the coming weeks, you’ll notice that we’re seeing a shift in the market. The offerings that are making headway are focused in their simplicity. The very best designs in consumer goods and industrial gear and services are sample. Elegance and grace, two essential elements of great recruiting come from studied simplicity.
In a small nod to viral marketing and social networks, the company offers a talent scout program. Through TalentScout a recruiter or candidate can make money by encouraging friends to sign up. Referrals and referral bonuses are easily digested in this approach.
The process of simplifying an idea until it is nearly perfect is one of those things that they teach in design school. It’s what separates the great from the not so great. Simplicity means understanding that you can not be all things to all people. StrictlyExecs doesn’t do everything. It simply brokers relationships between talent and the people who need talent.
It’s refreshing to see people resist the temptations of consolidation. So called full service offerings are rarely integrated and rarely full service. But, their contracts often require the buyer’s full service. What Stringer and his cohort have accomplished is the delivery of an alternative view of the market.
They think that recruiters are smart and that the people they want to recruit are smarter. As a result, they assume that the recruiters they serve will have access to other tools. StrictlyTalent wants to be one arrow in the quiver and will not ask you to modify the rest of your operation.
StrictlyExecs is focused exclusively on senior executives. In five minutes, an exec can build a profile, make a match and start relationships with relevant employers. Confidentiality, long understood as a central component of executive search, is a given.
StrictlyExecs will surprise the industry. As a leader of the return to simplicity, the firm is planting a stake in the ground. Operators of systems that specialize in complexity may want to look closely.
