Recruiting isn’t working like it used to. Let’s be honest—it hasn’t worked well for a while, but lately, the whole system feels like it’s crumbling. Conversations are getting replaced by bots. Résumés vanish into black holes. Candidates get ghosted after interviews. And all of this sends a loud, clear message:
“You’re not worth our time.”
This isn’t just frustrating—it’s dangerous. Loyalty was already in decline. Now we’re actively telling great people to disengage before they’ve even joined.
But there’s another way. One that doesn’t just restore humanity to hiring—it uplevels it.
A New Way: Level 4 Strategy for Recruiting & Staffing
At Performentor, we talk a lot about strategy levels and upleveling systems. Our work centers around unlocking people energy, and that means building organizational practices that don’t just function—they energize.
A Level 4 strategy for recruiting isn’t about ticking boxes. It’s about building mutual trust, systemic fit, and long-term success. It’s people-centered. It’s values-aligned. And it starts before the offer letter is ever drafted.
Let’s explore what that actually looks like.
Framing the Broken Process
Today’s common recruiting systems are stuck at Level 2 or 3. Here’s what that feels like:
- Bots over people: Automation removes humanity from the process.
- Transactional mindsets: Focused on slot-filling, not relationship-building.
- Scorecard thinking: Reducing whole humans to algorithm-friendly inputs.
- Loyalty erosion: Candidates disengage before they begin.
This system values efficiency over energy, and control over connection. And it’s creating cultures that repel instead of attract.
How to Uplevel to Level 4 Recruiting
Here’s what a Level 4 recruiting strategy looks like when it’s grounded in the People Energy Principles:
1. People Energy–First Design
Start with alignment, not applications.
- Use tools that assess knowledge, skills, experience (KSEs)—but don’t stop there.
- Explore interests and energy sources: What lights this person up?
- Evaluate strategy level affinity match: Are they energized by the level of judgment required in the role? Or is it too abstract? Or too “in the weeds”?
- Build role fit using all three components—KSEs, interests, and strategic affinity.
In short: See candidates as energy nodes in a system, not just data points in a funnel.
2. Coauthored Role Discovery
Ditch the static job description.
- Invite top candidates into working sessions to shape the role collaboratively.
Ask, “What version of this role would energize you and move us forward?” - Force-rank job components by energy impact for each candidate—what flows, what drags, what needs support?
This creates psychological ownership before Day One—and improves onboarding outcomes.
3. Purpose-Centered Candidate Experience
Make your values visible.
- Share a short video from leadership on why you exist and what it feels like to work here.
- Replace the final interview with a values-fit conversation.
- Let candidates filter themselves based on culture, not just capability.
People join for purpose. They stay for resonance.
4. Relational, Not Transactional Metrics
Shift what you measure.
- Candidate experience scores: How seen, heard, and energized did they feel?
- People energy pulse checks in onboarding: Daily, weekly, or in check-ins.
- Longitudinal trust indicators—not just task performance scores.
When we measure energy, we manage what truly matters.
5. Recruiting as a Feedback Loop
Stop treating hiring like a pipeline. Start treating it like a learning system.
- Hold retrospectives after every hire: What did we assume? What proved true? What surprised us?
- Ask rejected candidates for feedback. (Pro tip: Structure it so you get truth, not flattery.)
- View staffing changes as cultural signals, not just resource shifts.
Bonus: Fractional as a Bridge to Better
Fractional staffing is a natural testbed for Level 4 strategy.
- Build long-term trust pipelines with skilled professionals.
- Co-develop roles in real time.
- Use “try-before-you-hire” as a way to co-create fit—not just hedge risk.
Done right, fractional isn’t just flexible. It’s a culture lab for people-powered strategy.
Final Thought
The future of hiring won’t be built on better bots. It will be built on trust, truth, and co-created energy.
We don’t need to return to old-school recruiting—we need to evolve beyond it.
At Performentor, we believe small changes can make the biggest impacts. And in recruiting, that change starts with one simple shift:
See the human first. Always.