Taking recruitment and hiring seriously is good for the people and communities who might otherwise be overlooked, good for our organizations that will end up with phenomenal talent, and good for bringing the world of work into line with the Jewish and human value of equal dignity. 

If we simply follow our habits and instincts, it’s easy to hire someone to fill open positions. But our habits and instincts can lead us astray. They can cause us to overlook eminently qualified people we didn’t know we needed to recruit. They can allow us to judge people based on irrelevant distractions and biases. 

A robust process for recruiting and hiring staff members is neither easy, quick, nor simple. But effectively building a team of amazing people deserves your time, your deliberate effort, and your ongoing engagement. 

Below are eight steps to recruiting and hiring top talent. 

1. Lay the groundwork. Create a culture of equity and inclusion at your organization so that the best talent won’t be missed or lost due to bias (before, during, and after the hiring process). 
2. Define the role. Gather your hiring team, write a detailed role description for internal use, and write a job description and announcement for external recruitment. 
3. Announce the opportunity. Check your digital first impression (what potential candidates will see when they Google you and find you on social media). Post the job in the obvious places—and the nonobvious places.  
4. Build a pool. Attract top talent through word of mouth by being a great place to work. Make building a potential talent pool a constant activity at your organization, not just something you do when a position is open. Develop networks of connectors who can help you find great people. Reach out to networks and groups beyond your current team’s social networks, especially in underrepresented communities. Reach in to develop the talent already present in your organization. 
5. Narrow the field with application review, phone screenings, interviews, and job simulations (assignments similar to the position’s real work). Use a structured process for equity, fairness, rigor, and proven effectiveness. Score each candidate at each step of the process according to predetermined rubrics. Communicate clearly with candidates throughout the process so they know what to expect at each stage. 
6. Check references for the strongest candidate. To ensure you receive truly useful information from references, know in advance what you want to know from them; look beyond the contacts submitted by the candidate; email references rather than calling them; help references understand the role for which the candidate is being considered; and frame questions that lead to useful replies instead of mere gushing. 
7. Make an offer. Be prompt, once you know whom you want. Convey your enthusiasm clearly. Lead with a strong offer in terms of salary, benefits, perks, future growth potential, and more. Offer the candidate a chance to connect with the staff. Get a sense of what factors the candidate is considering in weighing the offer. Once the offer is firmly accepted, follow up with nonhired candidates. 
8. Retain your people. Start with a strong onboarding process. Ensure the new hire will have skilled supervision. Provide meaningful, sustained professional development opportunities. Facilitate substantive mentoring. Ensure frequent, clear, fair, and constructive performance evaluation processes.

Learn more about each of these steps in our resource, A Guide to Recruiting and Hiring