Work for America Launches Free Toolkit to Help Governments Fix Broken Hiring Processes
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Sophie McGrath, press@workforamerica.org
Date: Tuesday, August 18, 2026
New resource turns lessons from WFA's inaugural Talent Accelerator cohort into a practical, step-by-step guide for state and local hiring teams
BROOKLYN, NY — Work for America (WFA) today launched Built to Hire: A Process Mapping Toolkit for Government Hiring Teams, a free resource that helps state and local government HR and operations leaders map out their hiring process clearly, identify where bottlenecks occur, and pilot fixes that speed up hiring and improve the candidate experience.
The toolkit's core premise: governments can’t solve the issues within their hiring systems if they can’t see them clearly. Instead of redesigning the entire system, understanding each part of the process is key to identifying the most urgent fixes.
Built to Hire distills lessons from WFA's inaugural Talent Accelerator cohort, an 8-week program that ran this spring with 12 participating cities. From New York, NY to Stockton, CA, each city built an end-to-end map of its hiring process, surfaced the gaps and friction points slowing it down, and left with an action plan to fix the issue that mattered most.
"Most governments can't actually see their own hiring process from end to end," said Shifra Goldenberg, Chief Program Officer at Work for America. "Built to Hire gives HR teams a way to make that process visible, find the one change that will make the biggest difference, and act on it, without waiting for a system-wide overhaul."
Built to Hire walks HR teams through building a process map, analyzing their process, and designing improvements. Each phase includes interactive activities, facilitation guides and downloadable email, agenda, and process-mapping templates so teams can move from insight to action without starting from scratch.
The toolkit is grounded in real challenges that participating cities in WFA’s inaugural Talent Accelerator cohort found and fixed:
Green Bay, WI found that inconsistent review timelines and unclear communication were causing qualified candidates to withdraw. The city is now piloting standard candidate communication templates, pre-set interview schedules, and automated review reminders in its Department of Public Works, with a goal of cutting time-to-fill by 20% and candidate withdrawal by 15%.
Pompano Beach, FL found that steps in their hiring process still relied on paper forms, and there was no consistent candidate review timeline for hiring managers. In the Parks and Recreation Department, the City is digitizing workflows and establishing expectations for hiring manager review timelines with the goal of cutting the process down by a week.
The very tactics in the toolkit are proven to work: by mapping their end-to-end hiring process, the City of St. Louis, MO uncovered a fragmented 94-step hiring process weighed down by paper-based workflows and duplicative data entry. After streamlining and digitizing key steps, the city cut its hiring timeline from 9–12 months to 2–3 months, increased job fill rates by 1.7x, and saved more than $250,000 annually. To learn more about St. Louis’ hiring reform, read the WFA case study highlighting the City’s process here.
Built to Hire is available now, free to access here. WFA will continue supporting cities through additional Talent Accelerator cohorts, including Data-Driven Hiring for Cities, launching this fall. Interested cities can apply for the Fall 2026 cohort here.
About Work for America
Honored by Fast Company as one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies 2026, Work for America (WFA) is a nonpartisan nonprofit rebuilding the talent pipeline into state and local government. We connect talented professionals to public sector roles, help governments modernize how they recruit and hire, and inspire the next generation of public servants to see government as the most powerful place to drive progress. By expanding pathways into government and telling a new story about public service, Work for America is helping communities build the teams they need to deliver results.
Our work has been recognized by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and TIME. Read more here.
