Employer FAQs

RedBalloon is America's #1 values-first recruiting agency and job board. We focus on recruiting that screens for values and skills, because no great business is built by people who are just there to collect a paycheck.

Every hire we deliver is someone who genuinely loves your mission and wants to contribute to your company's success. We find these people by asking open-ended, evidence-based questions that assess their experience, perception of company values, sense of responsibility, and mindset around life and work.

Our goal is simple: help America's businesses flourish by connecting them with employees who are fully committed to the mission and not just filling a seat.

We help businesses screen for values that are already present within their own organization. At RedBalloon, our core values include freedom, hard work, and accountability. For other businesses, those values might be honesty, generosity, flexibility, or agency. It varies from company to company.

Our process starts by helping each business identify and define the values already embedded in their culture, then distilling them into 3-5 core values. From there, we build open-ended, evidence-based interview questions designed to reveal whether a candidate genuinely reflects those values.

For example, to screen for accountability, we might ask: "Can you tell me about a time you had to own up to a mistake at work, at personal cost, because it was the right thing to do?" How a candidate answers that question tells you a great deal about whether accountability is something they practice or something they avoid.

RedBalloon is not a Christian job board. We serve companies and candidates of all backgrounds and beliefs. We fully comply with EEOC laws and do not take any religious stance.

We help businesses of all kinds, faith-based or secular, across the political and religious spectrum, find employees who genuinely align with their values and want to contribute to their mission. Whether your company is driven by faith, innovation, community, or anything in between, our goal is the same: connect you with people who will help your business grow and be a blessing to your community.

RedBalloon serves employers and candidates across the entire political spectrum. We do not take a religious or political stance, and EEOC laws prohibit us from doing so.

RedBalloon exists to serve any employer who wants to build a great business by finding employees who are genuinely on board with their mission.

RedBalloon serves employers across every industry. We have a particularly strong track record in education, technology, manufacturing, and construction, but our values-first approach works for any business that wants to build a great team.

Yes, fully. RedBalloon complies with all EEOC laws and ensures that every candidate receives an equal opportunity in the hiring process. Employers using our platform are not permitted to discriminate based on any EEOC-protected category, including race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or genetic information.

Most other companies just screen for skills. We screen for values and skills. We go beyond matching resumes to job descriptions to make sure every person you hire is fully behind your company's mission and not just there to collect a paycheck.

This matters because a values mismatch is one of the most expensive hiring mistakes a business can make. For example, if your company values personal accountability but you hire someone who deflects blame, the impact will ripple across your entire team. Skills can be trained, but values are much harder to change.

RedBalloon helps you avoid that mismatch from the start by building your hiring process around the values that already define your culture.

There are five things that really set RedBalloon apart:

1. Values-first screening. We find you a values fit as well as a skills fit. Every candidate we deliver is someone who believes in your mission and wants to help build the future of your company.
2. Completely hands-off hiring. A thorough hiring process should take 20-30 hours and include background checks, social screens, values screens, skills screens, and multi-channel sourcing across multiple talent pools. We handle all of that for you, completely hands-off. The only decision you have to make is which candidate you want to hire from the finalists we deliver.
3. AI deception screening. There are plenty of tools job seekers use to game the interview process. We screen every candidate against a custom culture rubric specifically designed to detect AI cheating tools, so you can trust that what you see is what you get.
4. Flat-fee pricing. Most recruiting agencies charge a percentage of a hire's first-year salary, which means their incentives are not always aligned with yours. RedBalloon charges a flat fee per position, making us more transparent and often more affordable, even though our process is more thorough.
5. Multiple top candidates. We deliver 3-5 cream-of-the-crop candidates at the end of our process so that you have real choices and can make a confident hiring decision.

No. RedBalloon does not sell your personal information to anyone, period.

RedBalloon exclusively serves employers and job seekers within the United States of America.

RedBalloon never allows AI to make hiring decisions. We use AI as a tool to help job seekers put their best foot forward by prompting them to fill in missing information, explain career or skill gaps, and pitch themselves directly to employers. The hiring decisions always remain in human hands.

RedBalloon charges a flat fee per position, half up front and half on delivery. This helps us stay more transparent and far more affordable than traditional recruiting agencies, while keeping our process more thorough. Visit our pricing page to see all available options.

To make sure you never feel like you've wasted your recruiting fee, we split our flat fee into two payments. The first half is charged upfront to cover the work we put in. The second half is only charged upon successful delivery of your candidates. If we fail to place a candidate for you, we will not charge you the second half.

It's simple. Click the "Post a job for free" button on our homepage to get started. If you're looking for a more hands-on approach, visit our pricing page to explore our recruiter packages and get in touch with our team to find the option that's right for you.

A great hiring process should take 20-30 hours and includes these key steps:

1. Create culture statements. Write 3-4 statements answering "What is true of our best employees?" based on your core values and mission. Work with an employment attorney to ensure EEOC compliance.
2. Create screening questions. For each culture statement, write 3-4 open-ended behavioral questions designed to gather evidence for or against a hiring recommendation. Questions must not signal the correct answer to the applicant.
3. Screen resumes for mission interest. Include your company's goals and values in the job post, and ask "What excites you about working at our company?" as an early screening question.
4. Conduct a values interview. Use your screening questions, keep a poker face, train high-EQ employees to interview, and conduct a light social screen beforehand.
5. Write a one-page candidate recommendation. Rate each candidate against your criteria, take written notes during the interview, then summarize and shred your handwritten notes.
6. Act immediately on top candidates. Great talent is being pursued by multiple employers. The first to offer often wins.
7. Track and report weekly. Log all activity, ratings, and recommendations to maintain a paper trail and assess the health of your applicant flow.

Simple: dismiss and move on. Once you've confirmed an application is fraudulent, reject it, make a note of it for future reference in case the candidate applies again, and continue with your hiring process.

At RedBalloon we use handwritten notes during the interview, but if that doesn't work for you, typing during or immediately after the interview works just as well.

Whatever method you choose, pay close attention to three things:

• Preparation. Did they come ready?
• Answers to open-ended questions. Are their responses specific, honest, and thoughtful?
• The stories they tell. A candidate who always sees room to grow is a great signal. A candidate who is always the victim in every story is not.

Yes, but there is an important distinction. You cannot discriminate against a candidate based on their religion or political beliefs. EEOC laws prohibit this. However, you absolutely can share your company's values and culture with a candidate and ask for their reaction.

For example: "Here's what we believe and what our team values are here at [Company]. What are your thoughts on that? Do you think this is a culture you would thrive in?"

Answers to questions like this will help you identify who will build your culture and who might disrupt it, without ever crossing a legal line.

Start by researching comparable salary ranges for the role in your specific industry and geographic area. Tools like Glassdoor, LinkedIn Salary, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics are great places to start. From there, find the overlap between what works for your budget, what the candidate expects, and what the market standard is for your area. That sweet spot is your competitive offer.

You should consider an external recruiter when you don't have the time, energy, or expertise to run a thorough hiring process yourself. A great hiring process takes 20-30 hours, and if that's not realistic for you right now, that's exactly what we're here for. Give us a call and we'd love to help!

Yes. Employment laws vary significantly from state to state and it's important to know what applies to your specific situation. You can find a comprehensive breakdown of workplace laws by state at usa.gov/workplace-laws.

It depends. Unless you are a nonprofit or another legally protected organization, you cannot explicitly state that you are a Christian company in a way that excludes or discriminates against candidates based on their religious beliefs. EEOC laws prohibit this.

You can say that your company operates according to Christian values. The key distinction is that your hiring process must remain open to all qualified candidates regardless of their religion. If faith is central to your organization's identity, we recommend consulting with an employment attorney to ensure your job postings and screening process stay within legal guidelines.