What if your next great hire isn’t the one with the perfect résumé… but the one who feels like they belong?
In The Engagement Dilemma: How to Create a Culture of Belonging, Dr. Rosalind Cohen flips the script on traditional hiring practices and delivers a refreshingly honest look at what really drives performance, retention, and team culture. Spoiler: it’s not stock options, ping pong tables, or corporate slogans.
Drawing from 25+ years in HR and her own doctoral research on inclusive leadership, Cohen shows how most companies are asking the wrong questions and hiring the wrong people for the right jobs. Through candid stories, research-backed insights, and laugh-out-loud observations from the front lines, she unpacks how to:
- Attract candidates who actually want to grow with your team
- Ditch the “culture fit” trap and hire for contribution, not conformity
- Rethink outdated job descriptions and interview processes
- Train managers to foster trust, belonging, and real engagement
- Build a workplace where people feel seen, heard, and valued
Whether you're an HR pro, team leader, or executive tired of revolving-door hires, Hiring for Engagement is your practical, punchy guide to building teams that thrive, not just survive.
If you’re ready to stop hiring for convenience and start hiring for connection, this is the book you’ve been waiting for.
Dr. Rosalind F. Cohen, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, is a New York native who's spent over 25 years figuring out why workplaces can be so wonderfully terrible—and more importantly, how to fix them. After moving around the country more times than she cares to count (seriously, the boxes never fully got unpacked), she became something of an expert on belonging and connection. Turns out, all that searching for "home" was excellent preparation for helping organizations create places where people actually want to work.
Currently serving as Chief People Officer at Laird Norton Wetherby, she leads with curiosity and empathy to build cultures where team members feel valued for their unique contributions. She also founded Socius Strategies, where she partners with companies to build cultures where people thrive instead of just survive. Her approach blends social psychology, industrial psychology, and a healthy dose of "let's cut the BS and make this actually work." She holds a Ph.D. in Leadership and Change from Antioch University, where she researched the not-so-mysterious connections between inclusive leadership and employee engagement. Spoiler alert: when people feel like they belong, they do better work.
Throughout her career, Dr. Cohen has built HR functions at organizations including The Walt Disney Family Museum, Hall Capital Partners, and Nollenberger Capital Partners. She's designed talent strategies, led DEIB initiatives, and somehow convinced leaders that treating people well is actually good for business. Her colleagues describe her as "badass"—a title she wears with pride, especially since it's way better than "traditional HR lady."
When she's not revolutionizing workplace culture, you'll find her traveling the world or hanging out with her two adult kids, whom she adores (even when they ignore her texts). Her work is guided by the Jewish principle of tikkun olam—repairing the world—which she does one radically connected workplace at a time.
Dr. Cohen believes in bold ideas, authentic leadership, and the radical notion that work doesn't have to suck. She's here to help organizations create the kind of culture where everyone can bring their whole selves to work—quirks, strengths, and all.
