One maxim of democracy reformers is that governments will become more productive and confidence-inducing when they start looking more like the communities they represent.

To that end, nine groups with particular interest in Congress have collaborated on a nuts-and-bolts guide for lawmakers to create and sustain more diverse and inclusive teams of aides.

The booklet began circulating this week, an opportune time for altering a congressional workforce that is not keeping pace with American demographic shifts. Sixty freshly elected House members and seven newly minted senators are making their first hires, while dozens of returning lawmakers are confronting staff churn that has accelerated in the past decade — thanks to the high stress but low productivity of Capitol Hill, pays scales not competitive with the private sector, and sometimes racist and misogynistic office cultures.