What Matters in Recruiting Public Health Employees: Strategies in Filling Workforce Gaps

Given ongoing shortages within the public health workforce, it is crucial to understand factors related to employee recruitment and retention.  Specifically, it is important to understand the factors motivating new employees to join public health. Additionally, it will be useful to examine these factors and whether they differ according to the previous industries in which the employees have worked.  This cohort study examined these characteristics among employees currently working within governmental public health organizations.  We used secondary data from the Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice 2010 Survey of Public Health Workers, the largest survey of public health employees to date. Public health employees represented 50 states with a total of 11,640 respondents. Employees ranked personal and organizational factors according to those that influenced their decision to work in governmental public health (scale of 0 to10).  Descriptive statistics provided sample characteristics. T-tests were used to examine factors influencing the decision to work in public health, comparing groups according to their previous industries (i.e. healthcare services, private industry, or public health degree program).  7,528 employees provided information on previous employment and the factors that influenced their employment decision. Of the factors that were ranked of highest influence, “specific duties and responsibilities” and “competitive benefits” were among the top five across all recruits. “Job security” was ranked among the top five factors for individuals coming from healthcare services and private industry only. Individuals coming from public health degree programs differed in that a “personal commitment to public service” and “identifying with the mission of the organization” were ranked among their highest factors influencing the decision to work in governmental public health. Findings provide valuable information in terms of what matters to public health recruits and should be considered in strategic plans for filling gaps within the workforce.