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Recruitment and Retention of the Public Health Workforce

A 2023 evaluation by NNPHI focused on entry level professionals through listening sessions and surveys. Findings highlight the need for improving academic and workforce alignment, person-centered recruitment and retention as well as developing workforce pathways.

Barriers Entering Workforce

Barriers faced by listening session participants when trying to find a job in public health included accessibility and pay, level of experience did not match entry level positions, lack of credentials, lack of networking and lack of existing network to take advantage of.

Recommendations toggle
  • Implement person-centered recruitment and training practices
  • Access to an effective and career-specific advisor or mentor
  • Improve alignment between academic curricula and needs of non-research public health work
  • Develop integrated workforce development path, bridging academia, industry and government

A Guide for Supporting the Public Health Workforce

Resource Guide: Enhancing Recruitment, Retention, Communication and Coping with Rejection in the Workforce
To address the challenges of recruitment, retention, communication strategies and coping with rejection, NNPHI’s Climate and Crisis Preparedness team partnered with a health communications consultant to analyze insights from listening sessions. These sessions uncovered key barriers, and in response, we developed a practical handbook designed to support professionals in overcoming these hurdles.

What’s Inside the Handbook:

  • Part 1: Framework Development and Intervention Strategies
    Using three proven models—the Career Lifecycle Model, the People, Processes, and Products (PPP) Model, and the Essentials Model—to create a unified framework. This section provides step-by-step guidance and discussion prompts, helping users apply these models in their professional settings.
  • Part 2: Addressing Pain Points with Use Cases and Examples
    Dive deeper into common pain points and explore real-world use cases and examples. This section equips professionals with practical tools to tackle challenges in recruitment, retention, communication, and managing rejection.

This guide is a vital tool for professionals navigating workforce challenges—helping to build more resilient teams and stronger communication practices.

A graphic image of a hand selecting an icon on a computer screen.

Exploratory report on public health data science and leadership

This evaluation aims to understand the key concepts of public health data science and leadership for entry-level professionals; identify gaps and needs for data science and leadership in the current workforce capacity, accessibility, training, and education; detect ways that systems undermine efforts to create a more diverse public health workforce; and align workforce needs and current public health programs with data science and leadership curricula.

Read the report