Governmental Public Health Job Task Analysis

A group of mid to senior level managers lists the domains, or responsibilities, of a particular workforce. The group then lists common job tasks for each domain. This list is used to create a survey that is sent to people in the workforce. The survey asks how often a person performs each job task and how important they think each task is to their job. The survey responses are analyzed to determine which tasks are most common and most important for the workforce.  

The results are shared with the workforce, including employers. 

People working in a state, Tribal, local, or territorial health department in the United States with one of the following employment statuses: 

• Permanent staff employed directly by a health department or Federal health agency 

• Contractor providing third party services to a health department or Federal health agency 

• Interns employed directly by a health department or Federal health agency 

• Federal employees detailed to a health department or Federal health agency 

• Temporary staff employed directly by a health department or Federal health agency 

Project partners developed the Governmental Public Health Job Task Analysis Advisory Committee, comprised of 19 supervisor-level managers from state and local health departments in all 10 HHS Regions. Working with measurement specialists, the Advisory Committee identified domains, knowledge statements, and job tasks representing the most common tasks performed by governmental public health professionals at entry-, mid-, and senior-levels. Altogether, the Advisory Committee identified nine domains and 54 distinct tasks to include in the survey. 

The Governmental Public Health Job Task Analysis collects information on and analyzes individual employees’ current tasks, how important these tasks are to their job, and employee demographics. PH WINS collects and analyzes individual employees’ perceptions of their workplace, training needs, well-being, and demographic information, in addition to measuring long-term trends since its launch in 2014. Taking both surveys allows health departments to understand what employees are doing in their jobs, their experiences in the workplace, and how they can be better supported. 

• Health department leaders across the country may use the final list of governmental public health job tasks to: 
  • Write accurate job descriptions 

• • Improve recruitment and onboarding 

• • Develop accurate performance management plans 

• • Match employee professional development opportunities with the identified essential job domains and tasks of the governmental public health workforce 

• The Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) will also use the findings to work with its members to ensure education for public health aligns with the essential job domains and tasks of the governmental public health workforce. 

For U.S. states and territories with 20 or more qualified survey responses, ASPPH sent state and territorial health department leaders the aggregate results for their respective state or territory. 

workforce@aspph.org