DO YOU WORK IN GOVERNMENTAL PUBLIC HEALTH?
You are key to strengthening the governmental public health workforce. Your participation in the Governmental Public Health Job Task Survey is critical!
Open May 15 – July 31, 2024
Governmental Public Health Job Task Survey
The purpose of the survey is to better understand what tasks people in specific public health jobs do the most and which tasks they believe are the most important to their work. This information will give the workforce, governmental public health leaders, and academic institutions and training programs better insight into what a wide range of governmental public health jobs entail and what might be needed to best support people in these roles.
The survey asks people working in governmental public health how often they perform 54 job tasks and how important they believe each task is to their job. The survey also asks 16 demographic questions to capture respondents’ job titles and occupations, where they work, and better understand workforce diversity.
Resources
Who Should take the Survey?
We want to hear from everyone working in a state, Tribal, local, or territorial health department in the United States. Please take the survey if your employment status matches one of the following:
- 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
Why Should I Take the Survey?
The governmental public health workforce is large and varied, and its important that we capture as many voices from as many roles and areas of the country as possible! YOUR job is important, and YOU are an integral member of the governmental public health workforce. Only YOU know what you do every day and how important those duties are to your job. Represent your role and have your voice heard by taking the survey!
What Does the Survey Look Like?
Frequently Asked Questions
We estimate the survey will take you about 30 minutes or less. There are 70 questions, most of which are multiple-choice.
The survey does not include a “Save and Finish Later” function. However, you may exit the survey and finish it later if you return to the survey on the same device and in the same browser.
Yes.
Yes. State health departments will receive the aggregate (sum) responses for all surveys completed in their state, as well as for their own state health department. Individual health departments will not have access to the responses of their respective individual workforce members.
Once survey data is analyzed, we will publish our findings and encourage health department leaders across the country to use them in writing better job descriptions, improving the hiring process, and better supporting their current employees. We will also take the information to schools and programs of public health and training partners to ensure that public health training matches needs in the field.
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 functions 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 public health education (e.g. MPH and DrPH programs) matches the essential functions of the governmental public health workforce.
Once survey data is analyzed, the following will be posted online and available to the public:
- Final list of governmental public health job tasks at entry-, mid-, and senior levels
- Aggregate report of survey findings
- Stratified data reports
State health departments will receive the aggregate results of all respondents in their state, as well as from their own state health departments. All data will be deidentified.
The deidentified data set will be available to researchers upon request and at no cost.
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.
For more information on PH WINS, visit the PH WINS website.
Yes. The survey is funded through the CDC’s Public Health Infrastructure Grant (PHIG). The survey is part of overall PHIG workforce development efforts and will be conducted in years two (2024) and five (2027) of the PHIG.
Statement of Funding
In partnership with the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB), this work is supported by funds made available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), National Center for STLT Public Health Infrastructure and Workforce, through OE22-2203: Strengthening U.S. Public Health Infrastructure, Workforce, and Data Systems grant. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by CDC/HHS, the U.S. Government, or PHAB.
