Small Steps to Support and Compensate the Public Health Workforce

December 02, 2024 | Kelsey Tillema, Allison Budzinski

A key strategy for improving the well-being and retention of the public health workforce is making sure they feel supported and fairly compensated. As highlighted in Strategies for Enhancing Governmental Public Health Workforce Well-Being and Retention, this is a real challenge for many HR teams and workforce professionals. While it might seem daunting to boost salaries, benefits, and update job classifications—especially amidst budget constraints and bureaucratic hurdles—public health leaders can initiate small, incremental changes. These gradual improvements can eventually help to bring compensation and support in line with what’s offered in the private sector. While working on salary improvements, public health leaders can simultaneously focus on other tangible and intangible ways to support the well-being of the workforce, as well.

Pay Equity Considerations and Approaches

Addressing pay equity in public health is crucial for attracting and retaining talent, particularly as disparities in compensation can adversely affect workforce recruitment and retention, and overall public health outcomes. Strategic Human Resource Management recommends using statistics and technology to further pay equity. Presenting credible and current data to legislators about salary disparities is essential in public health policy discussions.

Some steps to meet these goals include:

• Analyzing internal pay structures and benchmarking them against broader job market trends.
• Conducting pay equity audits that consider demographics such as gender, ethnicity, nationality, and disability status.
• Performing ongoing statistical analyses of pay scales over time.

Other monetary-related benefits like tuition reimbursement or student loan repayment programs specific to public health roles, as seen with Minnesota's Health Care Loan Forgiveness Program, can also incentivize public health candidates to serve within a government agency rather than pursue positions in the private sector.

According to Heather Krasna, Associate Dean of Career and Professional Development at the University of Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health, effective policy solutions must improve federal data on workforce remuneration. The inability to differentiate between public health roles and other public government agency jobs is a limitation of the current dataset. Therefore, to ensure clearer salary information is available, health agencies should build and maintain a partnership with the Bureau of Labor Statistics and establish more detailed Standard Occupational Codes.

Non-Monetary Support 

As monetary approaches can be a long-term lift for the public health field, Krasna also recommends creative and lifestyle-focused ways to support the workforce: “Salary is really important, especially when you start a job, but there are a lot of other things that are important. Do you feel valued? Do you feel included? Is someone mentoring and training you? Is the work environment positive? This is where we can have a lot of immediate impact.”

A well-noted way to have immediate impact is promoting a remote and hybrid working environment. A 2023 survey revealed this as a driving factor for recruiting and retaining government employees, with 45% saying that mandates for in-person work would “reduce the time they stay with their current employer.” Not only are remote and hybrid work options more convenient and save employees time and money, the flexibility of working at home supports work-life harmony, with remote workers reporting better balance between their work and personal life (75%) versus hybrid workers (67%) or in-person workers (66%).

Benefits and support programs for public health staff are also a crucial part of the conversation when considering non-monetary incentives. This could include awareness and encouraged usage of various forms of insurance benefits, retirement plan contributions, employee assistance programs, wellness programs and reimbursements, employee engagement opportunities, mentorship and coaching programs, and accrual and use of PTO and sick time, to name a few. Communicating and promoting usage of these benefits goes hand in hand with destigmatizing the process of asking for help, as discussed by Mental Health America. Policies that specify certain days or hours as “no-meeting” times, implement mental health leave, and create streamlined processes for requesting and approving time off should all be taken into consideration as well.

Conclusion

While advocating and working towards equitable pay within governmental health agencies is a considerable challenge, there are steps agencies can take to make what might feel unattainable, attainable. The availability of technology to inform equitable pay analyses, renumerating and studying the workforce for better salary information, enhancing promotions or reclassifying jobs, and incentivizing tuition reimbursement or student loan repayment programs are all steps towards better pay circumstances for governmental public health. Despite the challenges of supporting staff through monetary means, there are other ways to meet the needs and wants of the workforce through flexible working arrangements, engagement and career development opportunities, and giving staff autonomy regarding PTO. By embracing a multifaceted approach, governmental health agencies can not only cultivate a more equitable workplace regarding pay but also enhance overall employee satisfaction and the effectiveness of the workforce when it comes to addressing public health issues. 

Learn more about strategies and best practices for the public health workforce from the PHIG Partner website and the ASTHO Workforce Resource Center. To conduct a needs and gaps analysis on workforce well-being at your agency, check out the companion worksheet to ASTHO’s technical package, “Strategies for Enhancing Governmental Public Health Workforce Well-being and Retention.” For more information about ASTHO’s workforce development programs, peer networks, or technical assistance opportunities, please email workforce@astho.org.