1130: From Recruitment to Retention: Strengthening the Public Health Workforce

JOHN SHEEHAN:

This is Public Health Review Morning Edition for Wednesday, May 20, 2026. I'm John Sheehan with news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

Today, building and keeping a strong public health workforce through innovative tools and strategies. Brianna Gorman, a senior analyst for [workforce] at ASTHO, discusses ASTHO's new Workforce Employee Experience Implementation Tool, an interactive resource built to help agencies address workforce challenges across the employee lifecycle, from recruitment and onboarding to retention, succession planning, and offboarding. Later, LaShonda Freeman, workforce development director at the Bureau of Organizational Development, Workforce Development Section at the South Carolina Department of Public Health, shares how South Carolina's Supplemental Tuition Assistance Policy Program, or STAP, is helping employees pursue advanced education while strengthening the agency's long-term workforce pipeline. First, here's Brianna Gorman.

So, Brianna, what is the Workforce Employee Experience Implementation Tool?

BRIANNA GORMAN:

Yeah, so the Workforce Employee Experience Implementation Tool is an interactive resource, and it's meant to provide public health agency workforce staff with intentional recommendations for addressing various workforce challenges, and also to help launch different initiatives in the workforce space.

SHEEHAN:

So, what was the purpose behind the tool, and how is it different from other tools that employees might be used to?

GORMAN:

Yeah, so the why behind this tool is that there is so many different challenges and changes happening in the public health landscape. Lots of burnout occurring, resource constraints, changes in priorities, and so this tool is intended to meet folks where they are at this time of uncertainty. So, we realize that capacity changes are very common. This tool will allow folks to kind of go in, and based on what's happening with their agency, they can pick and choose implementation suggestions or strategies that best fit their organization's current capacity. So, that's what the why behind, and also what makes it a little bit different than previous tools. The other thing I'll say is that this is interactive, so our team at ASTHO will continuously be updating the resources, the links, information on the page, so it's a living resource, and it's not static.

SHEEHAN:

Gotcha, and give us some examples here. How does this thing work?

GORMAN:

Yeah, so basically, you'll go into the tool. You'll see on one of the homepages a diagram of the employee engagement cycle, and so you're hitting everything from recruitment all the way to retention, onboarding, offboarding, and even succession planning. You can click on any of those different larger categories, and then each category has subcomponents. So, say if you're working on state interviews, for example, when you click into that, there will be kind of definitions, the perspective of the employee experience, good, better, best versions of implementation on how to implement state interviews, as well as some success stories and other resources. So, there's a lot of different components for every single thing that you can think of around workforce and anything related to the employee experience, so we're excited to share it with you all.

SHEEHAN:

Yeah, so is this for entry-level employees? Is it for mid-level seniors?

GORMAN:

Yeah, we encourage any big recipient or public health agency workforce staff, so HR workforce, anybody touching kind of that public health workforce space to go ahead and use the tool and provide us with feedback. Ideally, our workforce directors are going to probably be the primary users of this tool, but we encourage anybody who's touching on the public health workforce to definitely use this tool, and we will continue to kind of edit and tweak so that it's most valuable for all of our users.

SHEEHAN:

Got it. And how can directors find it?

GORMAN:

Yeah, so this will live on ASTHO's LMS, Learning Management System. You will just create a quick login if you don't have one already, and then it will show up as a course, but we do want to make sure folks know that this is not an assessment. It's not a course. It's just a living resource, but it will live on our Learning Management System.

SHEEHAN:

And so, what if someone gets into it and suddenly has questions? How can they get some guidance?

GORMAN:

Yeah, absolutely. We encourage any and all questions. We actually have a monthly employee experience office hours that will be held on the last Thursday of every month, so we encourage folks to come to that space. But if there are more immediate questions or you want some more tailored help, you can submit a TA request or reach out to our workforce at ASTHO.org email.

SHEEHAN:

And will the feedback from these sessions go back into refining and informing future versions of the tool?

GORMAN:

Yes, absolutely. As I said, this is our interactive but also living resource, and so any interactions that we have, new insights that we have from discussions with all of our users, our members, whoever's interacting or brings us kind of concerns or new information, we will take that back and plan to update this on a quarterly basis.

SHEEHAN:

Brianna Gorman, thanks so much.

GORMAN:

Thank you for having me. Have a great day.

SHEEHAN:

Brianna Gorman is a senior analyst for [workforce at] ASTHO.

Now, let's hear from LaShonda Freeman, workforce development director at the Bureau of Organizational Development, Workforce Development Section at the South Carolina Department of Public Health, to hear more about South Carolina's Supplemental Tuition Assistance Policy Program.

LASHONDA FREEMAN:

The Supplemental Tuition Assistance Policy Program is a program that we designed to help our current employees to grow professionally without carrying the full burden of financial weight going back to school. And the core of the program is to expand access to our education, some financial stress to release that from our employees who's pursuing degrees in higher education, help us gain great talents because they are going back to increase their skill set. And overall, it strengthens the agency as a whole. And, in terms of eligibility, we have it where our full time employees and qualified employees, but for us, our qualified employees are the temp grant employees and time limited employees. And they have to work at least 30 hours a week. And they should be with the agency for at least six months and have a clean disciplinary action. So, no actions actually on their record. So they should be good employees, outstanding employees. And they are to maintain a great performance at work while they're in school, receiving the tuition reimbursement from us. And the degree, the program is specifically for those who are seeking a nursing degree at any level. So, it could be associates, bachelors, masters, doctorial, and anybody who's seeking a bachelor's, master’s, doctorial degree in anything that's public health or public health-related.

SHEEHAN:

Do you find that it helps with retention?

FREEMAN:

It does, actually. What it does, it shows us investing in our people while they're investing in themselves, which kind of create a sense of belonging with the people they feel supported by their employer and a future in the agency. And it keeps our workforce pretty strong.

SHEEHAN:
And so have you have you had a lot of employees that have come back afterwards and have stuck around and become long term public health employees?

FREEMAN:

Since I took over this position, which was about a year ago, we have had a lot of employees that

came into the program and they've completed their, either their doctorial or their master's degree. And I've seen their confidence build. I've seen them wanting to do so much more and show so much gratitude to us because they we were a help to them as they continue through their process. And they're bringing back so much knowledge to once you think about it while they're in school. They're bringing fresh ideas, updated practices, new perspectives right back into our workforce, which is a benefit to the agency and it supports innovation and it support just retention overall. Because one thing we thrive on is innovation here at the agency and being innovative as an employee, especially with that fresh knowledge, because as we know, some of us went to school a very long time ago and have someone that's here with fresh knowledge is very essential to the agency growth and retention.

SHEEHAN:

And so, have you have you had a lot of employees that have come back afterwards and have stuck around and become long term public health employees. That's amazing. And what would you say to an agency that's considering starting a similar program?

FREEMAN:

I would say, first off, you should definitely try to get buy in from your leadership, because this program will if it's supported by leadership, it will grow further. And also make sure listening to what it is that your workforce needs. Do they want a full degree program or do they want to just take courses or do they want a certification for professional development or recertifications for whatever they're certified in? Get an idea of what their need is. Make sure the funding is there and make sure the funding is top-notch and secure for your area because you want to make you want to budget it and not deny people. Also, make sure that you are tracking your wins, including the very small wins, because any win is a success for this program. If it's someone who finally just finished their first program, the first course of their first class, that's a win. They could have been the first graduate, generational graduate for their family. Just track any successes so that when you present that back to your leadership, they can understand how much value this program holds.

SHEEHAN:

Have you run up against any challenges or roadblocks with the program?

FREEMAN:

Yes. Some of the challenges is our service commitment, because one of the things that we put in place for this program is if you are applying, you do owe some sort of service commitment back to our agency. And it can become challenging because some people are not sure if they're going to stay with the agency to, you know, commit to that agreement. But we do encourage them to try. And if they want to just try for a small amount of time and just see what it is, if they like it and if they like their role, continue to go on. Because regardless of where you move in the agency, you can still apply for the position as long as you are eligible as an FTE, time limited or temp grant employee. But it is a bit of a hesitancy because some people are not sure if they want to continue in public health. But by encouraging them and showing them the different opportunities you have in public health and how you can grow within public health, usually it helps them stay and commit to the program.

SHEEHAN:

Especially when you've got more education.

FREEMAN:

Absolutely.

SHEEHAN:

LaShonda Freeman, thanks so much.

FREEMAN:

Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate you all.

SHEEHAN:

LaShonda Freeman is the workforce development director at the Bureau of Organizational Development, Workforce Development Section at the South Carolina Department of Public Health. Earlier, we heard from Brianna Gorman, a senior analyst for [workforce at] ASTHO.

ASTHO, in collaboration with the Berkeley Media Studies Group, will host a virtual training designed to strengthen participants' ability to communicate adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, and other relevant public health issues in ways that resonate with target audiences and generate meaningful media coverage. The session, on May 26, will also build skills in crafting compelling narratives by leveraging expert voices, translating data through social math, and delivering clear, impactful messages. Find more at the link in the show notes. Ensuring reliable access to STI medications requires coordinated policy action, and practical policy tools exist to help jurisdictions respond to shortages and strengthen access.

Join ASTHO on June 10 for a webinar focused on policy options jurisdictions can leverage to navigate STI drug shortages and medication access barriers. While focused on STI and infectious disease prevention, this webinar is applicable to a wide range of programs and open to all public health professionals interested in strengthening access to essential medications. The link is in the show notes.

This has been Public Health Review Morning Edition. I'm John Sheehan for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.