218: Workforce Listening

ROBERT JOHNSON:

This is Public Health Review Morning Edition for Wednesday, July 13th, 2022. I'm Robert Johnson.

Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

JOHNNY TAYLOR JR.:

My message to leaders in public health is that in some ways we've been so focused—maniacally focused—on taking care of others and ensuring that our employees were taking care of others and our community, that we may not have paid enough attention to our own employees.

JOHNSON:

Johnny Taylor Jr. is the president and CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management. He recently spoke at an ASTHO event in Colorado Springs. He says COVID-19 has forever changed the relationship between employers and their teams.

TAYLOR:

Every employee—not just public health employees—experienced COVID clarity, and they really had an opportunity to rethink what matters. What kind of work environment do I want to work in? What matters to me as an employee? They began to have real open conversations around, "Yes, I want to do good, but I need to be compensated fairly."

JOHNSON:

Taylor says leaders need to begin a new relationship with their employees.

TAYLOR:

We do that by listening, and I mean extreme listening, to our employees. We have to understand what matters to them. We make a ton of assumptions about what employees want, and we don't spend enough time asking the employee.

They were customers, we take all sorts of surveys, and we found out what the customer wants. But we don't do the same thing when it comes to our employees, so we need to start by engaging in extreme listening.

JOHNSON:

According to Taylor, the nature of public health work makes success even more important.

TAYLOR:

If we don't get this right, we put the entire country at risk. Because if those individuals don't feel like they are taken care of, they're going to have a hard time taking care of others in the way that they should be taking care of.

JOHNSON:

Dr. LaQuandra Nesbitt is leaving her job as director of the District of Columbia Department of Health. She explained why on a recent episode of the DMV Download podcast, produced by WTOP News in Washington, D.C.

LAQUANDRA NESBITT:

This job has absolutely been an honor and privilege of a lifetime, and I've learned so much and there's a lot we need to do to improve the health of our communities. And at this point in my career, I'd like to be able to address the health of our communities from a different vantage point, other than governmental public health, where I've spent the last 14 years of my career,

JOHNSON:

Nesbitt directed the District's response to the pandemic. She tells WTOP the rising number of infections due to the latest COVID-19 variant is yet another argument for vaccination.

NESBITT:

You know, but each variant—we don't know how these variants are going to behave. And that's the tricky part, and that's why we were always very about the messaging for, "Let's get everyone vaccinated and give people back." Some made it really quickly. So there is another sub-variant out there, BA.5, that's higher in some regions of the U.S. than others, and it has the potential to change some of the positive trends that we are seeing.

JOHNSON:

Nesbitt served almost eight years in her current position. She leaves her job at the end of July.

Also, ASTHO has twelve recommendations for health agencies ought to consider when writing proposals for federal infrastructure funding. A new blog article now online organizes the guidance into three categories: proof, people, and processes. You can read it using the link in the show notes.

Finally today, it's time to register for ASTHO's Health Equity Summit 2022, happening online later this month. The afternoon event on Wednesday July 27th will examine how public health officials are working to improve health equity, building on lessons learned during the pandemic.

There is no charge to attend the event. You can read more about it and sign up using the link in the show notes.

That'll do it for today's newscast. We're back tomorrow morning with more ASTHO news and information.

I'm Robert Johnson. You're listening to Public Health Review Morning Edition. Have a great day.