Viewing the search from the other side

Q&A with a hiring manager in public health - Part 1

In prior episodes, I have been exploring how the public health employment market looks from the perspective of job seekers. (Spoiler alert: it’s pretty brutal out there. Scroll through and have a look for yourself.) So a few weeks ago, I tried something new: I interviewed a hiring manager at a local public health department, to try to understand better why the recruitment process feels the way it does. 

This insider perspective proved to be such a hit that I am trying it again: please welcome another hiring manager to provide us with additional insights from the employer’s perspective:

Welcome to Sarah Perramant, who is a Health Officer at the Health Department for the town of Dover, New Jersey. We had so much to discuss together that our conversation will extend over 2 episodes. In this first installment, Sarah discusses some general aspects of working in public health. Next week, she will go into more detail about some specifics.

Photo: Sarah Perramant

Please tell us about your role in public health and how you got into it?

I am currently the Health Officer for the Town of Dover in Northwest New Jersey. In New Jersey, health departments must be run by a licensed Health Officer (you must qualify for and pass an exam) who is not required to be a medical doctor. I began my career in local governmental public health 10 years ago as an emergency preparedness planner and then as an epidemiologist. My MPH is in epidemiology but NJ Civil Service requirements make it a bit of a challenge to qualify for the position straight out of school if you are a more traditional student without work experience. 

My day-to-day work is leading and managing a team of 5.5 FTEs (full time equivalents). This includes strategic planning, budgeting, grant writing and reporting, personnel management, recruitment and hiring, collaborating with other departments, serving in appointed leadership roles for professional organizations, filling community outreach requests, investigating outbreaks, working directly with residents, attending board of health meetings, etc.

Public health departments around New Jersey are all going through similar struggles. While the emergency workload from COVID has relaxed a bit, we are still VERY busy. Residents and governing bodies expect more from us than ever before. We have some federal grant funding but we are well aware that the flow will eventually dry up. I am currently working with the town’s business administrator and the governing body to advocate for sustainably funding some of the grant-supported positions when the grants are done, but I know I won’t be able to keep everyone. Many departments are in the same situation - personnel is an allowable expense with the grants, but we have to think about what we do when the grant funding is gone. Many of my colleagues are moving forward with hiring these positions but often with grant contract letters (meaning the position has an end date contingent on additional funding). 

Tell us about hiring in your department recently: what are the processes that go into recruitment decisions?

The department I run is quite small; one full time health inspector, one full time clerk/registrar of vital statistics, a part time clerk/registrar of vital statistics, and a grant-funded health educator and communicable disease investigator. We are hoping to hire a second inspector, a public health nurse, and a grants coordinator - all (temporarily) grant supported.

The reason I highlight the grant funding with regards to my staff is that it really helps demonstrate our limited local resources and our fears for when COVID grants dry up. 

Recruiting for positions is dependent on filling vacant established positions or positions whose scope of work is determined by the grants. My department might have a serious need, but if the town administrator and/or governing body do not approve of creating/filling the position, I may not be able to recruit. On the flip side, the positions required by grants may be narrow and specific or don’t fit an exact local need… but, we are required to fill them or we will lose the funding. 

Behind the scenes, I am the one who prepares the job description, requests approval from the Business Administrator, ensures that the job be posted to the town website, makes a graphic for posting on Facebook, posts on LinkedIn, collects resumes, screens candidates, schedules interviews, etc. It is difficult to do all of those things while managing the day to day operations of the department. Fortunately, our Director of Personnel is helpful; unfortunately, she is a department of one! Local government teams can be very small and everything takes a bit longer.

Another key component of recruiting is networking. Public Health in New Jersey is a pretty small field. If you have been through one of the major MPH programs in NJ, I probably know faculty who had you as a student. If you worked for any health department in NJ, I likely know your boss. I often reach out to colleagues when I am trying to fill a position and get a recommendation. I also reach out if it seems that the candidate and I have a professional connection in common. Three of the last four candidates I hired came through professional connections/referrals. 

Two areas where State and local health departments are really hoping for more candidates are with Registered Environmental Health Specialists (Health Inspectors licensed in NJ) and Public Health Nurses (which requires a BSN). We have a hard time competing with private sector wages, but I am aware of many health departments trying to hire in those positions. Health departments across the state also need bilingual Spanish speakers to help serve our changing communities.

What kind of response have you received to the ads that you’ve posted recently?

I typically get great responses to ads on LinkedIn for jobs requiring an MPH or in the health education realm. I have had to do more active recruiting/headhunting for inspectors and nurses. What I am seeing is that individuals with a bit more education or recent graduates are more well-connected on networking sites like LinkedIn. 

I also think people should know that local health departments usually have a $0 budget for advertising open positions. Some older managers sometimes only post ads to local government websites and/or state civil service, not using external job boards. One of the biggest hurdles is that many local governments don't use a credit card - and to buy ads on websites, you need a credit card! So, if you're really interested in local government work, you may need to be a bit of a detective to find open positions. It's a bit of a pain, but often we have small candidate pools... so you may end up being a big fish in a little pond!

I am very grateful to Sarah for sharing her perspectives on the hiring process, providing a window into what happens behind the scenes. Join us next week for the second installment of this Q&A, when Sarah will share more details about the hiring process for public health jobs, especially with regard to training and career development opportunities.

Join us to continue the conversation in Notes or Chat or Comments or Threads.

• How do these insights reflect on your experiences of applying for a public health job?

• What other questions would you like to ask Sarah or other hiring managers in public health about how recruiting actually works?