Navigating the evidence: A story of evaluating a comprehensive public health workforce applicant recruitment strategy

In evaluation practice, the process of collecting data, conducting analysis, and arriving at a shared understanding might not be linear. Developing coherent and meaningful understanding of benefits and effects of programs can be challenging when multiple data sources with varying data points are included. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Workforce Development navigated this challenge when evaluating recruitment activities for its diverse public health fellowship training programs. Collaborations and coordination across program, policy, and communication were conducted to develop and implement a process evaluation of a comprehensive approach to recruit applicants for these training programs. This provided an opportunity to continuously reflect and interpret the collected evaluation data and identify best practices and lessons learned to evaluate the existing recruitment strategy. Additionally, this contributes to an improved cohesive and holistic recruitment strategy for the future. DWD’s evaluation team is using reflective thinking approach to design an outcome evaluation and improve evaluation practice leading to a story of utilization-focused evaluation in the context of workforce recruitment for public health training programs. Presenters will share how the evaluation team assessed existing and new data sources, visualized the data, and developed actionable recommendations based on findings to improve recruitment strategies. Evaluation activities shared include baseline assessments, leadership discussions, and navigating multiple social media platforms. Attendees will learn the following: (1) identify challenges and strengths in consolidating data from multiple sources; (2) describe steps to mitigate challenges; and (3) how to incorporate reflective thinking in creating their own utilization-focused evaluation stories.