Effective Communication Training Needs Among US State and Local Public Health Professionals: Findings From the 2024 Public Health Workforce Interest and Needs Survey

OBJECTIVE: To assess perceptions of effective communication training needs among US state and local government public health employees and examine variations across generations and other worker characteristics. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey analysis using data from the 2024 Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey. SETTING: State health agencies and local health departments across 48 states in the US. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 56 595 state and local government public health employees (37% response rate) representing 4 generations: Baby boomers (16%), Gen X (39%), millennials (38%), and Gen Z (7%). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Training needs for effective communication, defined as the combination of ability to communicate effectively across audiences and ability to communicate persuasively. Training needs were identified when respondents rated skills as moderately or very important but reported being unable to perform or at beginner level. RESULTS: Overall, 11% of respondents identified a training need for effective communication, including 7% with gaps in communicating effectively with different audiences and 9% in persuasive communication. Gen Z staff ranked persuasive communication as their top training need regardless of skill level. Logistic regression revealed that Communications and Policy staff (adjusted odds ratio 1.46, 95% CI 1.21-1.76) and Environmental Health staff (adjusted odds ratio 1.20, 95% CI 1.04-1.37) had higher odds of prioritizing communication training. Women and older generations were less likely to prioritize communication training compared to men and Gen Z, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Although effective communication was identified as a training need, respondents did not consistently identify effective communication as their top perceived training need. Given the importance of communication to effective public health practice, training interventions should be tailored to different generations, roles, and programmatic areas.