About PH WINS

What is PH WINS?

The Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS) is an online survey of individual workers at government public health agencies fielded by the de Beaumont Foundation in partnership with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO). It captures individual public health workers’ perspectives on key topics such as engagement and morale, training needs, and addressing public health issues, and collects data on the demographics of the workforce. PH WINS is the only nationally representative data source about the governmental public health workforce. PH WINS has been administered in 2014, 2017, and 2021. PH WINS 2024 will be the fourth fielding of the survey. 

 The PH WINS network of partners includes: the Big Cities Health Coalition (BCHC), the ten Regional Public Health Training Centers (PHTCs), the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), the National Network of Public Health Institutes (NNPHI), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Learn more about the de Beaumont Foundation, which created PH WINS in partnership with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO).

PH WINS is staffed by the Research, Evaluation, and Learning team at the de Beaumont Foundation. Learn more about the team.

PH WINS surveys the entire public health workforce at participating state and local health agencies. PH WINS is unique as it gathers perspectives from individual workers in participating agencies. 

PH WINS is expanding in 2024 to include all local health departments, regardless of size, as well as U.S. territories and freely associated states. 

If you are a local health department and would like to participate, please contact your region’s public health training center for more information. For more information about participating as a territory or freely associated state, please contact [email protected]. 

PH WINS 2024 will be fielded starting in September 2024. For more information about participating, please see the FAQs about participating in PH WINS or email [email protected]. 

Results from PH WINS are often used in the following ways:

  • Include PH WINS metrics in a strategic plan
  • Create a workforce development plan (including accreditation documentation for the Public Health Accreditation Board)
  • Provide staff with training that meets their needs and reported skill gaps
  • Compare department workforce statistics to national benchmarks
  • Institute changes to increase engagement and satisfaction
  • Foster a culture of continuous quality improvement
  • Inform succession planning
  • Help national organizations advocate for resources for the government public health workforce

 PH WINS national findings will be available in an online dashboard. Agencies and departments that are eligible will receive results specific to their staff. Only aggregate data will be available. PH WINS commits to maintaining the confidentiality and anonymity of all employees that participate. Eligibility for agency-specific results is based on staff size and response rate.

Explore the PH WINS 2021 national dashboards and learn how agencies have used this data through the PH WINS in Action Series.

PH WINS 2024, similar to previous versions, draws heavily from other validated surveys. The content was developed with input from a wide range of stakeholders, such as the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), American Public Health Association (APHA), Public Health Foundation, National Network of Public Health Institutes (NNPHI), the Regional Public Health Training Centers, and practitioners serving in public health departments across the nation. 

PH WINS questions were drawn from multiple sources, including the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, the Public Health Workforce Taxonomy, the Public Health Foundation Worker Survey, the CDC Technical Assistance and Service Improvement Initiative’s Project Officer Survey, the 2009 Epidemiology Capacity Assessment, and many more. For more detailed information, please read the PH WINS 2021 methods paper or email [email protected].

About Participating in PH WINS

Who can participate in PH WINS?

All U.S. state and local government public health departments are eligible to participate in PH WINS. Additionally, for the first time ever, PH WINS is expanding to include U.S. territories and freely associated states. For more information on the expansion effort, please email [email protected]. 

If your agency is interested in participating in PH WINS, please reach out to the corresponding partner from the following list: 

  • To better understand the workforce’s strengths and gaps and identify opportunities to improve skills, training, and employee engagement
  • To inform and guide future workforce research and development, such as recruitment and retention efforts
  • To support employees in modernizing their traditional public health roles to meet the evolving needs of the public
  • To identify demographic trends and their implications for the workforce

Learn how agencies have used PH WINS data through the PH WINS in Action Series. 

Once agency leadership has agreed to participate in PH WINS, they identify a PH WINS point of contact, whom we refer to as a Workforce Champion. The Workforce Champion will be asked to attend one Workforce Champion Introduction Webinar, which will be held every Wednesday in June and July 2024 from 2-3pm ET, and one Preparing for Fielding Webinar, which will be held every Wednesday in August 2024 from 2-3pm ET. 

Additionally, the Workforce Champion will be asked to provide a complete and current staff list of all employees in the agency. Staff lists should, at a minimum, include the first name, last name, and email address of each employee. This information will only be used to administer the survey. 

For more information, please email [email protected]. 

About PH WINS Results

When will my agency receive our results?

All eligible agencies will receive their agency-level results in summer 2025. Eligibility is based on staff size and response rate. For more information, please contact [email protected].

To explore national results, visit our data visualization dashboards. For other inquiries, please complete a data request form. 

Your responses and those of your colleagues and agencies across the country will be used to inform and guide workforce research, development, and training. The de Beaumont Foundation and its research team will analyze and summarize the data at the agency and national levels.

Please be assured that your responses to PH WINS will be kept confidential. Your agency will receive a report of aggregated results, and your answers will not be able to be traced back to you. Agencies will not have access to the data set or individual responses.

No. We are committed to protecting the privacy of respondents. All responses from the survey will be kept confidential, and identifiable information such as employee names and email addresses will be separated from the responses.

The de Beaumont Foundation and its research team analyze the data and deliver aggregate results to eligible agencies. Eligibility is based on staff size and response rate. The required response rate to receive agency-specific results varies by health department size. Please see the chart under “What response rate is required…?” to determine the required response rate. 

Each report will reflect aggregate data of the department employees’ responses. Agencies will not have access to the data set or individual responses.

The de Beaumont Foundation is committed to protecting the privacy of respondents. All responses from the survey will be kept confidential, and identifiable information such as employee names and email addresses will be separated from the responses. 

The chart below shows the minimum response rate needed based on staff size.

Staff Size Minimum Response Rate Approximate # of Respondents
25* 94% 24
40 91% 37
50 89% 45
60 87% 53
70 85% 60
80 83% 75
90 81% 73
100 80% 80
200 66% 132
300 56% 168
400+ 50% 200+

*The PH WINS team is exploring the possibility of providing a few data points to agencies with staff sizes below 25. This information will be communicated to participating departments prior to survey administration. For questions, please email [email protected].

I have another question.

For more information, please contact the PH WINS team at [email protected].