7. Advocate for a rebuilding and expansion of a national public health workforce supported by a modern information technology infrastructure
PROBLEM: The pandemic has highlighted the need for a coordinated 21st century system that delivers core public health services day in and day out in the most efficient, effective, and equitable manner for Americans. There is a need to work collaboratively to better define roles and responsibilities among overlapping authorities and jurisdictions of various federal agencies, states, counties, and tribes.SOLUTION: Businesses can play a more prominent role in advocating for "big, hairy, audacious goals" with federal policy makers to build a more permanent and reliable presence for public health in their local communities and across the nation. Support for a stronger, better resourced, and more effective public health workforce can take many forms. That workforce needs to be supported by advanced management information and surveillance capabilities that link clinical, social, and public health data for improved situational awareness, planning, implementation, and evaluation.
ACTION STEPS:
1) Advocate for expansion and modernization of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps
2) Advocate for establishment of a U.S. Public Health Service Reserve Corps
3) Advocate for a Public Health Jobs Corps
BOTTOM LINE: Employers can leverage their influence with national policymakers to rebuild, reinforce, and expand the nation's public health workforce and its underlying technology infrastructure, by building on existing institutions, such as the military, as well as creating new employment opportunities for citizens at all levels of education.
(Photo: venimo/Shutterstock.com)
1. "Put out the fire" of Covid-19 by following advice of credible public health experts
PROBLEM: Businesses will remain at limited capacity and operating with minimal service options until the spread of the virus is contained and people believe it is safe for them to engage with others with minimal risk of infection.SOLUTION: Business leaders need to support credible public health advice to all their stakeholders, including employees, investors, and consumers.
ACTION STEPS:
1) Publicly amplify, support, and implement recommendations from credible scientific sources
2) Identify one "go-to" spokesperson for credible information
BOTTOM LINE: Communicating and modeling behaviors that align with public health expert advice will expedite a decrease in viral transmissibility and speed a return to normalcy.
(Photo: Chinnapong/Shutterstock.com)
2. Improve the health and well-being of employees
PROBLEM: Failure to fully integrate employee health into the business model creates future obstacles to the successful management of health crises.SOLUTION: Adopt evidence-based workplace health and well-being programs that are proven to be successful, thereby building and maintaining an internal culture of health that positively impacts both employees and stakeholders in an interconnected network and shared community.
ACTION STEPS:
1) Use publicly available health promotion tools and resources to design, implement, and evaluate impactful workplace programs.
2) Coalesce resources across departments and functions to improve workers' health and well-being
3) Empower a Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Chief Health Officer (CHO), or Chief Public Health Officer (CPHO) who will provide expert guidance on managing the COVID-19 pandemic and other health risks facing the organization
BOTTOM LINE: With more than 150 million Americans spending most of their waking hours at work (as was the case before COVID-19), business leaders play a key role in promoting the health of our nation. Improving the health of workers, as well as the health of their families, directly benefits the company and the community, alike. By building and maintaining internal cultures of health, businesses can lead the way to a more robust and resilient workforce.
(Photo: JRC-Stop Motion/Shutterstock)
3. Promote healthy communities
PROBLEM: Because employees have families, and those families live in and are a part of larger communities, it is not enough for businesses to focus on improving individual workers' health. It is equally crucial to support the health of communities in which employees live, work, learn, play, and pray.SOLUTION: Businesses, individually or as part of a coalition, can implement strategic communications campaigns that emphasize the importance of public health and how a healthy community is aligned with a healthy economy and workforce. Further, businesses can advocate for widely accepted, non-partisan policies that improve public health at the local level.
ACTION STEPS:
1) Support efforts to explain the value and importance of public health
2) Expand messaging beyond COVID-19
3) Advocate for evidence-based public health policies that build and sustain healthy communities
BOTTOM LINE: Reinforcing that public health is vital to a flourishing and resilient economy starts by raising awareness of the value of healthy communities, the external culture of health. In blunt terms, public health agencies need to do a better job of "selling" themselves to Americans. The business community can be helpful in assembling the talent, resources, and know-how to do just that.
4. Become a "force multiplier" by leveraging expertise, staff, and other resources to collaborate with local and state public health departments to be better prepared for future public health emergencies
PROBLEM: Over the past few decades, like many other underfunded and underinvested sectors, public health departments have experienced a steady decline in their capabilities because there are fewer workers, outdated surveillance and reporting systems, and an accelerated exit of highly qualified professionals.SOLUTION: Businesses can support public health efforts by focusing volunteerism policies on efforts that expand the capacity of local health departments while simultaneously highlighting organizational expertise and successes.
ACTION STEPS:
1. Expand volunteer and pro bono activities
2. Inaugurate community-specific public health shared value consortia
3. Recognize and reward early adopters
BOTTOM LINE: Complementing and supporting public health professionals with private sector resources will provide a significant multiplier effect that benefits both employers and health departments and improves community health measures.
(Photo: XiXinXing/iStockphoto.com)
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5. Actively facilitate public-private partnerships in the community
PROBLEM: Businesses, for the most part, have been left to their own devices to find, interpret, and apply evidence-based strategies for addressing the immediate COVID-19 crisis and the longer-term physical and mental health problems facing employees, families, and communities. With the voluminous advice being offered by scientists, government, and private agencies, businesses are often at a loss when making strategic policy decisions regarding keeping their workers productive and safe.SOLUTION: Set up stable mechanisms that ensure ongoing and mutually beneficial collaboration between local businesses and public health departments.
ACTION STEPS:
1) Support the recruitment of a Chief Health Strategist position and situate that person in an influential office
2) Attend one another's meetings
3) Take advantage of anchor institutions' expertise and foothold in the community
BOTTOM LINE: Public-private collaboration needs to happen, and anchor institutions are especially well suited to facilitate such interactions. Chief medical, health, and public health leaders, working hand-in-hand with Chief Health Strategists, can be catalysts in quickly advancing public health initiatives for the long term.
(fizkes/Shutterstock)
6. Advocate for development of accountability dashboards that track and monitor progress toward achieving key economic and public health outcomes in a community
PROBLEM: For any initiative to be successful, accountability and metrics are key. As the age-old adage reminds us, "If it isn't measured, it won't be managed." Business executives may be wary of supporting government programs, such as public health initiatives, that draw upon tax dollars without a concomitant pledge to track how the money is spent, and whether agreed-upon outcomes are achieved. Similarly, public health officials may be wary of an approach to displaying business metrics if they lack the needed funding to track these outcomes because data are not accessible nor easily linked to health measures, with transparency. Business and public health working together have the potential to generate new insights and learnings from data, and need to find ways to present those data in ways that are meaningful to both parties.SOLUTION: Convene a Business and Public Health Measurement and Accountability Task Force whose job is to develop a business and public health dashboard that annually reports on key business and public health measures for the local town, city, or county.
ACTION STEPS:
1) Develop a prototype accountability dashboard
BOTTOM LINE: Business and public health leaders require credible metrics that ensure accountability. For businesses to actively support targeted public health investments, they must be convinced that there is a measurable return-oninvestment (ROI) or value-on-investment (VOI). At the same time, public health departments hold key data and information that can contribute important insights into employer policies and strategies. By working together to track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), aligned with business and community health targets, both sectors can gauge forward progress on these outcomes.
(Khakimullin Aleksandr/Shutterstock.com)
7. Advocate for a rebuilding and expansion of a national public health workforce supported by a modern information technology infrastructure
PROBLEM: The pandemic has highlighted the need for a coordinated 21st century system that delivers core public health services day in and day out in the most efficient, effective, and equitable manner for Americans. There is a need to work collaboratively to better define roles and responsibilities among overlapping authorities and jurisdictions of various federal agencies, states, counties, and tribes.SOLUTION: Businesses can play a more prominent role in advocating for "big, hairy, audacious goals" with federal policy makers to build a more permanent and reliable presence for public health in their local communities and across the nation. Support for a stronger, better resourced, and more effective public health workforce can take many forms. That workforce needs to be supported by advanced management information and surveillance capabilities that link clinical, social, and public health data for improved situational awareness, planning, implementation, and evaluation.
ACTION STEPS:
1) Advocate for expansion and modernization of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps
2) Advocate for establishment of a U.S. Public Health Service Reserve Corps
3) Advocate for a Public Health Jobs Corps
BOTTOM LINE: Employers can leverage their influence with national policymakers to rebuild, reinforce, and expand the nation's public health workforce and its underlying technology infrastructure, by building on existing institutions, such as the military, as well as creating new employment opportunities for citizens at all levels of education.
(Photo: venimo/Shutterstock.com)
1. "Put out the fire" of Covid-19 by following advice of credible public health experts
PROBLEM: Businesses will remain at limited capacity and operating with minimal service options until the spread of the virus is contained and people believe it is safe for them to engage with others with minimal risk of infection.SOLUTION: Business leaders need to support credible public health advice to all their stakeholders, including employees, investors, and consumers.
ACTION STEPS:
1) Publicly amplify, support, and implement recommendations from credible scientific sources
2) Identify one "go-to" spokesperson for credible information
BOTTOM LINE: Communicating and modeling behaviors that align with public health expert advice will expedite a decrease in viral transmissibility and speed a return to normalcy.
(Photo: Chinnapong/Shutterstock.com)
2. Improve the health and well-being of employees
PROBLEM: Failure to fully integrate employee health into the business model creates future obstacles to the successful management of health crises.SOLUTION: Adopt evidence-based workplace health and well-being programs that are proven to be successful, thereby building and maintaining an internal culture of health that positively impacts both employees and stakeholders in an interconnected network and shared community.
ACTION STEPS:
1) Use publicly available health promotion tools and resources to design, implement, and evaluate impactful workplace programs.
2) Coalesce resources across departments and functions to improve workers' health and well-being
3) Empower a Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Chief Health Officer (CHO), or Chief Public Health Officer (CPHO) who will provide expert guidance on managing the COVID-19 pandemic and other health risks facing the organization
BOTTOM LINE: With more than 150 million Americans spending most of their waking hours at work (as was the case before COVID-19), business leaders play a key role in promoting the health of our nation. Improving the health of workers, as well as the health of their families, directly benefits the company and the community, alike. By building and maintaining internal cultures of health, businesses can lead the way to a more robust and resilient workforce.
(Photo: JRC-Stop Motion/Shutterstock)
3. Promote healthy communities
PROBLEM: Because employees have families, and those families live in and are a part of larger communities, it is not enough for businesses to focus on improving individual workers' health. It is equally crucial to support the health of communities in which employees live, work, learn, play, and pray.SOLUTION: Businesses, individually or as part of a coalition, can implement strategic communications campaigns that emphasize the importance of public health and how a healthy community is aligned with a healthy economy and workforce. Further, businesses can advocate for widely accepted, non-partisan policies that improve public health at the local level.
ACTION STEPS:
1) Support efforts to explain the value and importance of public health
2) Expand messaging beyond COVID-19
3) Advocate for evidence-based public health policies that build and sustain healthy communities
BOTTOM LINE: Reinforcing that public health is vital to a flourishing and resilient economy starts by raising awareness of the value of healthy communities, the external culture of health. In blunt terms, public health agencies need to do a better job of "selling" themselves to Americans. The business community can be helpful in assembling the talent, resources, and know-how to do just that.
4. Become a "force multiplier" by leveraging expertise, staff, and other resources to collaborate with local and state public health departments to be better prepared for future public health emergencies
PROBLEM: Over the past few decades, like many other underfunded and underinvested sectors, public health departments have experienced a steady decline in their capabilities because there are fewer workers, outdated surveillance and reporting systems, and an accelerated exit of highly qualified professionals.SOLUTION: Businesses can support public health efforts by focusing volunteerism policies on efforts that expand the capacity of local health departments while simultaneously highlighting organizational expertise and successes.
ACTION STEPS:
1. Expand volunteer and pro bono activities
2. Inaugurate community-specific public health shared value consortia
3. Recognize and reward early adopters
BOTTOM LINE: Complementing and supporting public health professionals with private sector resources will provide a significant multiplier effect that benefits both employers and health departments and improves community health measures.
(Photo: XiXinXing/iStockphoto.com)
Advertisement
5. Actively facilitate public-private partnerships in the community
PROBLEM: Businesses, for the most part, have been left to their own devices to find, interpret, and apply evidence-based strategies for addressing the immediate COVID-19 crisis and the longer-term physical and mental health problems facing employees, families, and communities. With the voluminous advice being offered by scientists, government, and private agencies, businesses are often at a loss when making strategic policy decisions regarding keeping their workers productive and safe.SOLUTION: Set up stable mechanisms that ensure ongoing and mutually beneficial collaboration between local businesses and public health departments.
ACTION STEPS:
1) Support the recruitment of a Chief Health Strategist position and situate that person in an influential office
2) Attend one another's meetings
3) Take advantage of anchor institutions' expertise and foothold in the community
BOTTOM LINE: Public-private collaboration needs to happen, and anchor institutions are especially well suited to facilitate such interactions. Chief medical, health, and public health leaders, working hand-in-hand with Chief Health Strategists, can be catalysts in quickly advancing public health initiatives for the long term.
(fizkes/Shutterstock)
6. Advocate for development of accountability dashboards that track and monitor progress toward achieving key economic and public health outcomes in a community
PROBLEM: For any initiative to be successful, accountability and metrics are key. As the age-old adage reminds us, "If it isn't measured, it won't be managed." Business executives may be wary of supporting government programs, such as public health initiatives, that draw upon tax dollars without a concomitant pledge to track how the money is spent, and whether agreed-upon outcomes are achieved. Similarly, public health officials may be wary of an approach to displaying business metrics if they lack the needed funding to track these outcomes because data are not accessible nor easily linked to health measures, with transparency. Business and public health working together have the potential to generate new insights and learnings from data, and need to find ways to present those data in ways that are meaningful to both parties.SOLUTION: Convene a Business and Public Health Measurement and Accountability Task Force whose job is to develop a business and public health dashboard that annually reports on key business and public health measures for the local town, city, or county.
ACTION STEPS:
1) Develop a prototype accountability dashboard
BOTTOM LINE: Business and public health leaders require credible metrics that ensure accountability. For businesses to actively support targeted public health investments, they must be convinced that there is a measurable return-oninvestment (ROI) or value-on-investment (VOI). At the same time, public health departments hold key data and information that can contribute important insights into employer policies and strategies. By working together to track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), aligned with business and community health targets, both sectors can gauge forward progress on these outcomes.
(Khakimullin Aleksandr/Shutterstock.com)
7. Advocate for a rebuilding and expansion of a national public health workforce supported by a modern information technology infrastructure
PROBLEM: The pandemic has highlighted the need for a coordinated 21st century system that delivers core public health services day in and day out in the most efficient, effective, and equitable manner for Americans. There is a need to work collaboratively to better define roles and responsibilities among overlapping authorities and jurisdictions of various federal agencies, states, counties, and tribes.SOLUTION: Businesses can play a more prominent role in advocating for "big, hairy, audacious goals" with federal policy makers to build a more permanent and reliable presence for public health in their local communities and across the nation. Support for a stronger, better resourced, and more effective public health workforce can take many forms. That workforce needs to be supported by advanced management information and surveillance capabilities that link clinical, social, and public health data for improved situational awareness, planning, implementation, and evaluation.
ACTION STEPS:
1) Advocate for expansion and modernization of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps
2) Advocate for establishment of a U.S. Public Health Service Reserve Corps
3) Advocate for a Public Health Jobs Corps
BOTTOM LINE: Employers can leverage their influence with national policymakers to rebuild, reinforce, and expand the nation's public health workforce and its underlying technology infrastructure, by building on existing institutions, such as the military, as well as creating new employment opportunities for citizens at all levels of education.
(Photo: venimo/Shutterstock.com)
Don't let the calendar turnover fool you: The crises faced by the nation in 2020 are still very much with us in 2021. "As the coronavirus pandemic is pretty much guaranteed to be a fixture in our lives through at least the first half, likely three-fourths, of the year, the organization that isn't figuring out how to reset is going to be the exception," says Mike Barone, president of employee benefits at HUB International. And it's not just COVID-19, he goes on to say, because "this disruption has changed the entire landscape for benefits, compensation, wellness, diversity and more – and it's necessitating major recalibrations if everyone's interests are best served." Related: 5 suggestions for improving health care equity Major recalibrations were front and center for the de Beaumont Foundation, who funded a report prepared by the Johns Hopkins Institute for Health and Productivity Studies that asked 40 business and public health leaders how best to address the pandemic while also preparing for the inevitability of future health crises. Conversations among these leaders were held virtually throughout July and August 2020 with the aim to provide practical recommendations that both public health and business officials could support to help public health institutions. "Throughout the discussions, it was emphasized by those interviewed that for the private sector to survive and thrive, the U.S. needs to do more than just react to crises," the report says. "Rather, it needs to build and maintain an effective and resilient public health infrastructure that supports good health for all people." The report distilled those conversations into seven broad recommendations with accompanying action items. While some of those recommendations take a long view for the future, many of them can be implemented immediately by businesses, either on their own or as part of broader-based coalitions. "We've created a dichotomy between lives and livelihood," says one participant. "It's not either/or; they're intertwined." See our slideshow above for highlights from the report, and click here to read it in its entirety. Read more:
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Richard Binder
Richard Binder, based in New York, is part of the social media team at ALM. He is also a 2014 recipient of the ASPBE Award for Excellence in the Humorous/Fun Department.
