Community Focused Recruitment
July 14, 2021 |
Tracing Health helps to advance health equity by creating quality jobs with benefits in communities hit hard by the pandemic and the ensuing economic downturn. In hiring, we prioritize language and communication skills as well as lived experience over formal education, acknowledging that the most important qualifications in this work are the ability to engender trust and communicate in a way that works for the people we serve.
When COVID-19 arrived, it brought with it a wave of unemployment and economic instability. Due to longstanding inequities rooted in systemic racism, communities of color – who were at greater risk of serious symptoms and death from COVID-19 – were also more likely to lose their jobs causing both housing and food insecurity.
In a matter of months Tracing Health recruited over 600 qualified team members, primarily from communities of color. All Tracing Health team members have full PHI benefits, receive extensive and ongoing job training and the tools to work remotely. To reach the candidates we needed, Tracing Health worked through community partners, health systems, public health departments, and word of mouth.
Community Focused Recruiting In Action
Click a video to learn more about our approach to community focused recruiting.
72%
72% of Tracing Health team members identify as Black, Indigenous, or other people of color. The diversity of our workforce reflects the diversity of the populations we serve which helps build trust and improves health equity in these communities.
63%
Women make up 63% of the Tracing Health frontline workforce. With flexible work hours and remote working equipment provided to all team members Tracing Health has allowed many workers to stay in the workforce who otherwise may have been forced out by pandemic related conditions.
60%
60% of Tracing Health contact tracers and resource coordinators come directly from the communities they serve. By offering quality jobs that serve their own communities our team members are able to both lift their communities economically and offer more trusted and therefore more effective public health services and information.
“I just wanted to say how impressed we are with your team—their skill, thoroughness, and efficiency! It’s so great to have them aboard! I would love to spend some time talking with you about your recruitment and training process to understand how we could do better with our staff.”
County Partner, Sonoma County Public Health Department
“The Public Health Institute is doing a lot to help us develop professionally with all their workforce development efforts. I can see how really enriching my resumé will help me keep a job in public health in the future. So it gives me that sense of like security… job security that I might not have right now as a contact tracer.”
Paulina Jafarzadeh, Contact Tracer PNW
Get in Touch
For more information about our services or about partnering with Tracing Health please contact us.