Are the Public Health Workforce Competencies Predictive of Essential Service Performance? A Test at a Large Metropolitan Local Health Department

Abstract

Since many training initiatives employ the core public health workforce competencies as objectives, it is important to demonstrate an association between competency and essential service job performance. A cross-sectional survey of 420 employees of a local health department was conducted in 1999, with a response rate of 76 percent. Each of ten essential service performance measures was regressed on four core competency measures, controlling for employee experience and education. The competencies explained 2 percent to 20 percent of the variance in essential service performance. While offering support for the core competencies as a foundation for training program content, the results also make clear the large role that other individual, organizational, and community influences may have. Explaining additional variance in performance will require incorporating these variables into future studies.