Field-Tested-Strategies for Effective Communication in Public Health

May 20, 2025 | Sara Bell, Anna Bradley

Communication is a foundational public health capability. While often considered an external-facing priority, communication in public health is equally important when engaging with internal colleagues. Effectively conveying change, expectations, and the significance of public health efforts requires clarity, transparency, and intentionality. The following suggestions emerged from a peer-to-peer exchange on communication strategies that public health professionals use nationwide.

Communicating Through Change

Keys to success when communicating in public health about change include clarity, accessibility, interdisciplinary collaboration, and change management techniques or frameworks. It is vital to provide a variety of consistent, open channels to share regular updates, answer questions, reduce confusion, and build trust. For example, weekly office hours hosted virtually by leadership or specific teams, such as HR, provide opportunities for people to check in and stay informed. Additionally, forming interdisciplinary teams for agency-wide projects integrates more perspectives into the process and includes staff in the change (e.g., a project about streamlining contract processes could include budget office staff as well as program and administrative staff who interact with those processes from a variety of areas within the agency).

Participants of the peer-to-peer exchange shared these specific strategies for communicating through change:

• Develop and centralize resources for incoming leaders and staff such as budget books, risk assessments, and organizational charts that outline key roles, funding risks, and critical project information (i.e., desk manuals for key roles that outline important day-to-day processes and maintain organizational memory).
• Establish transparent communication channels. An intentional communication plan might outline in-person and virtual meeting opportunities. One participant shared they use a three-part communication approach in which they meet with senior leaders and executives, send out emails for internal communications, and then facilitate sessions with different work units in the agency to have more intimate conversations with staff. This combined approach of team-specific meetings, email communication/newsletters, and all-staff meetings allows for people to receive information about change in a way that works best for them and their schedules.
• Acknowledge staff reactions and continuously collect feedback. This means creating spaces and opportunities to name the changes, recognize staff emotions, and provide support while people process transitions. Allowing staff to provide feedback helps leadership anticipate and address new concerns as they emerge, supporting public health worker resiliency.
• Engage staff in non-traditional or informal ways. Introducing office hours for agency-wide offices like HR and fiscal teams allows staff to reach out proactively and stay informed. One participant shared their agency also facilitates informal events, like walking groups, that build rapport between leaders and staff or between different teams.

Acknowledge staff reactions and continuously collect feedback. This means creating spaces and opportunities to name the changes, recognize staff emotions, and provide support while people process transitions. Allowing staff to provide feedback helps leadership anticipate and address new concerns as they emerge, supporting public health worker resiliency.

Communication That Supports Sustainability

Communication is not only a foundational public health capability but also a critical element of sustainability planning. Participants emphasized the importance of building trust with staff, partners, stakeholders, and the public through transparent and consistent messaging. Clearly conveying the urgency of a project or program, its connection to lives impacted by the issue in the community, and both its immediate effect and long-term goals enhances credibility and engagement. Sharing plans, progress, and challenges openly fosters confidence, while using plain language to communicate data-driven stories — explaining why the work is being done, why it matters now, and why specific approaches are being used — helps strengthen collective commitment and long-term support.

Actionable recommendations from the peer-to-peer exchange for supporting sustainability through communication include:

• Involve external and internal partners in sustainability initiatives. Strategies like co-locating workforce development initiatives with academic institutions through Academic Health Department models can help create a sustainable pipeline of trained professionals. Collaborating with external partners on formal reports, like workforce or health assessments, can also boost credibility. One participant shared their agency has developed an agency-wide sustainability committee to guide, develop, and promote activities that support the sustainability of grant-funded programs.
• Convey the urgency of the situation in plain language. Participants stressed the importance of highlighting the risks posed by funding expiration and the potential impact on the community (e.g., the impact of inadequate public health services on an individual’s ability to be self-reliant, participate in the economy, and make healthy choices for themselves and their families). Testimonials, mini-documentaries, dashboards, and examples of how services are being modernized and improved to meet demand can complement data-driven insights.
• Build capacity in the community. Partnerships (e.g., with community members) and shared resources can amplify impact, credibility, and reach of public health programs.

Communicating Program Goals

Ensuring messages are relevant to the audience is critical to communicating the shared values between program goals and interested parties. Working to establish relationships with people and organizations interested in the program’s goals can also help identify needs for communication, find common ground, and yield improved health outcomes and customer service. The peer-to-peer exchange highlighted the following tips for communicating public health program goals:

• Share data about program performance. Ensure that information about how the program provides benefits to the public, is fiscally responsible, and aligns with policy priorities is easy to access and understand. One way participants do this is through consistent use of performance management systems.
• Engage partners to support communication. Work with partners to identify and communicate the public health challenges your program is designed to address and how you are working to meet community needs. Participants shared that this should expand beyond traditional public health partners and include a reciprocal relationship in which the agency is equally invested in addressing and communicating partner challenges and successes.
• Build policy analysis capacity. Creating and supporting positions in public health agencies that can identify and communicate the impact of policy changes on public health programming, for both internal staff and external partners, can help improve the agency’s administrative readiness, strategic planning, and partnership development efforts. This can include internal policy review.