To increase the reach and demand for local public health roles, it is important to send job postings to organizations and places that attract populations traditionally underrepresented in local health, including people of color and people who are LGBTQ+, Deaf, veterans, and people with disabilities. Resources that are more targeted to a diverse set of applicants may include:
- Professional associations such as the National Association of Hispanic Nurses.
- The Chamber of Commerce, both the general Chamber in each community and the Massachusetts LGBTQ+ Chamber.
- News sources such as the Bay State Banner, a weekly newspaper serving Black communities in Massachusetts, or the Rainbow Times, New England’s largest LGBTQ+ newspaper.
- Veterans services, governmental tribal agencies, tribal health services, LGBTQ+ and Deaf organizations.
- Community centers serving specific populations such as the Asian American Pacific Islanders Commission, Nueva Esperanza Holyoke, the Nipmuc Indian Development Corporation, and the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts.
Creating a standard set of questions that you ask all applicants can help to limit bias and ensure that people of marginalized identities are not held to different standards. Consult with your Human Resources Department for additional tips and sample interview questions. When developing interview questions:
- Have a diversity officer and/or human resources professional review the interview questions to remove any biased or discriminatory language.
- Embed CLAS Standards into the interview questions to assess applicants’ skills, experience, and perspectives related to serving and working with people of culturally and linguistically diverse identities. Examples:
- Direct service positions: Describe the diverse communities you have served and how you tailored your services to meet the needs of those communities. Describe some of the best practices that you use when serving clients who’ve been harmed by systemic inequities.
- Supervisory positions: What are your strategies for responding to a direct report who expresses bias? Describe specific measures you have taken to support a diverse, equitable workplace.
- Executive positions: In your past leadership role, what measures did you take to recruit, retain, and promote staff that reflected the cultural and linguistic communities that you were serving? What methods have you used to design and deliver culturally and linguistically appropriate public services?
- Ask questions to elicit information about applicants’ motivations and skills for working in local public health. Examples:
- What about working in local public health appeals to you?
- Describe some of your practices for engaging in community building.
- What are some of your strategies for navigating conflict and working across differences?
To avoid bias in the hiring process, form a hiring committee rather than counting on a single person to make hiring decisions. Here are some helpful tips for creating a hiring committee to further CLAS Standards:
- Include people of diverse social identities and across departments within the municipality.
- Include Diversity Committee members and diverse community leaders.
- Provide anti-bias training to hiring committee members.
- Create a system for rating applications and interviews.
Use clear, simple language written for your intended reader. Avoid acronyms and jargon.
- Use clear headers and opening topic sentences.
- Focus on what job applicants want to know and what applies to them.
- Guide applicants through the information they need to know; anticipate their questions and desired outcomes.
- Organize information in an order that is easy to follow with critical information first, then exceptions, conditions, and background information. For the application process, provide information in step-by-step order.
- To ensure the information will be understandable to someone with no knowledge of local public health or the role, have someone in an unrelated field review the content to provide feedback before posting or sending out.
In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, use the following guidelines when creating job postings and application forms:
- Use sans serif fonts (e.g., Arial, Calibri), at least 12 point font whenever possible.
- For printed forms, have large print versions available in 16 point font.
- Offer the option to complete printed forms in electronic format.
- Use clear headers so screen readers know what any figures, tables, or columns are being read.
- Hyperlinks should have descriptive text rather than “click here”.
- Avoid creating PDFs in Adobe. Instead, use Microsoft Word or Google Docs. To be accessible, PDF documents must include “selectable text." In Microsoft Word or in Google Docs, use “Save as” and select PDF as the format. This ensures that the text remains selectable and accessible.
- Do not use “Print to PDF” functions which can make the text unselectable and unreadable by screen readers
- Use the bullet function rather than symbols or decorative bullets.
The ADA protects people with disabilities from discrimination in hiring and employment. The ADA limits the types of disability-related questions that you as hiring manager or employer may ask an applicant before hiring, after a job offer has been made or during employment. For example, during an interview, you can may ask an applicant whether they are able to perform the essential functions of the job either with or without reasonable accommodations. You may not ask an applicant if they have a physical or mental impairment that would require accommodations or impact their ability to perform the essential functions of the job.
Employers are not required to provide disability accommodations without a formal request. Your agency's employee handbook, human resources, or diversity website should provide processes for reasonable accommodations that applicants may request.