Author: Melissa Touma, MPH, Public Health Infrastructure Program Director, ASTHO

As public health agencies work to modernize and strengthen their infrastructure, the Foundational Public Health Services framework offers a critical guidepost. Among its foundational capabilities, organizational competencies stand out as essential for ensuring that agencies operate efficiently, equitably, and strategically. This capability encompasses a wide range of operational functions—from governance and strategic planning to IT, human resources, financial management, and legal services.

Why Procurement and Hiring Timeliness Matters

For the resources highlighted in this blog, we focus on two key areas within organizational competencies that directly impact public health performance: procurement timeliness and hiring timeliness. These functions are often behind the scenes, yet they are critical to a health department’s ability to respond to emerging needs, implement programs effectively, and ensure a skilled workforce.

Timely procurement ensures that public health agencies can quickly access the necessary goods and services to carry out their missions. When procurement is delayed, programs can stall and communities may wait longer for essential support. Likewise, timely hiring is essential for building and maintaining a competent workforce. Lengthy hiring processes can lead to staffing shortages, burnout among existing staff, and missed opportunities to bring in new talent with critical skills. Improving hiring timeliness also enables agencies to maintain momentum in program implementation and deliver on grant commitments.

Resources to Support Jurisdictions

• 2025 PHIG Annual Recipient Convening Session Resources
  The 2025 Public Health Infrastructure Grant (PHIG) Annual Recipient Convening featured several success stories from PHIG recipients implementing strategies to improve hiring cycle time in their jurisdictions.
  • Recorded poster presentation: Improving Hiring Timeliness through a District Recruitment Strategy
  • Indeed We Can: Lessons Learned for Accelerating Hiring Processes in Governmental Public Health Through the CDC PHIG (session recording available on Cvent)
  • Accelerating Public Health Hiring: A QI Pilot to Reduce Time to Hire Through Practical Tools and Manager Engagement (session materials available on Cvent).
• Strategies and Best Practices for Accelerating Procurement Processes
  PHIG recipients are implementing best practices and promising strategies not only reduce procurement cycle times but also to enhance transparency, accountability, and collaboration. Dive deeper into the ongoing improvement efforts at the Tennessee Department of Health and Connecticut Department of Public Health to transform their contract, grants, and procurement management systems.
• Summary of Learnings from a Pilot of PHIG Recipients Measuring Procurement Timeliness
  During the first year of PHIG, ASTHO convened a conversation with PHIG recipients to explore insights from a pilot of the procurement timeliness reporting measure and guidance. Participants from three health departments shared lessons learned and practical strategies for improving procurement processes and cycle time. The discussion was originally intended to inform the February 2024 performance reporting; however, its key takeaways remain relevant for jurisdictions that continue to strengthen their procurement infrastructure and performance. A blog summarizing these takeaways is also available.
• Guide on Conducting an Administrative Policy Assessment and Gap Analysis
  ASTHO’s Guide on Conducting an Administrative Policy Assessment and Gap Analysis provides adaptable and scalable resources and tools for health departments to conduct an internal assessment of operational policies and associated procedures, identify gaps, and develop an action plan to prioritize and address missing or outdated policy and procedures.With the right policies and procedures in place, agencies can streamline hiring and procurement processes by reducing delays, clarifying roles, and ensuring consistent and compliant workflows.
• Aligning Resources and Services for Procurement
  As health departments navigate procurement improvements, they must work to identify opportunities to think differently about how to use resources. PHAB’s new Service and Resource Sharing brief provides guidance on how health departments can use shared resource approaches to address issues such as procurement processes. After reviewing the brief, take a deeper dive into the full suite of Service and Resource Sharing tools.

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PHIG recipients looking for additional resources or assistance related to improving procurement and hiring timeliness can request technical assistance from the PHIG National Partners through the PHIVE portal. 

This work was supported by funds made available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), National Center for STLT Public Health Infrastructure and Workforce, through OE22-2203: Strengthening U.S. Public Health Infrastructure, Workforce, and Data Systems grant. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by CDC/HHS, or the U.S. Government.