Federal Manager's Daily Report

Despite recent hiring initiatives, FEMA’s disaster incident workforce remains significantly understaffed, and some responders deploy to disasters without the knowledge, skills, and training they need to assist survivors effectively, a DHS IG report has said.

The report examined the results of a 2012 decision by the agency to transition its on-call workforce from disaster assistance employees to what it calls reservists. “Since then, FEMA officials have expressed their frustration regarding the performance of reservists deployed to disasters under their new FEMA qualification system positions,” the report said.

“Maintaining the skills of an intermittent on-call workforce will always be challenging,” it said, but FEMA could take steps including: developing a more rigorous qualification system-based performance evaluation system; increasing training for reservists when not deployed; improving communication between reservists and their managers; taking a greater role in assessing reservists’ performance; promoting their professional development; and engaging all FEMA components to strengthen the reservist workforce.

However, it said that even those steps will be of only limited use if the understaffing situation is not resolved. While reservists comprise the largest part of FEMA’s disaster incident workforce, FEMA has hired less than half the number it needs, based on its target staffing goals.

The report said FEMA concurred with the recommendations.