FEMA Is Taking Steps to Address Long- standing Human Capital Management Challenges, but Success Hinges on the Effective Completion and Integration of These Efforts

In recent years, we and others have identified long-standing human  capital management challenges at FEMA and made a number of  recommendations to strengthen the agency’s efforts. In 2011, we again recommended that  FEMA develop a comprehensive workforce plan that meets Post-Katrina  Act requirements to identify agency staffing needs and skills  requirements.to conduct a baseline assessment of its workforce to inform the agency’s  future workforce planning efforts, including the development of a strategic  workforce plan for fiscal years 2012 to 2016. However, FEMA did not issue a new strategic  workforce plan. New incident workforce planning model—In September 2014, FEMA  entered into a contract to develop a new incident workforce planning  model to determine the optimal mix of workforce components to include in  FEMA’s disaster workforce. However, because FEMA’s  efforts related to improving FQS are ongoing, it is too soon to determine  whether they will address challenges experienced. In April  2012, we reported that FEMA’s efforts related to workforce planning have  been independently conducted by various offices across the agency,  concluding that having integrated workforce planning and training could  help FEMA ensure that it has the properly sized and skilled workforce to  effectively carry out its mission. Given that FEMA’s efforts are ongoing, it is too early to assess  their effectiveness in addressing long-standing workforce-related  challenges over the long term. The groups agreed in general that DHS components will not be  able to meet recruitment goals without additional resources, guidance,  marketing, and senior DHS and FEMA leadership engagement to help  recruit and manage additional Surge Capacity Force volunteers. Because  the Surge Capacity Force has a key role in augmenting FEMA’s  workforce in catastrophic disasters, having such a plan or strategy to  strengthen recruitment efforts would help ensure that FEMA has the  information it needs to identify the availability of Surge Capacity Force  volunteers needed to fully support its efforts. However, FEMA does not collect or consider data on other costs to DHS  components, related to the Surge Capacity Force, that are not reimbursed  by FEMA. These components paid the  salaries and benefits of these employees during their deployment. To better enable FEMA to track and evaluate the performance of the  FEMA Corps program, we recommend that the Secretary of Homeland  Security direct the FEMA Administrator to establish performance measures for all program goals, such as the  rates of employment among program graduates in the emergency  management field, and the rates of deployment of FEMA Corps   members during disaster response; collect complete and reliable program performance data, such as  tracking the number of FEMA Corps members who leave the program  early for failing background investigations, and obtaining survey  responses from as many participants of the FEMA Corps as possible,  including those who have left the program or not graduated; and develop, in conjunction with NCCC, a plan, with milestones, to create  an automated system or process by which managers can assess  project completion reports against service project requests. In its comments, DHS concurred with our recommendations  and described actions planned to address them. With regard to our second and third recommendations, for FEMA to  collect and account for all costs associated with the new workforce  components, DHS stated that the department will work with FEMA’s  Office of the Chief Security Officer and Surge Capacity Force program,  respectively, to identify all costs associated with managing its two new  disaster response workforce components—FEMA Corps and the Surge  Capacity Force. Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

The objectives of this report were to determine the extent to which (1) the  Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has taken steps to  address long-standing challenges in managing its workforce, and (2)  these challenges affected FEMA’s deployment and management of its  new disaster workforce components—the Surge Capacity Force and the  FEMA Corps. To assess the extent to which FEMA has taken steps to address  these challenges, we reviewed documentation that describes FEMA’s  workforce planning and management efforts, such as the FEMA Strategic  Plan 2014-2018, the statement of work for the contract for FEMA’s  updated strategic workforce management plan (expected to be finalized  in September 2015), and the statement of work for FEMA’s contract for its  new incident workforce planning model—expected imminently, pending  final approval. We also interviewed  OCCHCO officials to obtain information on the agency’s progress and  challenges with addressing employee morale issues. The results of  these focus groups are not generalizable.
Why GAO Did This Study

FEMA historically has relied on both permanent and temporary disaster-related employees to respond to presidentially declared disasters. FEMA's total workforce increased by about 144 percent—7,558 to 18,449 employees—from fiscal year 2005 to September 2014. In 2012, FEMA deployed two new components to its disaster response workforce—the DHS Surge Capacity Force and the FEMA Corps. However, an after-action report from Hurricane Sandy indicated that FEMA exhausted its staff resources during its response and that FEMA faced additional challenges related to its disaster response workforce.
GAO was asked to examine FEMA's efforts to manage its current and future workforce needs. This report addresses (1) FEMA's actions to address long-standing workforce challenges, and (2) the challenges that have affected FEMA's new disaster workforce components. GAO reviewed after-action reports, strategic plans, and program documentation for FEMA Corps and the Surge Capacity Force. GAO also interviewed agency officials and conducted 23 nongeneralizable focus groups with members of FEMA's workforce who provided important insights.

What GAO Found

The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is taking steps to address various long-standing workforce management challenges identified by GAO. Since 2007, GAO has found that FEMA faced challenges in completing and integrating its strategic workforce planning efforts. As a result, GAO recommended that FEMA develop a plan that identifies workforce gaps and includes performance metrics for monitoring progress. GAO has also identified other workforce challenges at FEMA, including low employee morale. FEMA has not yet resolved these challenges and fully addressed GAO's workforce-related recommendations but, according to agency officials, plans to do so through several efforts:
a new incident workforce planning model—pending final approval—that will determine the optimal mix of workforce components to include in FEMA's disaster workforce,
a new Human Capital Strategic Plan to be finalized in September 2015—that will help ensure it has the optimal workforce to carry out its mission, and
an executive-level steering committee to help ensure that these workforce planning efforts are completed and integrated.
FEMA's ability to address long-standing challenges hinges on its ability to effectively coordinate with agency stakeholders and integrate its workforce-related new efforts into a strategic human capital management approach. Given that the agency's efforts are ongoing, it is too soon to determine whether these challenges will be addressed.
FEMA faces challenges in implementing and managing its two new workforce components: the Surge Capacity Force and the FEMA Corps. For example, as of January 2015, the Surge Capacity Force was at 26 percent of its staffing target of 15,400 personnel, and FEMA does not have a plan for how it will increase the number of volunteers to meet its goals. Developing such a plan would help ensure that the Surge Capacity Force has a sufficient number of personnel available to support FEMA's efforts. Further, GAO found that FEMA does not collect full cost information, including the costs of FEMA Corps background investigations and the salaries and benefits of Surge Capacity Force volunteers who are paid by DHS components while they are deployed. Collecting this information would help provide a more accurate accounting of the cost of conducting both programs. Further, FEMA does not assess all aspects of program performance because it does not have performance measures that correspond to all program goals. The agency also does not collect reliable performance data, or have an automated system for comparing performance against FEMA Corps project goals. Doing so would better enable FEMA to assess whether it is meeting its program goals.

What GAO Recommends

GAO recommends, among other things, that FEMA develop a plan to increase Surge Capacity Force volunteer recruitment and collect additional cost and performance information for its two new workforce components. DHS concurred with the recommendations and identified related actions the department is taking to address them.