The Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA's) ability to successfully mitigate disaster situations depends on having a well-trained and skilled incident workforce (IW), and mentorship can play an important role in helping to develop, support, and sustain IW staff. The authors examine mentorship efforts across the IW and provide recommendations for addressing requirements, gaps, and challenges.

Mentorship Efforts Within the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Incident Workforce

Leslie Adrienne Payne, Susan G. Straus, Lea Sabbag, Sally J. Calengor

ResearchPublished Dec 18, 2024

The Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA's) ability to successfully mitigate disaster situations depends on having a well-trained and skilled incident workforce (IW), and mentorship can play an important role in helping to develop, support, and sustain IW staff.

RAND researchers assessed—through a literature review; a survey of FEMA regions, cadres, and headquarter offices; and interviews with a broad cross-section of FEMA's IW—the range and maturity of existing mentorship efforts across the IW. In this report, they identify requirements for an IW-focused mentor program in the future and describe the range of factors serving as challenges that might influence a mentor program, concluding with recommendations for addressing requirements, gaps, and challenges.

Key Findings

  • IW staff across FEMA regions, cadres, and headquarter offices engage in both informal and formal mentoring, although informal mentorship was described as more common and easier to establish.
  • Formal mentoring often starts with a specific need; some begin as informal efforts.
  • A few interviewees reported using a vendor to manage mentoring, and some described using software to aid in mentor-mentee matching.
  • Interviewees described mentoring within the IW as generally being one-on-one and voluntary, lasting less than six months, and not being formally evaluated.
  • Many mentorship efforts undertaken by regions and cadres lack specific budgets, and using training funds is a frequent occurrence.
  • Regions and cadres identified the primary challenge to mentorships as insufficient time to participate due to operational needs.
  • Those who participated in mentoring reported having extremely favorable experiences.
  • Cadres and regions alike were concerned that reservists, who make up a large portion of the IW, had arguably the largest need for mentoring but the fewest opportunities to engage.
  • A common perception was that future mentorship programs need to be more expansive and inclusive to include a larger swath of the IW, such as reservists.

Recommendations

  • FEMA's Field Operations Directorate (FOD) should leave in place current formal and informal mentorship efforts undertaken by select regions and cadres, the majority of which are viewed favorably.
  • FOD should create a new division (such as an Office of Mentorship Management) in which its vision, mission, and business lines/functions solely relate to mentoring.
  • FOD should meet with the U.S. Coast Guard's mentoring team, shadow the team’s mobile "road show" effort, and bring back best practices for mentorship marketing and outreach.
  • Cadres should pilot the use of deployable teams of mentors that travel to disasters for the sole purpose of supporting junior staff in their administrative and deployment duties.
  • Encourage discussion of mentoring efforts in the IW performance evaluation process.
  • Build mentorship into the Workforce Development Division training curricula; ensure that it includes instruction on developing such skills as interpersonal communication, collaboration, and conflict management; and introduce IW staff to mentorship opportunities during the initial onboarding process.
  • Ensure that future mentorship training and programs support diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB)-related professional development.
  • Set clear expectations for the mentee and mentor at the outset of the mentorship relationship.

Topics

Document Details

Citation

Chicago Manual of Style

Payne, Leslie Adrienne, Susan G. Straus, Lea Sabbag, and Sally J. Calengor, Mentorship Efforts Within the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Incident Workforce. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2024. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA2964-1.html.
BibTeX RIS

Research conducted by

This research was prepared for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and conducted in the Disaster Management and Resilience Program of the RAND Homeland Security Research Division.

This publication is part of the RAND research report series. Research reports present research findings and objective analysis that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors. All RAND research reports undergo rigorous peer review to ensure high standards for research quality and objectivity.

RAND is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.