Harassment and Discrimination on the Basis of Gender and Race/Ethnicity in the FEMA Workforce

Abstract

Following an internal investigation into sexual harassment in the senior leadership ranks of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the agency's leaders chose to openly discuss the problems and the need to develop and maintain a workplace in which all employees are treated with professionalism and respect. Although FEMA's own investigation provided insights into the culture and misconduct in one FEMA office, its investigation was not designed to be a comprehensive assessment of the entire organization. Thus, FEMA asked the Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center (HSOAC) to provide an independent and objective assessment of harassment and discrimination at FEMA. In 2019, HSOAC fielded a survey designed to estimate the annual prevalence of workplace harassment and discrimination at FEMA and assess employee perceptions of leadership and workplace climate. The survey results reveal areas in need of improvement and will help guide FEMA leadership decisions about programming and policy responses.This research was sponsored by FEMA's Office of Equal Rights and conducted within the Strategy, Policy, and Operations Program of the HSOAC federally funded research and development center (FFRDC). About the Homeland Security Operational Analysis CenterThe Homeland Security Act of 2002 (Section 305 of Public Law 107-296, as codified at 6 U.S.C. § 185) authorizes the Secretary of Homeland Security, acting through the Under Secretary for Science and Technology, to establish one or more FFRDCs to provide independent analysis of homeland security issues. The RAND Corporation operates HSOAC as an FFRDC for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under contract HSHQDC-16-D-00007.The HSOAC FFRDC provides the government with independent and objective analyses and advice in core areas important to the department in support of policy development, decisionmaking, alternative approaches, and new ideas on issues of significance. The HSOAC FFRDC also works with and supports other federal, state, local, tribal, and public-and private-sector organizations that make up the homeland iv Harassment and Discrimination on the Basis of Gender and Race/Ethnicity in the FEMA Workforce security enterprise. The HSOAC FFRDC's research is undertaken by mutual consent with DHS and is organized as a set of discrete tasks. This report presents the results of research and analysis conducted under task order 70FA4018F00000139, Workplace Survey Support.The results presented in this report do not necessarily reflect official DHS opinion or policy.For more information on HSOAC, see www.rand.org/hsoac. For more information on this publication, see www.rand.org/t/RRA383-1.