Welcome to the FEMA Disaster Assistance Team!

The Maximus recruiting team will reach out to you as soon as your clearance status has been received from FEMA.  The Maximus recruiting team will communicate with you via email, text message and/or phone call. 

After you have completed all onboarding materials requested of you at the time of your offer, it’s expected that FEMA will return your status to Maximus within 48-72 hours. The FEMA Security team may reach out to you directly requesting additional information.  To avoid delays with your start date, please respond back to them with the requested information as soon as possible.

We encourage you to keep a close eye on your phone, email, and text messages to ensure that we can get you started on the FEMA project as quickly as possible.  If your phone number and/or address have changed since the time you applied, please, click here to log into your profile to update accordingly. 

A Maximus Recruiter will contact you through email, text message and/or phone call as soon as we receive your clearance from FEMA.  You will be instructed to contact our Recruiting team directly so we can discuss your start date.  After your start date has been confirmed, we will work with you directly to schedule a convenient time to come into our office to pick up your computer equipment.  During your equipment pickup, you will receive a welcome packet that includes details on how to setup your equipment and successfully prepare for your first day of employment. 

Equipment pick up will include a brief orientation to the FEMA program and your new Maximus computer equipment.  When you arrive, you will also be working with a representative from Maximus to complete your required I-9.  The Form I-9 is required by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to verify your identity and authorization for employment in the United States. You will need to provide identification document(s) to successfully complete this form during your onsite visit.  If you are unfamiliar with the acceptable forms of documentation, please click here to view a list of all acceptable documents.  Please bring these documents with you when you come to your equipment pick up orientation.

After you have picked up your equipment, and prior to your established start date, you will receive an email from the FEMA Training team.  This welcome message will provide you with the secure links to access the virtual FEMA classroom.  After you receive your secure link for training, please, do not share this link as this link is intended for you only.

Your first full day as a Maximus employee will be spent setting up your equipment and going through onboarding activities.  Your second day will be spent completing FEMA security and privacy compliance trainings — you must complete, pass, and sign and submit completion certificates for ALL these compliances trainings in order to move onto FEMA live training.

Due to the urgent nature of the program, you may be asked to participate in training sessions over the weekend.  Your flexibility will be vital as we work to train you as quickly as possible so we can immediately assist survivors.

Maximus FEMA agents play an integral role in helping disaster survivors get access to the assistance they need. 

Before every shift, you will participate in a pre-shift meeting with your supervisor, where you will review any changes to information or process. After the pre-shift meeting, you will log into the phone and start answering calls. Depending on demand, you may be assigned to one or more call queues to help survivors. 

Most calls average about 12 minutes, but some will be much longer, and some will be much shorter. You will use systems and information provided by FEMA to answer questions and assist people.

Maximus supervisors and managers will support you virtually through our group communication tools, and you will also be able to communicate with your peers.

The most important thing to know about this position is how critical it is to help survivors get back on their feet after a disaster. You may talk to people who are impacted by any of the current disasters being supported by FEMA, including wildfires, tornadoes, storms, and hurricanes. You can view a list of current disasters on the FEMA website at: https://www.fema.gov/disaster/current.

The other thing to keep in mind is that because we respond to all types of disasters and survivors call when they are able, this program runs 7 days a week, and flexibility is key. Your schedule may shift week to week as call demand dictates. We know that everyone has other responsibilities that need to be managed, and we will try to work with your schedules, but the more open and flexible you can be, the more phone hours we can assign to you.

If you want to learn more about FEMA and disaster response, here are a few websites you can check out while you wait for our recruiters to get back in touch with you:

https://www.disasterassistance.gov/information/news-feeds

https://www.fema.gov/about/news-multimedia/blog

https://youtu.be/RPU2uGgdg5A