We believe that our most valuable asset is our people. To ensure our company continues to succeed, our objective is to be able to recruit, hire and retain top talent. Our ability to attract and retain a high-quality workforce is dependent on our ability to maintain a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace that provides opportunities for our employees to learn and grow in their careers. This is supported by strong compensation, benefits, community service, and other programs that enable employees to build connections within the community.
ADTRAN offers a competitive and comprehensive benefits program for its employees.
In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak a global pandemic, and throughout 2020 the Company’s management and Board responded with purposeful steps to help keep our employees safe and our customers served. Our enterprise-wide Business Continuity Plan was initiated in March 2020 and a cross-functional team led by three members of senior management was created in order to respond to the pandemic. This management team continues to meet multiple times per week, effectively monitoring the status of the pandemic and ensuring appropriate actions are taken. They provide formal updates to the Board during the Board’s regular quarterly meetings, as well as during a number of special meetings at the start of the pandemic and through written status updates.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we implemented significant changes that were determined to be in the best interest of our employees and the communities in which we operate. Immediate actions taken included restricting access to our key facilities globally, enabling approximately 70% of our workforce to move to an effective work-from-home environment. We introduced enhanced health and safety standards and appropriate facility controls and practices in compliance with local, state and federal recommendations and regulations in the U.S. and at our international locations. In areas where it is necessary to have critical, on-site personnel, such as at our manufacturing facilities, additional health and safety measures were implemented to provide the safest environment possible for these workers. These measures include, among other things, workplace health, hygiene, sanitization, social distancing guidance and alterations to our manufacturing operations in order to accommodate our COVID-19 safety plans. To date, we have not experienced any significant COVID-19 exposure incidents at our manufacturing facilities. We believe that implementing these measures to protect our employees and our families, which also allowed our production facilities to remain operational, contributed to our overall performance in 2020 and positioned us for future growth.
ADTRAN realizes that families are our employees’ primary responsibility. As such, the company offers generous vacation, sick leave, and holiday paid time off. Additionally, paid parental leave is available (up to 40 hours) for the birth or adoption of a child. The company also provides short-term disability insurance at no cost to employees. Long-term disability insurance is available at a minimal cost as well. ADTRAN encourages employees to continue their education and has a generous tuition reimbursement program. We encourage our managers to work with employees, where possible, to accommodate both work and school schedules. The company also encourages employees to give back to the communities that we serve through volunteerism. ADTRAN provides 20 hours of paid leave annually for approved volunteer activities.
American Behavioral is an employer-sponsored service providing a variety of support programs concerning work-related difficulties, as well as problems originating outside the workplace when such troubles affect work attendance or on-the-job performance. EAP services are available to employees and dependent eligible family members. Services are provided 100% by ADTRAN.
We believe that our most valuable asset is our people. To ensure our Company continues to succeed, our objective is to be able to recruit, hire and retain top talent. Our ability to attract and retain a high-quality workforce is dependent on our ability to maintain a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace that provides opportunities for our employees to learn and grow in their careers. This is supported by strong compensation, benefits, community service and other programs that enable employees to build connections within the community. We monitor employee engagement through the use of employee satisfaction surveys and using Net Promotor Scores. We encourage our employees to increase their knowledge by providing a wide variety of training options. In 2018, over 39,000 training hours were used by all types of employees through our Learning Network, on-campus events, and required training. For mid-year 2019, employees have taken over 22,800 training hours. As of December 31, 2020, we had 1,405 full-time employees, with 1,080 in the U.S. and 325 in our international subsidiaries located in North America, Latin America, EMEA and APAC regions. We also utilized 250 contractors and temporary employees domestically and internationally in various manufacturing, engineering, sales and general and administrative capacities, as needed. We believe that our relationship with our employees is good. ADTRAN has a diverse employee base located in 17 countries. We pride ourselves on a highly educated workforce, and the majority of our employees serve in engineering, information technology and technical roles within the organization. Until December 31, 2020, approximately 260 employees of ADTRAN GmbH were subject to collective bargaining agreements of either the Association of Metal and Electrical Industry in Berlin and Brandenburg e.V. or NORDMETALL Association of Metal and Electrical Industry e.V. Although these collective bargaining agreements expired on December 31, 2020, negotiations with the employees of ADTRAN GmbH for a new collective bargaining agreement are ongoing and we have not experienced any work stoppage. None of our other employees are subject to collective bargaining agreements.
Due diligence is performed to fairly proceed with impacted positions. Decisions are not taken lightly and are approached in a fair and ethical manner. When decisions of this nature arise, we identify and articulate the short- and long-range objectives and reasons for the restructuring. Our redundancy procedure includes decreasing temporary or contract labor first, performing a due diligence analysis of each employee affected, retaining our talent and looking for internal placement where possible. When this is not possible, individuals are offered severance and outplacement assistance. Some of these individuals are eventually rehired.
ADTRAN has never experienced large-scale redundancies or significant job cuts (1,000 or more employees). As a company, we work to provide a stable workforce. Our efforts have been successful in keeping permanent workforce reductions to a minimal level.
ADTRAN seeks to provide a strong and stable work environment. In light of this, there are times when we need to supplement our personnel resources to handle a temporary increase in demand. These situations typically result in the use of temporary or contract labor. Use of these resources enables us to meet demand without impacting our day-to-day workforce in a negative manner.
ADTRAN offers a variety of in-person, online, and prerecorded training classes for employees. Topics range from wellness and professional development to technologies and products. We also offer various productivity classes on tools we use each day, such as Excel and Microsoft Teams. Employees also have access to Udemy, where they can choose from a variety of topics. We offer customers a variety of product training classes. These classes are available in-person or online, and evaluations on the quality of the training are provided at the end of each class. As part of employee annual reviews, managers are asked to identify training needs for each employee. The manager and the employee work together to see that these goals are achieved.
ADTRAN prides itself on providing a safe work environment for its employees. The table below shows the percentage of employees involved in workplace accidents and the corresponding percentage of hours missed over the past three calendar years.
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In 2021, ADTRAN adopted a hybrid work model. Based on job type and requirements to be on campus, employees are placed into one of three designations: on-site, hybrid, or work-from-home. Those in the on-site category work at the corporate headquarters location during all work hours. Hybrid employees work-from-home three days per week and on-site two days per week. These employees have the flexibility to increase their number of days on campus as needed. Work-from-home employees perform all of their work duties from their homes.
We believe that maintaining a diverse and inclusive workforce is critical to the success of our business. We encourage an environment where individuality is embraced regardless of age, gender, identity, race, sexual orientation, physical or mental ability, ethnicity and perspective and where each employee is accepted and respected and can, therefore, bring their most authentic self to work. To this end, we have established an employee-driven Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) Task Force to spearhead our efforts. The DE&I Task Force is comprised of our Chief Financial Officer and employee volunteers who are passionate about DE&I and how it affects our workforce. In addition to diversity in our workforce, we seek to ensure diversity in our Board of Directors with respect to skills, experience, gender, race and ethnicity. Our Board of Directors is comprised of six members, two of which are females and three of which are ethnically diverse. Additionally, the Board of Directors has a diversity of skills and experience with respect to accounting and finance, management and leadership, vision and strategy, business operations, business judgment, crisis management, risk assessment, industry knowledge, corporate governance and global markets.
The DE&I group is working in conjunction with Human Resources to raise awareness of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives within the company and encourage conversation with employees about where change is needed and how that change can be facilitated. Each year ADTRAN engages an Affirmative Action consultant to benchmark the company’s activities per job type. Some of the areas evaluated is pay differential by gender for similar job type, and pay differentials related to race or ethnicity. Some of the Human Resources initiatives underway in this area include:
In addition to diversity in our workforce, we seek to ensure diversity in our Board of Directors with respect to skills, experience, gender, race and ethnicity. Our Board of Directors is comprised of six members, two of which are females and three of which are ethnically diverse. Additionally, the Board of Directors has a diversity of skills and experience with respect to accounting and finance, management and leadership, vision and strategy, business operations, business judgment, crisis management, risk assessment, industry knowledge, corporate governance and global markets.
ADTRAN believes in supporting the communities that we serve. These efforts are supported by the ADTRAN Charitable Foundation and Team ADTRAN. Team ADTRAN is an employee-led volunteer action committee that provides a variety of ways for our employees to support the local community through volunteerism and/or monetary donations. Despite the pandemic, in 2020, our employees rallied to provide a $10,000 donation to Still Serving Veterans for Giving Tuesday, a $5,000 donation for the Thrive (non-profit providing healthcare and support services) building campaign, a $5,000 donation for the Walk for Autism, a donation of 1,500 Christmas lights at 305 8th Street (non-profit assisting disabled adults who are not eligible for state assistance), $1,314 donated to Spay/Neuter Action Project, 298 hand-made face masks, support for 23 employee requests, 10 iPads donated to a local hospital for family connections during COVID, six utility bills paid, supported a four-person Make-a-Wish trailblaze Challenge team, supported four non-profits with Christmas donations, and sponsored Liberty Learning (civic education program) for a local school.
Natural disasters have destroyed homes and property, caused massive evacuations, and resulted in the loss of life. Our employees have been impacted by events like these and the ADTRAN Charitable Foundation is here to help. The ADTRAN Charitable Foundation is a 501(C)(3) established in 2011 to provide financial assistance to ADTRAN employees who have been affected by natural disasters and other catastrophic events or who may be experiencing severe personal or family hardships. A portion of the funds is also distributed to other 501(C)(3) organizations in the community that our employees request we support. Employees can submit requests for financial assistance and all requests will be considered by the ADTRAN Charitable Foundation board.
The Green Team is an employee led iniative to look for ways to support our company's Sustainability goals. We are constantly looking for ways to reduce our carbon footprint in the ways our campus is landscaped to recycling computer and manufacturing equipment to swapping light bulbs for energy saving LED bulbs. Activities include an on-campus Earth Day event where vendors are present to teach employees about being greener through recycled products, local farmers selling fruit, vegetables, honey, etc. A plant swap was coordinated by employees to encourage and educate each other on how to grow flowers and plants at home.Employees also help with recycling. Batteries, paper products, and toner cartridges are collected for recycling. Also, an employee-led pop-tab project has been held for many years at our main campus. Events like World Water Day, Huntsville Shred Day, and other sustainability programs are regularly communicated to our employees.The Green Team committee meets quarterly to discuss metrics, projects, and topics for the employee newsletter.Have ideas for us? Email us at [email protected]
To meet ADTRAN India’s Corporate Social Responsibility goal, ADTRAN employee, Nagesh Malyala, was asked to recommend a project. Nagesh has established and manages the ADTRAN Drinking Water Project or Girijana Jeevana Ganga. This project is being implemented with the help of the AWARE Health and Research Foundation (AHRF). Project objectives are to 1) create awareness on the usage of safe drinking water, 2) prevent and control the spread of water-borne diseases, and 3) provide drinking water for 30,000 tribal people located across 30 water-scarce villages in the Eastern Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh and Rangareddy, India. Harsh jungle terrain conditions pose multiple logistic and implementation issues to digging bore wells and installing hand pumps. The project is scheduled for completion in October 2021. As of today, the ADTRAN and AWARE teams have completed the drilling and installation of 11 wells and hand pumps. After one month of hard effort, this project provided clean drinking water to 11 villages.
Corporate Social Responsibility is not just about how a company manages the physical resources in their buildings. It is also about being good stewards of our best resources - our employees. Volunteer Time Off is a benefit for our employees so that they can support their favorite non-profits. Team ADTRAN also has fundraisers and donation drives annually to support non-profits and schools in our community.In 2016, the desire to move from just making monetary donations to encouraging employees to get involved in our community evolved into Team ADTRAN. While the Team ADTRAN Committee is made up of employees in Huntsville, AL, Team ADTRAN consists of all employees worldwide. The goal is for employees to feel like their company wants them to pursue their individual passion for different non-profits that are vital to making our communities great.These activities can be supporting a local food distribution center, reading/tutoring in the classroom, lending gardening expertise, or donating much needed personal hygiene items to local non-profits.We especially like projects that bring our employees together, globally. A group of employees worked together by participating in a virtual gaming tournament called Gamers for Giving. They raised more than enough money to donate a GO Kart, a medical grade video game cart, for young patients to be able to play video games while in the hospital. Learn more about Team ADTRAN at: adtran.com/TeamAdtran Have a request for Team ADTRAN? Fill out our request form at adtran.com/AskTeamADTRAN
