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.
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.
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.
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] India Water Project 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.
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