COMTECH TELECOMMUNICATIONS CORP DE

Our employees are one of our most valuable assets and we believe our success depends on the talent we attract and retain. Our comprehensive people strategy continues to focus on developing a meaningful plan to enhance our employees’ engagement and interests, which will complement and build on our strong foundation. We are passionate about building meaningful employee engagement and happiness through a variety of programs, initiatives, and other opportunities that are addressed in our People Strategy. As part of this strategy, we are providing a foundation for a diverse, inclusive and equitable workplace where employees feel they belong, their views are valued, and they are empowered to pursue opportunities they are passionate about. Our People Strategy is also focused on meeting and executing our strategic recruitment initiatives, developing and promoting talent; supporting competitive benefits and wellness programs; and emphasizing the importance of our employees’ health, safety and wellness.

Fostering Proactive Belonging

We believe the principle of hospitality acts as a catalyst for fostering a sense of proactive belonging, a key component for achieving a sustainable impact. At the heart of our approach is the intentional act of bringing people together across social, cultural, and experiential gaps. By creating opportunities for provocative thinking and meaningful experiences, we are able to challenge assumptions that disrupt our innate habits of thinking and behaving.

We expect our employees and contractors to foster authentic connections, cultivate hospitable spaces, embrace disorienting dilemmas, and emphasize continuous learning. Our policy promotes equal employment opportunities without discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, disability, or any other status protected by law. Our Chief People Officer is committed to driving these policies and efforts across the enterprise to cultivate a strong culture of inclusivity.

We value a workforce that is diverse by thought. To promote this initiative, we reach out to a variety of institutions, attend recruiting events aimed at attracting talent of various backgrounds and cultures; and emphasize creating opportunities of belonging during our talent, promotion, and succession planning.

At least once per month we organize an event or engagement where employees are encouraged to participate to celebrate our workforce and our communities. Events include Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, International Women’s Day, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and Pride Month, among others. In fiscal 2024, we emphasized our commitment to celebrations like Pride Month by featuring a lunch and learn webinar led by one of our Executive Team Leaders who discussed their journey as a member of the LGBTIQA+ community. Each year we also commemorate "Honor Week” by spotlighting our veteran employees and recognizing their accomplishments. In fiscal 2024, we also launched our first Employee Resource Group focusing on Women’s Leadership to deepen and expand our efforts in this space.

Employee Workforce

Employee workforce consists of the following at July 31, 2024 and 2023:

*People of Color include employees who identify with any race other than white.

Developing and Retaining Talent

Our employees are one of our most valuable assets and we believe our success depends on the talent we attract and retain. Our comprehensive people strategy continues to focus on developing a meaningful plan to enhance our employees’ engagement and interests, which will complement and build on our strong foundation.

To meet and execute our strategic business goals, we are focused on sourcing, attracting, and retaining top talent, including those with engineering, science, and technical backgrounds. To boost our talent attraction efforts, we partner with local university student organizations, such as Arizona State University, to educate students about our work and to hire interns throughout our organization. This year, our total internship class was comprised of 24 students, up from 12 students in fiscal 2023. We designed our internship program to be a hands-on program that exposes students to a wide variety of activities and allows them to learn from real-world projects. All interns are paired with a mentor and are invited to attend weekly lunch and learns to receive insights about our culture and working environment.

We value employee development at all career stages and performance levels. We have made significant investments to provide ongoing training and career development opportunities by offering courses through our online learning management system. We offer job-specific skills training to promote and develop advancement within the organization and to enhance skills. In fiscal 2024 we launched Comtech University through a learning management system that is available year-round for development courses facilitated by a training coordinator. We are developing additional courses focusing on financial, leadership, and lean management skills. We also developed a “Program Management Office” academy for program management employees which includes courses and training to become a certified project manager and introduce company-wide best practices and procedures.

We are working to build stronger employee engagement through several new initiatives. We believe that strong communication is key to providing the foundation for an engaged workforce. Company news, employee opportunities, company initiatives, and events are communicated through our internal and external blogs and our redesigned company-wide intranet. Since launching our new MyComtech intranet site, we have identified new ways to recognize our employees. We commenced our Meet the Team series profiling one employee each month in a monthly article released on our intranet. Through the series, employees are able to learn about a fellow team member including their current position, career path, background, and interests outside of work. Mentorship and collegiality are strongly valued at Comtech. We value exceptional employees who make a difference to the communities where we operate. In addition to spotlighting employee achievements through our communication channels, we have introduced other initiatives such as awards to motivate and recognize employees who go the extra mile.

At July 31, 2024, we had 1,676 employees (including temporary employees and contractors), 1,048 of whom were engaged in production and production support, 337 in research and development and other engineering support and 291 in marketing and administrative functions. None of our U.S. based employees are represented by a labor union. Of our 1,676 employees, 345 employees are based outside of the United States, including 142 employees in Canada, 88 employees in the United Kingdom, and 87 employees in India. We believe that our employee relations are good. Subsequent to our fiscal year end, headcount based in the United Kingdom was significantly reduced as a result of our fourth quarter of fiscal 2024 decision to cease operations at such location.

Safety and Wellness

We strive to maintain a robust health, safety and wellness program to ensure a healthy work environment, promote workforce resiliency, and enhance business value. We encourage employee participation to identify opportunities for improvement and review and monitor our performance with safety committees at our local sites. Local safety committees identify safety programs and ensure completion of all training and target learning objectives.

Employee wellness is important to Comtech. All employees and their households have access to an employee assistance program, as well as a health advocate program to help with all aspects of benefits, family life, financial concerns, legal issues and transition to retirement. Assistance is available 365 days per year, 24 hours per day. This year employees had an opportunity to participate in wellness events as a company-wide challenge.

We rigorously review our benefit and compensation plans to maintain competitive packages that reflect the wellness needs of our workforce and the marketplace. These programs include 401(k) plans, comprehensive health packages, and welfare benefits, among many others. We support pay equity for all employees within the same geographic area, experience level, and performance standards. This year we added several new benefits including a legal plan and discounted pet insurance.

Environment

We are committed to reducing our environmental impact across our value chain, including in the design of our products, operation of our facilities, and procurement of materials. We are also committed to maintaining compliance with the various global environmental regulations that are applicable to our business segments, including with the respect to the waste and emissions generated at our facilities. Our Board of Directors is responsible for the oversight of our environmental efforts, and the management of climate-related issues is overseen by our Chief Legal Officer.

In September 2023, we completed our first climate change disclosure through CDP, which includes a baseline greenhouse gas inventory for company-wide Scope 1 and 2 emissions. In fiscal 2024, we completed our second Greenhouse Gas ("GHG") inventory. Having established a foundation, we are working to build on our environmental strategy and initiatives.

We seek to increase efficient usage of building space, respond to increased work-from-home and reduced requirements for office space, and encourage reduced employee commuting. We offer our employees incentives to promote greener commuting options through rideshare programs.

We are committed to providing a workplace which values the health, safety, and well-being of our employees, contractors, and visitors to our facilities, complying with Environment, Health and Safety ("EHS") legal requirements, and minimizing EHS risk. In fiscal 2024, we developed a comprehensive EHS Management System ("EHSMS"), designed to align with the core elements of international standards for environmental and occupational health and safety management systems, while placing a risk-based focus on the elements most relevant to our operations. The EHSMS has the goals of engaging employees at all levels of the organization in the prevention of work-related injuries and illnesses, reducing environmental impacts, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

U.S. Government Contracts and Security Clearances

The U.S. government operates on an October-to-September fiscal year. Generally, in February of each year, the President of the United States presents to the U.S. Congress ("Congress") the proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year and from February through September of each year, the appropriations and authorization committees of Congress review the President’s budget proposals and establish the funding levels for the upcoming fiscal year. Once these levels are enacted into law, the Executive Office of the President administers the funds to the agencies. Thereafter, we can receive orders pursuant to sole-source or competitively awarded contracts, which we describe below.

The U.S. government may be unable to complete its budget process before the end of any given government fiscal year and when the fiscal budget is not approved in a timely manner, the U.S. government is required either to shut down or be funded pursuant to a "continuing resolution" that authorizes agencies of the U.S. government to continue operations but does not authorize new spending initiatives, either of which could result in reduced or delayed orders or payments for products and services we provide.

Sole-source contracts are generally awarded to a single contractor without a formal competition when a single contractor is deemed to have an expertise or technology superior to that of competing contractors or when there is an urgent need by the U.S. government that cannot wait for a full competitive process. Potential suppliers compete informally through research and development and marketing efforts. Competitively-bid contracts are awarded based on a formal proposal evaluation established by the procuring agency and interested contractors prepare bids. Competitively-bid contracts are awarded after a formal bid and proposal competition among suppliers.

The U.S. government has a stated policy direction to reduce the number of sole-source contract awards across all procuring agencies. In addition, the U.S. government is increasing the use of multiple-award IDIQ contracts to increase its procurement options. IDIQ contracts allow the U.S. government to select a group of eligible contractors for the same program. When the government awards IDIQ contracts to multiple bidders under the same program, a company that has already competed to be selected as a participant in the program must subsequently compete for individual delivery orders. As a result of this U.S. government shift toward multiple award IDIQ contracts, we expect to face greater competition for future U.S. government contracts and, at the same time, greater opportunities for us to participate in program areas that we do not currently participate in.

As a U.S. government contractor and subcontractor, we are subject to a variety of rules and regulations, such as the Federal Acquisition Regulations ("FAR"). Individual agencies can also have acquisition regulations. For example, the DoD implements the FAR through the U.S. Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (commonly known as "DFARS"). For all Federal government entities, the FAR regulates the phases of any product or service acquisition, including: acquisition planning, competition requirements, contractor qualifications, protection of source selection and vendor information, and acquisition procedures. In addition, the FAR addresses the allowability of supplier costs, while Cost Accounting Standards address how those costs can be allocated to contracts. The FAR also subjects suppliers to audits and other government reviews. These reviews cover issues such as cost, performance and accounting practices relating to our contracts. The government may challenge a supplier's costs and fees or require corrective actions which can delay programs and increase our costs. Suppliers are also required to comply with the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual which relates to the handling of classified materials and programs and is administered by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (“DCSA”). Suppliers who do not comply with these various regulations may lose and/or become ineligible for facility security clearances and/or participation in classified and non-classified programs.

Under firm fixed-price contracts, we perform for an agreed-upon price and we can derive benefits from cost savings, but bear the risk of cost overruns. Our cost-reimbursable type contracts typically provide for reimbursement of allowable costs incurred plus a negotiated fee. Cost-plus-incentive-fee orders typically provide for sharing with the U.S. government savings accrued from orders performed for less than the target costs and costs incurred in excess of targets up to a negotiated ceiling price (which is higher than the target cost), and for the supplier to carry the entire burden of costs exceeding the negotiated ceiling price.

In fiscal 2024, $182.3 million or 33.7% of our consolidated net sales were to the U.S. government (including sales to prime contractors to the U.S. government). Of this amount, firm fixed-price and cost-reimbursable type contracts (including fixed-fee, incentive-fee and time and material type contracts) accounted for $135.5 million and $46.8 million, respectively.