CoreCivic Inc

In order to fulfill our mission of providing high quality, compassionate treatment to all those in our care, we strive to attract, develop, and retain a workforce of individuals who are driven by a deep sense of service, high standards of professionalism, and a responsibility to help government partners better the public good. The following information outlines the human capital strategies and initiatives designed to address the twin challenges of turnover and retention.

Leadership, Learning and Continuous Improvement

We facilitate annual performance and career development discussions with all employees. These discussions consist of a continuous cycle of goal alignment, individual development planning, and performance and talent reviews. In 2024, 99% of all eligible employees completed annual performance reviews. We continue to use a leading cloud-based talent system to align performance, talent management, career development activities, and training.

In addition, every year we facilitate talent review discussions to help assess potential and identify developmental opportunities within our leadership pipeline. Through these discussions, we continue to see opportunities for advancement for our existing workforce. Our 2024 talent reviews included all leaders in our facilities, from facility department heads through wardens, plus headquarters-based managers and above. Of the 1,323 leaders assessed, 18% were identified for accelerated development, with 8% classified as "ready now" for advanced leadership responsibilities. Specific development activities were identified for these leaders to support their growth and prepare them for more complex roles and assignments.

In 2024, we continued our focus on our leadership candidate pipeline and leader development needs. The CoreCivic Leadership Experiences and Rotations program, or CLEAR, continues to yield positive results as a development mechanism for top talent. CLEAR is a two-year rotational development program designed to provide individuals identified during our talent management discussions with accelerated development opportunities through multiple, short-term experiences. The breadth of roles can vary across different career paths and are intended to develop the rising leader's readiness for targeted roles with higher levels of responsibility and complexity following successful completion of the program. In 2024, our second cohort of CLEAR participants completed the first year of their two-year rotation. Upon successful completion of year two, these CLEAR participants will be eligible to be placed in facility leadership roles. In 2024, we also commenced our third and largest CLEAR cohort to date.

We recognize the importance of investing in our people. Our management approach to training and development is overseen by our Managing Director, Enterprise Learning and Development, and is implemented by leaders at our headquarters as well as a network of learning and development managers across our facilities. Our training activity and records are managed according to our learning and development policy, and our BOD receives periodic updates on the delivery of strategic training programs.

All CoreCivic employees are eligible to participate in various leadership and operational trainings. For example, through CoreCivic University, our employees can refine their current skills as well as learn new, valuable skills. To date, we have graduated 5,341 employees from CoreCivic University programs. In recognition of the role frontline leaders play in leading and managing our frontline employees and the impact they have on retention, in 2024 we formally expanded CoreCivic University to include a dedicated frontline leader program focused on operational leadership and management. In 2024, 397 operations frontline leaders graduated from the program. For new and existing employees alike, we provide training that meets or exceeds ACA and government partner standards, including an average of 200 hours of pre-service and on-the-job training for new employees. We also require a minimum of 40 hours of annual in-service and specialty training for employees in our Safety and Community segments.

In collaboration with operational leaders, in 2024 we introduced a continuous improvement team with the objective of enhancing processes in our operations. This team is comprised of cross-functional members from quality assurance, human resources, and operations. During the pilot phase, the continuous improvement team addressed certain operational constraints and reduced risks in certain key areas of operations. The continuous improvement team's efforts have led to operational improvements, contributing to its formalization into a permanent team.

People and Organizational Culture

People are at the center of what we do. We believe having a strategy to further the development of our people and organizational culture improves the quality of our operations and increases employee engagement and satisfaction. We believe a culture of dignity, respect and belonging is necessary for our mission. We celebrate the diversity of work and life experiences our employees bring to CoreCivic and recognize that fostering an empowered, team-oriented culture is integral to our performance as an organization and our ability to serve our government partners.

Our Vice President of Human Resources leads our People and Culture strategy. A multi-disciplinary People & Culture Council, or PCC, and our Business Resource Groups, or BRGs, together with support from executive sponsors, informs the further development of our People and Culture strategy. Our company policies are designed to promote a culture of belonging and respect and prohibit harassment. In accordance with federal contract requirements, we maintain affirmative action plans designed to provide equality of opportunity for all common diversity demographics, including but not limited to, qualified minorities, women, persons with disabilities, and covered veterans.

We have an established CoreCivic Culture Vision Statement and Guiding Principles, and we maintain a yearly roadmap of strategic focus areas for culture initiatives recommended by the PCC and each of our BRGs. Our three BRGs, are (1) Military, (2) Multicultural, and (3) Women's. These BRGs are key contributors to activities supporting our People and Culture strategy.

In collaboration with executives and senior leaders, we continued our focus on monitoring the outcomes of our people and culture actions. As a result of our 2023 culture survey, all facility and the Facility Support Center, or FSC, leaders developed and executed action plans in 2024. These plans included activities that specifically addressed areas of opportunity identified in the survey for that facility or department. As of the end of December 2024, 100% of facilities and departments have implemented their plans.

Additionally, we continued to refine governance of our People and Culture strategy with accountability to enterprise executives and the BOD. We also extended our involvement and sponsorship of community organizations that are aligned with our BRGs, including Advancement of Women in Nashville, or AWIN, The Table, and Middle Tennessee State University's Charlie and Hazel Daniels Veterans and Military Family Center, to name a few.

We know that bringing out the best in our people is the greatest way to recruit, retain, and develop our employees. We continually work to foster a welcoming culture where everyone is treated with dignity and respect, contributions are valued, and people are equipped for success.

Hiring and Sustaining our Workforce

We are the largest employer in many of the areas in which our facilities are located. As such, we are committed to supporting and growing the local communities through our hiring and outreach efforts. Our long-term tenure in many of the communities we serve has provided stable careers and career growth opportunities to workforces in these areas. We provide equal opportunity employment to all candidates and follow the United States Department of Labor Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs equal employment opportunity guidelines for hiring.

In 2024, we invested approximately $7.2 million in talent attraction efforts to reach prospective candidates, and we received over 94,000 job applications. For the past fourteen consecutive years, CoreCivic has been recognized as a GI Jobs Military Friendly employer. CoreCivic has been notified that we will once again receive awards for Military Friendly Employer, Military Friendly Spouse, Military Friendly Brand, and Military Friendly Supplier Diversity Program in 2025.

Compensation and Benefits

We utilize descriptive and prescriptive Human Capital analytics to align pay with our compensation strategy. We leverage these analytics to act on changing labor market conditions to assist us with our efforts to maintain market competitive wages. In addition, we evaluate internal pay equity though the use of job evaluation and market analyses that we then adjust for tenure, experience, location, performance, and other variables that can affect wages. We have experienced labor shortages and wage pressures in many markets in which we operate. During the third quarter of 2024, we provided wage increases to nearly all of our facility staff not covered by the McNamara-O'Hara Service Contract Act, which is applicable to our facilities with federal contracts, in order to remain competitive. Additionally, throughout the year we made out-of-cycle wage adjustments to maintain market competitiveness. We expect to continue to invest in staffing resources during 2025, which may result in additional compensation and incremental expenses.

We offer multiple medical and wellness benefit plans, dental, vision, and disability income insurance, flexible spending accounts, and life and accidental death and dismemberment insurance. In addition, we provide our employees with paid time off and paid holidays. We also provide retirement benefits to our employees through a 401(k) retirement plan. To be eligible for most benefit plans, employees must be in a full-time position; certain exceptions apply, such as eligibility for the 401(k) retirement plan if the 401(k) retirement plan's service and hour requirements are met or at locations where the McNamara-O'Hara Service Contract Act applies.

Labor Relations

As of December 31, 2024, we employed 11,649 full- and part-time employees, including employees with our transportation and electronic monitoring subsidiaries, TransCor and Recovery Monitoring Solutions Corporation, respectively. Approximately 2,115 of our employees at 13 of our facilities, or approximately 18.2% of our workforce, are represented by labor unions. All of our collective bargaining agreements contain no-strike clauses that bind the unions and the bargaining unit employees. Work stoppages at any of our facilities are exceedingly rare. In the opinion of management, overall employee relations are good. New executive orders, administrative rules and changes in National Labor Relations could increase organizing activity at locations where employees are currently not represented by a labor organization. Increases in organizational activity or any future work stoppages could have an adverse impact on our business, financial condition, or results of operations.

Employee Safety

We are committed to bettering the public good by making our facilities and communities safe for our team members, those under our care, and the public. In 2024, our "Team Safety" program continued initiatives to provide a safe environment and safe working conditions as reflected in our policies and procedures.