MAXIMUS INC

General

Maximus, under its mission of Moving People Forward, helps millions of people access the vital government services they need. With nearly 50 years of experience working with local, state, federal, and international government clients, we proudly design, develop, and deliver innovative and impactful programs that change lives. We are driven to strengthen communities and improve the lives of those we serve.

We create value for our customers through our ability to translate health and human services public policy into operating models that achieve outcomes for governments at scale. Our work covers a broad array of services, including the operation of large health insurance eligibility and enrollment programs; clinical services, including assessments, appeals, and independent medical reviews; and technology services. These services benefit from a market with increasing demographic demand, constrained government budgets, and an increased focus on technology as governments prioritize modernization. We also demonstrate the ability to move quickly, ranging from digitally enabled contact center support services for natural disaster response to swift establishments of public health and safety initiatives, examples of which occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our organic growth through increased contract scope and entry into new markets has been supplemented by strategic acquisitions. In recent years, three acquisitions enhanced our qualifications for servicing the U.S. Federal Government in areas of clinical assessments, leading technology consulting solutions, and digitally-enabled contact center services.

We are progressing through our strategic plan introduced in fiscal year 2022. We believe in further expansion of our business and remain in a strong position to capitalize on organic growth opportunities in our core business. Our strategic plan consists of three central pillars:

•Customer Services, Digitally Enabled. Elevate the customer experience to achieve higher levels of satisfaction, performance, and outcomes through intelligent automation and cognitive computing. The launch of Maximus Total Experience Management (TXM) is evidence of this focus and commitment. TXM is an integrated solution designed to help federal agencies deliver trusted information and government services simply, consistently, and securely. This new differentiated solution seamlessly integrates people, experience, data insights, and secure technologies into one digitally powered platform to reimagine government service delivery.

•Future of Health. Help governments reach the rising demand for health services by growing our clinical capabilities and increasing the level of sophistication of underlying tools to improve the health of people and their communities.

•Advanced Technologies for Modernization. Further our credibility as a technology leader, enabling the transformation of government programs and legacy system environments to be resilient, dynamic, integrated, and equitable.

Our strategic plan is aligned with specific opportunities within all three segments and include a common focus on optimizing processes and simplifying our structure under our Maximus Forward corporate initiative. We also continue to focus on our people - the foundation of our strategy. As an employer of choice, our goal is to continue to prioritize attracting, retaining, developing, and empowering employees as a central part of our plan for achieving future growth.

Our Business Segments

We operate our business through three segments: U.S. Federal Services, U.S. Services, and Outside the U.S. We operate in the United States and worldwide.

For the year ended September 30, 2024, approximately 50% of our revenue was derived from U.S. federal government agencies, 36% from U.S. state government agencies, 12% from foreign government agencies, and the balance from other sources, including local municipalities and commercial customers.

For more information on our segment presentation and geographic distribution of our business, including comparative revenue, gross profit, operating income, identifiable assets, and related financial information for the 2024, 2023, and 2022 fiscal years, see "Note 3. Business Segments" within Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

U.S. Federal Services Segment

Our U.S. Federal Services Segment generated 52% of our total revenue in fiscal year 2024.

Our U.S. Federal Services Segment delivers solutions that help various U.S. federal government agencies better deliver on their mission, including program operations and management, clinical services, and technology solutions. The segment also includes system and application development, Information Technology (IT) modernization, and maintenance services. Clinical services comprises appeals and assessments services, which includes managing the evaluation process for U.S. veterans and service members on behalf of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and certain state-based assessments and appeals work that is part of the segment's heritage. Under Technology Consulting Services (TCS), the segment executes on its digital strategy to deliver technology solutions that advance agency missions, including the challenge to modernize, provide better customer experience, and drive process efficiencies.

Program Operations. Program operations include business process services (BPS), eligibility and enrollment, outreach, and other services for federal health and human services programs. In fiscal year 2022, our contract with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service (CMS) to support the Contact Center Operations was renewed. This contract supports the federal marketplace under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and serves as the primary support engagement center for Medicare, also known as 1-800-MEDICARE. The contract serves the U.S. population through multiple customer contact centers handling general inquiries for the marketplace and general and claims-based Medicare inquiries.

Under the name Aidvantage, we are an independent and conflict-free customer service provider assisting borrowers with Department of Education-originated loans. We view student loan servicing as an opportunity to apply our insights, expertise, and quality-driven approach through support for Federal Student Aid (FSA) and student borrowers.

The manner in which we provide these services varies from contract to contract but may include a mix of digitally enabled contact centers, mail-room operations, and mobile and website media.

Clinical Services. In line with our strategic focus for the future, this division continues to expand its clinical programs, most notably through the VA medical disability examinations (MDE) contracts. As a leading provider of MDEs, we administer the clinical evaluation process for U.S. veterans and service members on behalf of the VA and manage a vast network of experienced clinicians focused on serving veterans. This highly-scaled platform in the U.S. federal government domain is an in-demand capability across a multitude of agencies.

Near-term growth has been realized as a result of the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022 (PACT) Act, which was passed by the U.S. Congress in August 2022. The PACT Act expanded certain conditions under which veterans qualify for benefits and resulted in increases in MDE volumes. We are operating at higher volumes amidst strong demand and expect this to continue for the foreseeable future.

The independent health and disability assessments and appeals portion of our business is a growing part of our overall portfolio, lending further credibility to our organic growth efforts with other Federal departments and in non-Federal markets.

Technology Solutions. Under this division, we execute on digital strategy to deliver technology solutions that advance agency missions, including the challenge to modernize, provide better customer experience, and drive process efficiencies. Our core capabilities include:

•Application development & modernization: Modernize, develop, and deliver solutions utilizing automation and agile development, security, and operations (DevSecOps) practices.

•Enterprise Business Solutions: Integrate and manage disparate business processes and systems.

•Advanced Analytics & Emerging Technologies: Provide technology services to leverage and integrate the latest technologies for AI/ML, automation, and high-performance computing.

•Cybersecurity: Deliver full spectrum cybersecurity services, including cyber engineering and operations, digital forensics, and incident response.

•Infrastructure and Engineering: Deploy solutions that leverage cloud-hosted and on-premise designs to optimize costs.

We also build digital qualifications in the market. We utilize AI and machine learning to build bespoke data models, providing predictive analytics to maximize process efficiency, as well as identify systemic process issues that can be isolated and prioritized for troubleshooting. End-to-end automation of software development and business processes achieves speed, efficiency, and error reduction, as well as advanced tool capabilities, resulting in greater operational efficiency, enhanced customer experiences, and increased return on investment. Finally, high-performance computing clusters support mission requirements for data mining, scientific modeling, advanced analytics, research, and machine learning.

The majority of this segment contains performance-based contracts where revenue is earned from transaction-based measures, such as the number and type of assessments or appeals processed, or participant numbers. A group of other contracts in this segment earn their revenue on a cost-plus or time-and-materials basis, which typically carry lower levels of risk and lower levels of profit margin as compared to performance-based contracts.

This segment may experience seasonality with increased revenue in the first quarter of the fiscal year from cost-plus work tied to CMS's annual open enrollment period. Other fluctuations may result from volume variations or program maturity, with contracts recording lower revenue and profitability during program startup.

Contracts with government clients often contain "termination without cause" provisions. Such contractual language generally allows the government to terminate a contract at any time and enables us to recover only our costs incurred or committed and settlement expenses and profit, if any, on the work completed prior to termination.

Our primary competitors in the U.S. Federal Services Segment are General Dynamics Information Technology, Deloitte, Leidos, IBM, Accenture, Booz Allen Hamilton, and other federal contractors.

U.S. Services Segment

Our U.S. Services Segment generated 36% of our total revenue in fiscal year 2024.

Our U.S. Services Segment provides a variety of services, such as program operations, clinical services, employment services and technology solutions and related consulting work for U.S. state and local government programs. These services support a variety of programs, including the programs under ACA, Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), and child support programs. In fiscal years 2020 through 2023, many programs in this segment were operating with depressed margins resulting from the pause in Medicaid redeterminations. The depressed margins resulted from reduced operating leverage in the segment as costs could not scale down at the same rate to meet lower demand due to the requirements to fulfill other obligations on these contracts. Fiscal year 2024 reflected a full period of volumes. The middle two quarters of the fiscal year experienced slightly elevated volumes from excess temporary work. This work was concluded by the last fiscal quarter with the segment’s margin appropriately aligned.

Program Operations. Program operations include our comprehensive program administration services for government health benefit programs. The services we provide vary from program to program but may include:

•Centralized multilingual customer contact centers and multichannel, digital self-service options to better serve citizens' needs;

•Application assistance and independent health plan choice counseling to beneficiaries to help them access benefits and make informed choices;

•Beneficiary outreach, education, eligibility assistance, enrollment, and redeterminations services. In programs such as Medicaid, Maximus does not make the final determination of eligibility; and

•Administration of programs that provide subsidized telephone services for eligible consumers.

As a leading supplier in many of the health program administration markets that we serve, we are the largest provider of Medicaid eligibility support and enrollment services and state-based health insurance exchange operations.

Clinical Services. Clinical services include our person-centered assessment services, primarily to determine consumers' eligibility for Medicaid Long-Term Care services. Clinical services is a growing portion of the segment and demonstrates successful focus and execution of our continued strategy. Our services help governments engage with program recipients while at the same time helping improve the efficiency, cost-effectiveness, quality, and accountability of state health and disability benefits programs. These include person-centered independent assessments of the elderly; physically, intellectually, or developmentally disabled consumers, including adults and children in need of long term services and support; and Preadmission Screening and Resident Reviews, which fulfill a federal requirement to help ensure that individuals are not inappropriately placed in nursing homes for long term care. We are a leading provider of such services in the U.S.

In 2023, a large assessment program for a major state customer went live and contributed a full period of operations in fiscal year 2024.

Employment Services. Employment services cover a number of attributes, including eligibility support, case management, job-readiness preparation, job search and employer outreach, job retention and career advancement, and selected educational and training services, including vocational training. Children services include full and specialized child support case management services through customer contact center operations and program and systems consulting services.

Technology Solutions. Technology solutions offer state and local governments assistance with system planning, implementation oversight, and the construction and maintenance of client systems to allow processing of transactions. We also provide system implementation project management and independent verification and validation services to state and local clients. Our Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) services provide comprehensive objective testing to confirm that requirements in client systems are correct, and validate that the system correctly implements the functionality and security requirements. Consistent with our overall corporate strategy, technology solutions in our U.S. Services Segment is an area of focus for growth.

The rest of the segment's revenue is from specialized consulting services. These services include financial consulting, including cost allocation plans, business process assessment and design, quality assurance processes, including policy and procedure reviews, and audit preparation and compliance, including grant and proposal reviews. The segment also assists commercial customers in claiming workforce and location-based tax benefits.

Payment for our services varies from contract to contract based upon factors such as the priorities of the customer and their willingness to share risks and rewards. The majority of contracts include a level of performance-based compensation, a fixed fee, or a mixture of both, with fees being based upon call volumes, the size of the population served, or transactions such as clinical assessments completed. Some contracts are performed on a cost-plus basis, where we receive revenue based on the hours and costs incurred and typically operate at lower margins. Our employment services contracts typically have outcome-based payments to ensure that we help job seekers find long-term, sustained employment and achieve economic independence.

The segment may experience seasonality due to transaction-based work, such as program open enrollment periods. Other fluctuations may arise from changes in programs directed by our clients and activity related to contract life cycles.

Contracts with government clients often contain "termination without cause" provisions. Such contractual language generally allows the government to terminate a contract at any time and enables us to recover only our costs incurred or committed and settlement expenses and profit, if any, on the work completed prior to termination.

A small number of large states comprise a significant share of this segment's revenue. In addition, even though the majority of our direct clients are state governments, a significant amount of our revenue is ultimately funded via the U.S. federal government in the form of cost-sharing arrangements with the states, as is the case with Medicaid.

Our primary competitors are government insourced operations. External competitors include Conduent, Automated Health Systems, TTEC, Acentra Health, GetInsured, Veritas, Public Consulting Group, and Deloitte. Some of these companies compete with the segment in a single market, while others compete in multiple markets. We also compete against specialized private companies, often within a regional or state focused market area, and nonprofit organizations that vary based on the nature of the work.

Outside the U.S. Segment

Our Outside the U.S. Segment generated 12% of our total revenue in fiscal year 2024.

Our Outside the U.S. Segment provides BPS and technology solutions for international governments. These services include health and disability assessments, program administration for employment services, wellbeing solutions and other job seeker-related services, digitally-enabled customer services, and advanced technologies for modernization. We support programs and deliver services in the United Kingdom, including the newly awarded Functional Assessment Services (FAS) contract, which replaced the Health Assessment Advisory Service (HAAS) contract, and the Restart employment program; and Australia, including Workforce Australia, and other employment support and job seeker services in a number of other countries.

We are currently reshaping this segment in a thoughtful manner to align with the broader Maximus strategy. The segment has not met profitability expectations in recent periods due, in part, to increased volatility from employment services programs that are dependent on fluctuating macroeconomic conditions. As a result, we divested a small commercial practice in the U.K. and our business in Sweden during fiscal year 2023. We also divested our businesses in Italy and Singapore, as well as our Canadian employment services business during the first quarter of fiscal year 2024.

Employment Services. Comprehensive employment services help vulnerable individuals transition from government assistance programs to sustainable employment and economic independence. These services cover a number of attributes, including eligibility determination, case management, job-readiness preparation and work capability assessments, job search and employer outreach, job retention and career advancement, and selected educational and training services. Payment terms are typically focused on achieving employment outcomes.

Clinical Services. Clinical services includes appeals and assessments work. On these contracts, we are typically reimbursed for each transaction. The FAS contract supersedes our flagship HAAS contract and is a hybrid contract with cost-plus elements coupled with a number of incentives and penalties to achieve the programmatic outcomes defined by the government in order to ensure quality and timeliness of service. Maximus carries out these assessments on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), and the DWP makes the final decision on the level of benefit.

The balance of the segment provides program administration and some specialized services.

Seasonality is not significant to this segment. Contracts with government clients often contain "termination without cause" provisions. Such contractual language generally allows the government to terminate a contract at any time and enables us to recover only our costs incurred or committed and settlement expenses and profit, if any, on the work completed prior to termination.

Our primary competitors in this segment include Atos, Capita, Serco, Staffline, Shaw Trust, Reed in Partnership, Ingeus, Advanced Personnel Management, IBM, Telus-Health, NTT Data, Pacific Blue Cross, Sawaeed, Elm, and other specialized private companies and nonprofit organizations. Although the basis for competition varies from contract to contract, we believe that typical contracts are awarded based on a mix of comprehensive solutions and prices. In some cases, clients award points for past performance tied to program outcomes.

Economic and Market Environments

In all the markets and locations in which we operate, we are seeing consistent themes that drive our long-term strategy.

Investment in Technology Modernization. Many federal agencies must address the maintenance of legacy IT systems, and the pressing need for IT infrastructure modernization continues to grow. Legacy processes and systems are fundamental to government operations, yet they are expensive to operate in an environment that requires online agility and rapid response to new demands, requirements, and global challenges. We are delivering and supporting the priorities set by our federal customers: cybersecurity, IT modernization, and customer service and customer experience. By aligning our priorities with the U.S. federal government, we believe that we are well-positioned to meet agency change and to provide enterprise-wide solutions and strategies.

Complex Programs at Scale. We believe that efficient management of the complex planning required to administer large-scale government programs, as well as improving the quality and access to these programs, is an overarching priority for our customers. A propensity for government to manage and look after beneficiaries in well-defined programs drive increased transaction volumes and caseloads.

Contractors Provide Capacity. Contractors provide capacity to government customers in delivering vital services as their needs outpace their ability to hire or maintain their own staff. We anticipate ongoing use of this operating model as customers desire to maintain variability with operations and budgets, while also benefiting from enhanced technology and processes. We believe that the funding and government mechanics allow ongoing flexibility in this area.

Competitive Advantages

Some of the competitive advantages that allow us to capitalize on various market opportunities are as follows:

Subject matter, clinical, and digital expertise. Our workforce includes many individuals who possess substantial subject matter expertise in areas critical to the successful design, implementation, administration, and operation of government health and human services programs. We also employ a diverse set of experts, including a wide network of clinicians and an experienced team of digital technologists, including experts in AI/ML, cybersecurity, digital modernization, IT service management, and software development. Many of our employees worked for governments in management positions and can offer insights into how we can best provide valuable, practical, and effective services to our clients.

Digital engagement, analytics, and automation solutions to enhance government programs. Participants in government programs expect the same types of digital engagement they rely upon when interacting with consumer-oriented businesses. We believe our clients value our ability to infuse digital, such as mobile applications, omnichannel solutions, and digital media, into our solutions to make it easier for beneficiaries to engage with government programs. Analytics enable us to optimize our operations and provide our clients with improved outcomes through greater insight into the populations we serve. Process automation incorporated into our solutions increases the efficiency and quality of the programs we operate.

Providing digital modernization and fully managed services to enhance outcomes for government programs. We develop, deploy, and in many cases fully manage complex technology solutions at scale for customers across our segments, including the ability to meet complex and evolving federal security standards like FedRamp. This includes secure cloud-based and hybrid offerings, network operations, end user device management, service desk operations, AI/ML integration, and application development and modernization. We deliver these capabilities via business models that make it easier for customers to evaluate and procure, which leads to speed of innovation and value-added outcomes for end users.

AI/ML, data and analytics solutions at worldwide scale. We develop and deliver differentiated AI/ML solutions such as intelligent automation, intelligent voice/chat communications, and intelligent solutions delivery across all segments. Our AI/ML solutions are proven and in use today within large and small scale programs, using secure AI to improve customer outcomes, improve citizen services, and making business processes more efficient. All of this helps drive customer experience (CX) and digitization to drive parity between government and commercial solutions.

Enterprise partnerships with disruptive small companies to hyperscale technology providers. We have established significant partnerships to help ensure we are leveraging commercial technologies and solutions to enhance services across government customers and programs. Our scale enables us to create competitive advantages through better enterprise pricing, early access to new technologies, influence on product roadmaps, joint development and innovation activities - elements we exploit to bring new capabilities and efficiencies to government customers while keeping our employee population trained on the latest technologies.

Flexibility and scalability. We are experienced in launching large-scale complex operations under compressed time frames. We offer clients the flexibility and scalability to deliver the people, processes, and technology to complete short- and long-term contractual assignments in an efficient and cost-effective manner, including the ability to modernize customer solutions, infrastructure, and equipment to maintain operational resilience.

Financial strength. Our business provides us with robust cash flows from operations as a result of our profitability and our management of customer receivables. In the event that we have significant cash outlays at the commencement of projects or where delays in payments result in short-term working capital needs, we may borrow up to $750 million through a credit agreement with JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. (the "Credit Agreement"), subject to standard covenants. We have the ability to borrow under the Credit Agreement in all of the principal currencies in which we operate. We believe we have strong, constructive relationships with the lenders on the Credit Agreement. We believe our financial strength provides reassurance to government agencies that we will be able to establish and maintain the services they need to operate high-profile public health and human services programs.

Focused portfolio of services. We are one of the largest publicly traded companies that provide a portfolio of BPS almost exclusively to government customers. Our government program expertise and proven ability to deliver defined, measurable outcomes differentiate us from other firms and nonprofit organizations, including large consulting firms that serve multiple industries and lack the focus necessary to manage the complexities of serving government efficiently.

Expertise in competitive bidding. Government agencies typically award contracts through a comprehensive, complex, and competitive request for proposals (RFP) and bidding process. Although the bidding criteria varies from contract to contract, typical contracts are awarded based on a mix of technical solution and price. In some cases, governments award points for past performance tied to program outcomes. With nearly 50 years of experience in responding to RFPs, we believe we have the necessary experience to navigate government procurement processes and to assess and allocate the appropriate resources necessary for successful project completion in accordance with contractual terms.

Barriers to entry. The market for providing our services to government agencies is competitive and subject to rapid change. However, given the specialized nature of our services, market entry can be difficult for new or inexperienced firms. The complex nature of competitive bidding, qualifying criteria related to past performance, the required investment in subject-matter expertise, repeatable processes and support infrastructure, and the need to achieve specific program outcomes create barriers to entry for potential new competitors unfamiliar with the nature of government procurement. In some areas of our business, notably contracts with the U.S. federal government, there are requirements for bidders seeking contracts to be pre-approved on registered contract vehicles, further limiting the pool of competitors.

Human Resources

We move people forward. Our strength lies within our people – connectors, innovators, and problem solvers – united by a shared purpose and championing our customers’ mission to deliver results. Cultivating a culture that thrives on individual contributions and embracing inclusivity, we attract and retain a future-ready, diverse workforce through opportunities for career advancement and ensuring that each employee can unlock their true potential. How we work is as important as what we accomplish, and we are dedicated to helping our people explore, learn, and grow to deliver on our business strategy and commitments to shareholders and customers. We propel our entire organization toward a future where technology, innovation, and human connection intersect to drive lasting change. Our culture, values, and unwavering commitment to our people define who we are, and they guide us in making a meaningful impact on the lives of those we serve.

As of September 30, 2024, we had approximately 41,100 employees and 11,800 contingent workers, consisting of 15,400 employees in our U.S. Federal Services Segment, 15,600 employees in the U.S. Services Segment, 8,300 employees in the Outside the U.S. Services Segment, and 1,800 corporate administrative employees.

Talent Acquisition

Our success depends in large part on our ability to attract talent globally to meet the needs of our customers and comply with our contracts. This makes our hiring efforts significant and extensive, and as a result, our talent acquisition team focuses on finding top talent quickly. We believe our culture values individual skills, experiences, and differences that allow us to deliver robust and innovative approaches to solving some of our communities' most challenging needs. Our recruiting programs focus on identifying and evaluating talent through practices that welcome a diverse workforce, including veterans and people with disabilities, language barriers, and those from varying socioeconomic backgrounds.

We continue to invest in our employees through a variety of benefits and overall program enhancements. Our teams continue to adapt to the recruiting, hiring, and training needs of our customers in both remote and onsite settings to ensure continuity of vital services.

Talent Management and Talent Development

We are committed to Moving Our Talent Forward. Embarking on an organization-wide initiative of the same name, we are focused on planning and meeting our current and future strategic talent goals by empowering our most important success factor - our employees. This initiative was designed with two primary focus areas:

•Mobilizing our talent internally as the business needs, enabling us to move staff between projects, contracts, and functions, and;

•Helping employees level-up for future skill needs; our employees are our collective talent, regardless of project or business function, and we are dedicated to developing, upskilling, and retaining them to meet our future organizational talent needs.

As part of Moving Our Talent Forward, we have seen initial successes in both primary focus areas.

To support mobilizing our talent internally, we created a Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP) function to ensure we are taking an employee-centric approach to streamlining the redeployment of our workforce. The SWP function is dedicated to ensuring we have the right people with the right skills at the right time to meet the demands of our government clients to effectively serve and support the citizens in our own communities. This team partnered with the Company to implement the “Beach,” which is a virtual status that bridges the gap between assignments, provides income and benefit continuity, proactively assists our employees during times of change, provides our employees with stability, and enables employees to move more seamlessly to new projects. Since its implementation in October 2023, we have utilized demand signal and pipeline strategies to match talent ending a project with open positions. This supports the prevention of potential reductions in force (RIFs) by redeploying over 2,000 employees to projects within Maximus, creates value by avoiding severance, recruitment, and rehiring expenses, and creates an atmosphere of increased employee security by ensuring that once their project is finished, their careers can continue.

To support our employees' journey to level-up for future skills, we are committed to and value ongoing development and continuous learning, and strive to support and provide learning opportunities to all our employees. We support enterprise-wide professional development by offering a variety of instructor-led and self-paced learning programs for diverse audiences ranging from individual contributors to frontline supervisors and executive leadership. Our project training teams are positioned to manage customized programs supporting contract requirements, customer service, local leadership development, and employee engagement. We also provide many employees with online role-based and skill-based learning tools. Specifically, starting in 2023, to support our transition to a Skills-Based Organization, we invested in both internal cross-functional resources and into an innovative AI Total Talent Management System, Eightfold. Officially launched on October 1, 2024, Eightfold will enable us to address talent needs and gaps more effectively as it is designed as a career hub that gives Maximus more data and insight into the skillsets of our employees, recommends internal roles based on skillsets and career aspirations, and connects employees to skill development opportunities.

Total Rewards

In support of Moving Our Talent Forward, a Maximus-wide initiative focused on planning for our organization's current and future needs and equipping our talent to meet those needs, we offer and maintain market-competitive total rewards programs for our employees to attract and retain superior talent. In addition to competitive base wages, additional programs include incentive bonus opportunities, restricted stock units, performance stock units, global retirement programs including a company-matched 401(k) Plan in the U.S., healthcare and insurance benefits, health savings and flexible spending accounts, paid time off, family leave, family care resources, flexible work schedules, employee assistance programs, and supplemental programs to support our employees’ physical, mental, and financial well-being.

During fiscal year 2024, we made significant improvements to the employee value proposition in the U.S., introducing a tuition reimbursement program accessible to all employees who have been at Maximus for at least a year. Improvements in our benefits programs include covering all domestic partners, adding free telehealth services to our medical plan, increasing our short-term disability maximum weekly benefit, and adding an enhanced buy-up option for our vision plan. We also launched an employee recognition program, allowing managers and peers to recognize employees who demonstrate our values with public recognition and monetary awards. We also continue to make great strides in our efforts to close the gender and ethnicity pay gap, continuing an annual review to identify and close any new or persistent unsubstantiated differences in pay between our employees. We improved the hourly wage in fiscal year 2024 to at least $17.20 an hour for over 85% of our U.S. population and committed to our goal of being a "Real Living Wage" employer in the UK.

Employee Engagement

Our employees are essential, and their well-being is paramount. Engaged employees stay longer, provide a better consumer experience, and influence other employees. To better understand employee morale, satisfaction, and engagement, we administer an annual Global Employee Engagement survey. We utilize anonymous feedback to shape the employee experience and culture where our values of Respect, Compassion, Innovation, Accountability, Collaboration, and Customer Focus are lived out. Aggregated results are dispersed throughout the organization to ensure all levels of management understand employee sentiment. Maximus empowers employee leaders alongside an organizational action committee to review the responses and create action plans to improve our culture and performance. Our employee engagement score had increased to +33 as of our last pulse survey in fiscal year 2024.

Our employee engagement initiatives also involved innovation. A study of comparative use case analysis and employee survey of employee communications found generative artificial intelligence combined with human writers to be more engaging and effective, resulting in multiple industry awards. For example, our Social Media Advocacy program empowered employees to champion our brand with their own authentic points of view through their social networks. Our emphasis on innovation extended to our annual Global Leadership Conference, which aims to provide leaders with tools to advance the Company's strategy.

Other key events that contributed to our culture of engagement included Foundation Month, which is focused on our impacts on local non-profits, Customer Service Week, which celebrates all employees with virtual, interactive events, and the inaugural Values Icon Awards, which recognizes employees who demonstrate excellence in one of the company values.

Awards

We are proud to receive accolades and recognition by our industry peers and the media for making an impact that matters. Our awards include, but are not limited to: TIME’s World’s Best Companies, Washington Post Top Workplace, Handshake’s Early Talent Award, Top 100 Internship Programs by WayUp and Yello, VETS Indexes 5 Star Employer, Military.com Top Veteran Employer, Amazon Business Customer Awards for Sustainability and Supplier Diversity, Forbes Best Employers for Diversity, BusinessBecause: Top Employers for Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives, Disability Matters North America, Washington Business Journal’s Women on Public Company Boards, Fortune 1000, and TIME’s American’s Best Midsize Companies.

Running our Business Ethically and with Integrity

We have earned a reputation for service excellence and commitment to the highest ethical principles and values. To maintain this reputation, we strive to consistently demonstrate the highest standards of accountability, integrity, responsibility, and ethics in our daily activities, across the organization globally, and across all disciplines.

We strive to be champions for an inclusive and collaborative culture that is free from discrimination and harassment, where everyone is treated with respect and dignity. Our expectation is that Maximus and its employees always conduct business according to the highest standards of ethics and performance and in compliance with all applicable laws.

Violations of our ethics standards and policies are taken seriously. Any director, officer, or employee may anonymously report suspected violations of the Maximus Standards for Business Conduct and Ethics, Company policies, or applicable laws and regulations.

Maximus is committed to an environment where open, honest communications are the expectation, not the exception.

Employees understand our efforts to act with integrity, which is summarized in our Standards for Business Conduct and Ethics, which includes the confidential ethics hotline contact information and is available atmaximus.com.

Environment

The Board of Directors' Nominating and Governance Committee has oversight responsibility for Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) matters, which includes climate-related risks and opportunities.

Some of our customers are requesting that their providers adopt and disclose their climate policies and principles and are using these in procurement decisions. These requirements vary between customers and are constantly evolving, often with limited notice. Such policies and principles may be subjective, and the manner of scoring our performance against our competitors may vary between bids. The inclusion of these additional criteria, in addition to price and quality of service, may provide opportunities for us but may also count against us in competitive bids if our real or perceived performance against climate and environmental requirements is deemed unsatisfactory. As procurement trends evolve, we are engaged in efforts to mature our programs and processes to meet the demands.

In addition, our operations are subject to various local, state, federal, and international environmental laws and regulations. Given the nature of our business, we do not currently anticipate that the costs of complying with, or the liabilities associated with, environmental laws and regulations will materially affect us. However, we cannot ensure that we will not incur material costs or liabilities in the future.

Government Regulations

Our business is heavily regulated. In the U.S., we must adhere to local, state, and federal laws and regulations. Within the U.S. Federal Services Segment, we must also comply with the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR), which regulates the procurement, award, administration, and performance of U.S. government contracts. Outside the U.S., we must also comply with local laws and regulations as determined by geography, as well as U.S. government laws. Adherence includes human rights protections, environmental regulation, and contract specifications. Our government clients have strict policies, procedures, and requirements in the procurement process, as well as regulations governing contract pricing and reimbursable costs.

Community Involvement

We aim to give back to the communities where we live and work and believe that this commitment helps in our efforts to attract and retain employees. We offer employees the opportunity to give back through the Maximus Foundation. The Foundation focuses our grant giving to carefully selected partners who have the expertise and capability to enhance our communities and the quality of life of the people we serve. We provide financial support for nonprofit organizations and charities that share our commitment in helping disadvantaged populations and underserved communities.

Other Information

Maximus, Inc. is a Virginia corporation founded in 1975.

Our principal executive offices are located at 1600 Tysons Boulevard, McLean, Virginia, 22102. Our telephone number is 703-251-8500.

Our website address ismaximus.com. We make our website available for informational purposes only. It should not be relied upon for investment purposes, nor is it incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

We make our Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and the proxy statement for our annual shareholders' meeting, as well as any amendments to those reports, available free of charge through our website as soon as reasonably practical after we file that material with, or furnish it to, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Our SEC filings may be accessed through the Investor Relations page of our website atinvestor.maximus.com. These materials, as well as similar materials for other SEC registrants, may be obtained directly from the SEC through its website atsec.gov.

We also use our website as a channel of distribution for important company information. Important information, including press releases, earnings and analyst presentations and financial information regarding us, as well as corporate governance information, is routinely posted and accessible on the investor relations page on our website. Information on or that can be accessed through our website is not part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K or any other report or document we file with the SEC.