Item 1. Business
Item 1 - Business
General
As used herein, the terms “Company,” “Kimball Electronics,” “we,” “us,” or “our” refer to Kimball Electronics, Inc., the Registrant, and its subsidiaries. Reference to a year relates to a fiscal year, ended June 30 of the year indicated, rather than a calendar year unless the context indicates otherwise. Additionally, references to the first, second, third, and fourth quarters refer to those respective quarters of the fiscal year indicated.
Forward-Looking Statements
This document contains certain forward-looking statements. These are statements made by management, using their best business judgment based upon facts known at the time of the statements or reasonable estimates, about future results, plans, or future performance and business of the Company. Such statements involve risk and uncertainty, and their ultimate validity is affected by a number of factors, both specific and general. They should not be construed as a guarantee that such results or events will, in fact, occur or be realized as actual results may differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements. The statements may be identified by the use of words such as “believes,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “projects,” “estimates,” “forecasts,” “seeks,” “likely,” “future,” “may,” “might,” “should,” “would,” “could,” “will,” “potentially,” “can,” “goal,” “predict,” and similar expressions. It is not possible to foresee or identify all factors that could cause actual results to differ from expected or historical results. We make no commitment to update these factors or to revise any forward-looking statements for events or circumstances occurring after the statement is issued, except as required by law.
The risk factors discussed in Item 1A - Risk Factors of this report could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements. There may be other risks and uncertainties that we are unable to predict at this time or that we currently do not expect to have a material adverse effect on our business. Any such risks could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements.
At any time when we make forward-looking statements, we desire to take advantage of the “safe harbor” which is afforded such statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 where factors could cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking statements.
Overview
Kimball Electronics was founded in 1961 and incorporated in 1998. We deliver a package of value that begins with our core competency of producing durable electronics and extends to contract manufacturing services for non-electronic components, medical disposables, drug delivery solutions, precision molded plastics, and production automation, test, and inspection equipment. Our design and manufacturing expertise coupled with robust processes and procedures help us ensure that we deliver the highest levels of quality and reliability throughout the entire life cycle of our customers’ products. We deliver award-winning service across our global footprint with an operations platform driven by highly integrated procedures, standardization, and teamwork. Our Customer Relationship Management (“CRM”) model is key to providing our customers convenient access to our global footprint and all of our services throughout the entire product life cycle. Because they operate in industries that demand rigorous engineering controls and that commonly require long product life cycles, our customers value our track record of quality, financial stability, social responsibility, and commitment to long-term relationships.
For over 35 years, we have manufactured safety-critical electronic assemblies for automotive customers, developing invaluable expertise that extends beyond the automotive industry to benefit our customers in the medical and industrial sectors as well. By harnessing our experience and expertise in design and process validation, traceability, process and control change, as well as lean manufacturing, we have achieved substantial growth and diversification. This has enabled us to create innovative and valuable solutions for customers across our three verticals. We have harmonized our quality systems to meet and exceed industry certifications and regulatory requirements. This allows us to leverage key supply chain advantages and streamline our operations, enabling cost-effective manufacturing of both electronic and non-electronic products within a single production facility for customers from all three end market verticals.
Many of our customers are multinational companies operating across multiple global regions, and they maximize their supplier relationship by partnering with us for engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain support across multiple locations and regions. We commonly manufacture the same product for the same customer in multiple facilities. Coupled with our CRM model and our global systems, procedures, processes, and teamwork, our strategic approach to expanding our global footprint aligns with our customers’ preferences in our three end market verticals. This positions us strongly to support their global growth initiatives.
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Our customers benefit from consistent processes across all regions thanks to our global component sourcing, procurement, quoting, and customer pricing operations. Our central sourcing organization employs global procurement strategies that ensure consistent component availability and uniform pricing approach by leveraging the purchase volume of our entire organization. Our unified, global quoting model allows us to seamlessly respond to our customers’ production needs anywhere across our global footprint.
Our CRM model combines our facilities’ manufacturing experts with our business development team members located in-region with our global customers. Cross-functional teams from multiple facilities collaborate in quality, operational excellence, quoting, and design engineering global support. Clear roles and responsibilities, combined with diverse skill sets, establish a robust conduit critical for execution of our customers’ objectives and building strong customer relationships. Our robust customer scorecard process provides valuable feedback to all levels of our company, driving continuous improvement initiatives, strengthening our award-winning service, and fostering deep customer loyalty.
Our corporate headquarters is located at 1205 Kimball Boulevard, Jasper, Indiana. We manufacture products for our customers at facilities located in the United States, China, Mexico, Poland, Romania, Thailand, and Vietnam. We also have operations in India and Japan.
We offer our services globally on a contract basis, and we manufacture products to our customers’ specifications. Our services primarily include:
• Production and testing of printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs);
• Full box build manufacturing and assembly;
• Final Assembly of medical electronic products;
• Design services and support;
• Supply chain services and support;
• Rapid prototyping and new product introduction support;
• Product design and process validation and qualification;
• Industrialization and automation of manufacturing processes;
• Reliability testing (testing of products under a series of extreme environmental conditions);
• Aftermarket services;
• Production and assembly of medical devices, medical disposables including packaging, and other non-electronic products;
• Drug delivery devices and solutions with and without electronics;
• Class 7 and 8 clean room assembly, cold chain and product sterilization management;
• Design engineering and production of precision molded plastics;
• Design engineering and manufacturing of automation, test, and inspection equipment;
• Software design; and
• Complete product life cycle management.
We take pride in our attentive approach to understanding and adapting to our customers’ ever-changing needs and preferences. We continuously seek opportunities to grow and diversify our business and the value we deliver to customers while enhancing our global presence.
Reporting Segment
Operating segments are defined as components of an enterprise for which separate financial information is available that is evaluated regularly by the chief operating decision maker, or decision-making group, in deciding how to allocate resources and assessing performance. Each of our business units qualifies as an operating segment with its results regularly reviewed by our chief operating decision maker, the Chief Executive Officer. Our operating segments meet the aggregation criteria under the accounting guidance for segment reporting. As of June 30, 2023, all of our operating segments provided contract manufacturing services, including engineering and supply chain support, for the production of electronic assemblies and other products including medical devices, medical disposables, precision molded plastics, and automation, test, and inspection equipment primarily in automotive, medical, and industrial applications, to the specifications and designs of our customers. The nature of the products, the production process, the type of customers, and the methods used to distribute the products have similar characteristics across all our operating segments. Each of our operating segments serves customers in multiple markets, and many of our customers’ programs are manufactured and serviced by multiple operating segments. We leverage global processes such as component procurement and customer pricing that provide commonality and consistency among the various regions in which we operate. All of our operating segments have similar long-term economic characteristics, and as such, have been aggregated into one reportable segment.
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Our Business Strategy
We intend to achieve sustained, profitable growth in the markets we serve by supporting the global growth initiatives of our customers as a multifaceted manufacturing solutions company. Key elements of executing our strategy include:
• Leveraging Our Global Footprint – continue our strategy of utilizing our presence in key regions worldwide, primarily focused on expansions of existing facilities, as well as potential new geographic regions, as our customer demands dictate;
• Expanding Our Package of Value – enhance our core strengths and expand our package of value through contract manufacturing services in areas such as complex system assembly, specialized processes, and precision molded plastics with particular emphasis on Kimball medical solutions;
• Expanding Our Markets – explore opportunities that will broaden existing or establish new markets, capabilities, or technologies such as automation, test, and inspection equipment for industrial applications.
We expect to make investments that will strengthen or add new capabilities to our package of value as a multifaceted manufacturing solutions company, including through acquisitions. See Item 1A - Risk Factors for risks associated with acquisitions.
Our Business Offerings
We offer electronics manufacturing services, including engineering and supply chain support, to customers in the automotive, medical, and industrial end market verticals. We further offer contract manufacturing services for non-electronic components, medical disposables, precision molded plastics, as well as production automation, test, and inspection equipment. Our services support the complete product life cycle of our customers’ products, and our processes and capabilities cover a range of products from high volume-low mix to high mix-low volume. We bring innovative, complete design solutions to our customers. We offer Design for Excellence input to our customers as a part of our standard package of value, and we use sophisticated software tools to integrate the supply chain in a way that provides our customers with the flexibility their business requires. Our robust new product introduction process and our extensive manufacturing capabilities give us the ability to execute to the various quality and reliability expectations of our customers in each of our end market verticals. We are committed to protecting the planet by combating climate change, including contributing to a lower carbon future, in our operations, our value chains, and in the services we offer to our customers. Our strategies include actions to optimize our manufacturing facilities and processes for sustainability, increase clean energy in our purchased power mix, collaborate with our customers and supply chain to address upstream and downstream carbon emissions, invest in clean energy solutions for climate protection, and develop low carbon products, technologies and services.
We value our customers and their unique needs and expectations. Our customer focus and dedication to unparalleled excellence in engineering and manufacturing has resulted in proven success in the contract manufacturing industry. Personal relationships are important to us, and we strive to build long-term global partnerships. Our commitment to support our customers is backed by our history and demonstrated performance for over the past 60 years.
Marketing Channels
Manufacturing services, including engineering and supply chain support, are marketed by our business development team. We use a CRM model to provide our customers with convenient access to our global footprint and all of our services throughout the entire product life cycle.
Major Competitive Factors
Key competitive factors in the markets we serve include quality and reliability, engineering design services, production flexibility, on-time delivery, customer lead time, test capability, competitive pricing, and global presence. Numerous contract manufacturing service providers compete globally for business from existing and potential customers. We also face competition from our customers’ own capacity and capabilities to in-source production. The proliferation of electronic components in today’s advanced products and the continuing trend of original equipment manufacturers in the electronics industry subcontracting the assembly process to companies with a core competency in this area drive growth in the EMS industry. The nature of the EMS industry is such that the start-up of new customers and new programs to replace expiring programs occurs frequently. New customers and program start-ups generally cause margin dilution early in the life of a program, which is often recovered as the program becomes established and matures. Our continuing success depends upon our ability to replace expiring customers/programs with new customers/programs.
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We, and the industry in general, have special conditions affecting working capital that are significant for understanding our business, including fluctuating inventory levels, which may increase in conjunction with the start-up of new programs and component availability. Additionally, the nature of the contract manufacturing business is such that customers may be required to make advance payments for certain inventory purchases and share in the risk of excess and obsolete inventory.
Our Competitive Strengths
We derive our competitive strengths from our experience of producing safety critical electronic assemblies for automotive customers for over 35 years and leveraging this experience to create valuable and innovative solutions for customers in different industries. Our strengths include:
• Core competency of producing durable electronics;
• Body of knowledge as it relates to the design and manufacture of products that require high levels of quality control, reliability, and durability;
• Highly integrated, global footprint;
• Capability to provide our customers diversified contract manufacturing services for non-electronic components, medical disposables, precision molded plastics, and automation, test, and inspection equipment;
• CRM model and our customer scorecard process;
• Ability to provide our customers with valuable input regarding designs for improved manufacturability, reliability, and cost;
• Quality systems, industry certifications, and regulatory compliance;
• Integrated supply chain solutions and competitive bid process resulting in competitive raw material pricing; and
• Complete product life cycle management.
Competitors
The EMS industry is very competitive as numerous manufacturers compete for business from existing and potential customers. Our competition includes EMS companies such as Benchmark Electronics, Inc., Flex Ltd., Jabil Inc., Plexus Corp., and Sanmina Corporation. We do not have a significant share of the EMS market and were ranked the 20th largest global EMS provider for calendar year 2022 by Manufacturing Market Insider in the March 2023 edition published by New Venture Research.
Locations
As of June 30, 2023, we have twelve manufacturing facilities with two located in Indiana, two in China, two in Mexico, and one located in each of California, Florida, Poland, Romania, Thailand, and Vietnam. Our software design services are primarily performed at our location in India, and other support services are performed at our location in Japan. We continually assess our capacity needs and evaluate our operations to optimize our service levels for supporting our customers’ needs around the globe, and we have recently expanded our facilities in Thailand, Mexico, and Poland. See Item 1A - Risk Factors for information regarding financial and operational risks related to our international operations.
Seasonality
Consolidated sales revenue is generally not affected by seasonality.
Customers
While the total electronic assemblies market has broad applications, our customers are concentrated in the automotive, medical, and industrial end markets. Beginning in fiscal year 2023, the Company changed its presentation of revenue for the industrial and public safety end market verticals by combining them into the industrial end market vertical. Prior year periods have been recast to conform to the current year presentation.
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Sales by industry as a percent of net sales for each of the three years in the period ended June 30, 2023 were as follows:
Year Ended June 30
2023 2022 2021
Automotive 45% 43% 43%
Medical 27% 29% 30%
Industrial 26% 27% 26%
Other 2% 1% 1%
Total 100% 100% 100%
Included in our sales were a significant amount to Nexteer Automotive, Philips, and ZF, which accounted for the following portions of net sales:
Year Ended June 30
2023 2022 2021
Nexteer Automotive 15% 17% 17%
Philips 14% 15% 15%
ZF 12% * *
* amount is less than 10% of total
The nature of the contract manufacturing business is such that start-up of new programs to replace expiring programs occurs frequently. Our agreements with customers are often not for a definitive term and are amended and extended, but generally continue for the relevant product’s life cycle, which can be difficult to predict at the beginning of a program. Typically, our customer agreements do not commit the customer to purchase our services until a purchase order is provided, which are generally short term in nature. Our customers generally have the right to cancel a particular program subject to contractual provisions governing termination, the final product runs, excess or obsolete inventory, and end-of-life pricing, which reduces the additional costs that we incur when a manufacturing services agreement is terminated.
Raw Materials
Raw materials utilized in the manufacture of contract electronic products are generally readily available from both domestic and foreign sources, although from time to time the industry experiences shortages of certain components due to supply and demand forces, combined with rapid product life cycles of certain components. In addition, unforeseen events such as natural disasters and global events, like pandemics, can and have disrupted portions of the supply chain. We believe that maintaining close communication with suppliers helps minimize potential disruption in our supply chain.
The EMS industry continues to experience component shortages, component allocations, and shipping delays, particularly with semiconductors, which were especially challenging in the prior fiscal year. Component shortages or allocations could continue to increase component costs and potentially interrupt our operations and negatively impact our ability to meet commitments to customers. We take various actions to attempt to mitigate the risk and minimize the impact to our customers as well as the adverse effect component shortages, component allocations, or shipping delays could have on our results. Through contractual pricing arrangements and negotiations with our customers, we attempt to mitigate the adverse effect that cost increases could have on our results.
Raw materials are normally acquired for specific customer orders and may or may not be interchangeable among products. Inherent risks associated with rapid technological changes within this contract industry are mitigated by procuring raw materials, for the most part, based on firm orders. In certain instances, such as when lead times dictate, we enter into contractual agreements for material in excess of the levels required to fulfill customer orders. In turn, material authorization agreements with customers cover a portion of the exposure for material which is purchased prior to having a firm order. We may also purchase additional inventory to support new product introductions, transfers of production between manufacturing facilities, and to mitigate the potential impact from component shortages.
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Intellectual Property
Our primary intellectual property is our proprietary manufacturing technology and processes that allow us to provide competitive contract manufacturing and design services to our customers. As such, this intellectual property is complex and normally contained within our facilities. To protect our trade secrets, our manufacturing technology and processes, and other proprietary rights, we rely primarily on a combination of intellectual property laws pertaining to trade secrets and copyrights; non-disclosure agreements with our customers, employees, and suppliers; and our internal security procedures and systems. We feel that relying on trade secret or copyright protections is a superior strategy because there is no disclosure of the information to outside parties, and protections do not expire after a length of time. We currently have or are pursuing a modest number of patents for some of our innovations and technologies in the United States and foreign countries. We also maintain trademark rights (including registrations) for “Kimball Electronics,” “GES” and other wordmarks and trademarks that we use in our business in the United States and around the world. We have policies and procedures to identify and protect our own intellectual property and that of our customers and suppliers.
Corporate Social Responsibility
We are committed to responsible, sustainable environmental, social, and governance philosophies and practices, which have been a part of our fabric since our founding in 1961. To showcase how our employees around the world share a strong sense of responsibility to protect the environment, sustain a safety focus at our facilities, and give back in meaningful ways to the communities where we live and work, we issued our latest annual Environmental, Social & Governance Report (“ESG Report”) in March 2023. The ESG Report highlights the long-term environmental, social, and governance principles and practices designed to support the Company’s commitment to sustaining lasting relationships and achieving global success with its stakeholders wherever Kimball Electronics’ touch is felt throughout the world. The ESG Report reflects several long-standing Guiding Principles of the Company: our customer is our business; our people are the company; the environment is our home; we strive to help our communities be great places to live; profitability and financial resources give us the freedom to shape our future and achieve our vision. The ESG Report is posted on our website at https://www.kimballelectronics.com/esg. The Company’s website and the information contained therein, or incorporated therein, are not intended to be incorporated into this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Socially Responsible Supply Chain
We are committed to the use of a socially responsible supply chain to reduce the risk of human rights violations and the use of conflict minerals (tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold, or “3TG”) from the Democratic Republic of Congo and certain adjoining countries. Our efforts include requiring our suppliers to undertake reasonable due diligence within their supply chain to ensure that the 3TG in the materials we source from them do not directly or indirectly contribute to significant adverse human rights impacts, as well as conducting due diligence before allowing a potential supplier to become one of our preferred suppliers. We request the return of reporting forms related to conflict minerals from our suppliers under the Responsible Minerals Initiative, or RMI, Conflict Minerals Survey. Further, we seek to remove any suppliers that continue to fail to meet our supplier and conflict minerals policies after being provided the opportunity to remedy non-compliance via implementation of a corrective action plan. We also conduct recurring, annual training for all employees and certain select contractors on export compliance, anti-corruption and anti-slavery, and insider trading. In addition, Kimball Electronics is a member of the RMI, which is evaluating the supply chain risks of conflict minerals and other minerals (e.g., cobalt, mica) and studying how to mitigate those risks.
Human Rights
As reflected in our Vision and Guiding Principles, Kimball Electronics is committed to the highest standards of conduct in its business dealings. We are a human-centered company that fully supports human rights. For us, human rights are more than just being compliant--they are about doing the right thing. Our Guiding Principles outline the critical role Kimball plays as a corporate citizen for our customers, our people, our partners, our environment, our Share Owners, and our communities. Our human rights beliefs are deeply rooted in our Guiding Principles and expressed in our Global Human Rights Policy, which is supported by annual review that explains some of the practical actions that we take each year to implement our Policy.
Kimball has been built upon the tradition of pride in craftsmanship, mutual trust, personal integrity, respect for dignity of the individual, a spirit of cooperation, and a sense of family and good humor. We seek to enhance this culture as we grow. We believe that no company should prosper while violating the basic human rights of others whether through unlawful slavery, servitude, forced or compulsory labor, or otherwise exploitative means. We believe in upholding principles of human rights, fair remuneration and economic inclusion, fair labor practices, worker safety, and observing fair labor practices within our organization and our supply chain.
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Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging
We value and work to promote a diverse, equitable and inclusive work environment. We are committed to holding ourselves accountable, taking action to continuously improve our policies and practices, and to uphold the principles that encompass diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging as outlined in our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (“DEI&B”) statement. Our strategy is to achieve excellence in customer service, employee relations, and business objectives through creativity, responsiveness, and innovation as a result of increased well-being, sense of belonging, and meaningful work for our employees. We actively promote DEI&B, and incorporate DEI&B into our culture, values, and strategies. We provide a report on the diversity of our employees to the Board of Directors annually.
Contributing to Our Communities
One of our Guiding Principles is to strive to help our communities be great places to live. We live this Guiding Principle and further the goals of our Human Rights Policy when we contribute and encourage our employees to contribute to our local communities. Below are examples of our contributions:
• In 2022, we committed $100,000 to Southwestern Indiana Child Advocacy Center Coalition (“SWICACC”), a safe reporting center for abused or neglected children that serves seven counties in southwestern Indiana. We made our final installment of the commitment in fiscal year 2023.
• On International Women’s Day 2021, we donated $5,000 to Water To Thrive to build a freshwater well system for a village in Ethiopia because safe, fresh drinking water is a basic human right. This well was fully operational during fiscal year 2023.
• In 2022, we donated $100,000 to refugee-related activities and aid causes, including Ukrainian refugees.
• Kimball Electronics Gives, an employee-based giving circle, raised enough money to offer grants totaling $8,400 to seven worthy causes selected by our employees. To date, Kimball Electronics Gives has donated $41,500 to various worthy causes.
• In 2022, we implemented our Creating Quality for Life Scholarship program, awarding 10 dependents of employees a total of $12,500.
• We also initiated our Employee Relief Fund to help employees with undue financial stress placed on them and their families due to a catastrophic event or other unfortunate personal event creating financial hardship.
Environment and Energy Matters
Our operations are subject to various foreign, federal, state, and local laws and regulations with respect to environmental and ecological matters. We believe that we are in substantial compliance with present laws and regulations and that there are no material liabilities related to such items.
We are dedicated to excellence, leadership, and stewardship in protecting the environment and communities in which we have operations. We believe that continued compliance with foreign, federal, state, and local laws and regulations which have been enacted relating to the protection of the environment will not have a material effect on our capital expenditures, earnings, or competitive position. Management believes capital expenditures for environmental control equipment will not represent a material portion of total capital expenditures.
Our operations require significant amounts of energy, including natural gas and electricity. Federal, foreign, and state regulations may control the allocation of fuels available to us, but to date we have experienced no interruption of production due to such regulations.
Kimball Electronics participates in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) climate change and water security questionnaires to quantify our environmental practices, provide transparency on our progress, and assist in the reduction of our contributions to climate change. Additionally, we align our sustainability reporting with the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and the Task Force On Climate Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) frameworks and also highlight our alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the UN Global Compact. We discuss our ESG goals and programs in detail in our annual ESG report. We publish this ESG report and our responses to the CDP climate change and water security questionnaires annually on our website at kimballelectronics.com/esg. We publish this information because our Guiding Principles remind us that the environment is our home and that we will be leaders in not only protecting but enhancing our world. The contents of the ESG reports and CDP questionnaire responses are not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or in any other report or document we file with the SEC.
Refer to the discussion in Item 1A - Risk Factors for further details of the legal and regulatory initiatives related to environmental matters including climate change that could adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
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Our People are the Company: Human Capital Management
We believe our people are the company. We believe in creating quality for life. We believe lasting relationships create our global success. We believe our people are the competitive edge for our service, quality, and value. Kimball Electronics has been built upon the tradition of pride in craftsmanship, mutual trust, personal integrity, respect for dignity of the individual, a spirit of cooperation, and a sense of family and good humor. We seek to enhance this culture as we grow. We believe in the inherent value of all individuals.
To raise awareness of our commitment to human rights and to foster compliance with our Global Human Rights Policy, we have incorporated it as an integral part of our Code of Conduct, train all of our employees worldwide on human rights issues, and require our suppliers, vendors, contractors, and partners to meet the same standards. To this end, through our Guiding Principles, we champion transparency and accountability for ourselves.
Because our people are the reason for our success, central to our long-term strategy is attracting, developing, and retaining the best talent globally and strengthening collaboration. We are committed to pay equity and apply the principle of equal pay for work of equal value in all regions where we operate. As of June 30, 2023, Kimball Electronics employed approximately 7,900 people worldwide, with approximately 1,300 located in the United States and approximately 6,600 located in foreign countries. Three of our seven independent members of the Board of Directors are female, along with four of our eight executive management team members and over 50% of our global workforce. We continue to execute on our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, and exhibit our commitment to gender, racial, and ethnic diversity by striving toward the corporate goals we outline in both our Global Human Rights Policy and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging statement, including by:
• Increasing female representation globally at the executive and senior management levels;
• Increasing racial and ethnic diversity at the executive and senior management levels so our leadership will reflect our organization and the communities in which we operate;
• Holding leadership accountable for diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging outcomes.
The average tenure within our workforce is 6 years, and we work hard to mitigate turnover risk by consistently and formally surveying our workforce about how well we are living up to our People Guiding Principles by asking them to anonymously rate us on a scale from 1 (low) to 10 (high). We currently have a score of 8.29 across our enterprise. We believe this is evidence that we truly operate our business as our people are the company. We consistently have a participation rate in our Guiding Principles survey of approximately 90%. Upon completion of this survey every year, each local management team receives qualitative and quantitative feedback and are responsible for crafting improvement plans based on our people’s inputs.
Our U.S. operations are not subject to collective bargaining arrangements. Certain foreign operations are subject to collective bargaining arrangements, many mandated by government regulation or customs of the particular countries. We believe that our employee relations are good.
For additional information, see the Company’s Proxy Statement to be filed for its annual meeting of Share Owners to be held November 17, 2023 under the caption “Our People are the Company: Human Capital Management.”
Available Information
The Company makes available free of charge through its website, https://investors.kimballelectronics.com, its annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, proxy statements, and all amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after such material is electronically filed with, or furnished to, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). All reports the Company files with the SEC are also available via the SEC website, http://www.sec.gov. The Company’s website and the information contained therein, or incorporated therein, are not intended to be incorporated into this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
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