Huntington Ingalls Industries executives said today the company has established new protocols, including testing, that are allowing it to better predict and manage its workforce.
After the COVID-19 pandemic struck in the spring, the company reported workforce attendance levels of 70% to 75%. The company later said attendance was as low as 50% some days in April and May.
Speaking to analysts today, Mike Petters, the company’s chief executive, said the company is now able to effectively test quarantined employees, which has reduced by two-thirds the number of employees quarantining.
“Now, we’re at a place where we know where the workforce is, we’re able to predict what we’re going to be able to get done,” Petters said, noting the company was able to acquire enough testing capacity in August.
There are fewer than 200 active cases among the workforce, company executives said.
Petters also said HII has hired over 3,000 people since the pandemic began, which has helped it cope even as some employees continue to face school closures and other challenges to coming to work.
Meanwhile, he expressed optimism that as key states tally ballots, either winning presidential administration will have similar priorities for shipbuilding.
Regardless of who wins, he said, “the future Navy needs to be bigger. It needs to be faster, cheaper and probably a bit smaller in terms of sizes of ships.”
Huntington Ingalls said today sales during its most recent quarter totaled $2.3 billion, up about 4% from the same three-month period a year earlier.
The contractor’s quarterly profit reached $222 million, up 44% from the prior year. HII attributed the growth to lower federal income taxes because of “a claim for higher research and development tax credits for prior years and a favorable change in the non-operating portion of retirement benefits.”