Item 14 - Agreements for As-Needed Information Technology Services

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technical personnel that have supported us in the past are still available to us to serve in short- term or long-term consulting roles. We believe that three primary factors contribute to our high retention rate: * We treat our people in a manner that skilled professionals desire to be treated • We offer very competitive salary compensation * We offer substantial employee benefits. Professional Treatment - Our people tend to be highly skilled and highly educated, sensitive to company cultures that are supportive of professional IT personnel. As a small company, we are able to pay individual attention to the needs of our people. We attempt to address the concerns of our people with their priorities placed ahead of the company's, as long as the positive culture of the company can be maintained within the larger scope of meeting our client's needs and being fair to all our staff members. Our guiding dictum is that our company is only as strong as our people, so their needs must drive the company's culture. On a specific basis, that includes such factors as providing monetary and leave incentives for benefited employees to gain relevant training or education and making sure that our people have the technological resources to do their jobs, such as lap -top computers, communication devices, and mileage reimbursement for company use of personal autos. When specific personal issues arise that may impact work performance, we strive to assist our employees. Examples include such past efforts as providing company -paid alcohol rehabilitation counseling, company self- insurance for major dependent dental care, company paid travel and leave to attend skill - enhancement seminars, and company -provided installation of satellite receiving equipment for courses from the University of Southern California to support remote attendance for pursuit of a PhD by one of our senior engineers. Competitive Pay — We regularly survey the marketplace for the skilled professionals we utilize in order to maintain currency of our compensation practices. As a small business, focused on our employees, we strive to keep our overheads low. In so doing, we are able to achieve two important objectives: (1) pay our people at or above the market, and (2) offer our clients pricing at or below the market. Again, because our employees are the company's life -blood, we work hard to be sure they feel well -compensated. The benefit to our clients is support from highly motivated, highly competent professionals. Employee Benefits - We generally offer our clients three categories of employees: (1) Type 1 — those who desire no benefits and handle their own withholding taxes, (2) Types 2 or 3 — those who desire no or limited benefits, but for whom Sierra withholds their taxes for them, and (3) Type 4 — those who desire both benefits and tax withholding. In all three, the final cost to the client is the same, with the employee accepting a corresponding lesser direct hourly pay rate, but with comparably increased benefits. Medical and dental insurance is available for purchase by temporary employees at Sierra's cost under our group plans with California Choice Benefit Administrators, Inc. (Cal Choice) for medical and American Association for Quality Health Care (AAQHC) for the dental coverage. Cal Choice is a unique program offering employees a wide choice of HMOfPPO providers and benefit levels. The dental insurance allows employees to use any dentist of their choice. SIERRA 3-14 SC20-011 CYBERNETICS Santa Ana IT Professional Services