Jun 2021
30
EWSS Changes and Ireland’s Economic Recovery Plan
On the 1st of June 2021, the Government announced that the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) would be extended until the 30th of December 2021 to support businesses as they continue to reopen and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. The rates below will continue for July, August and September 2021.
A decision on the subsidy rates that will apply for October 2021 onwards, is expected to be announced toward the end of August or early September.
The Government have set out an economic recovery plan for Ireland with measures to help businesses who have experienced significant negative economic disruption due to COVID-19 with a minimum of a 30% decline in turnover or in customer orders. The period for this been extended from 6 months to 12 months under the new recovery plan. If you are unsure whether you are within the guidelines or need more clarity, please see further Revenue guidance.
Although the EWSS is a subsidy payable to employers only and will not impact employee payslips, the scheme must still be administered through the payroll. Employers must operate PAYE on all payments, including regular deduction of income tax, USC and employee PRSI from your employees’ pay. With Thesaurus Payroll Manager you can simply tick that 'you are registered for EWSS and this employee is being claimed for' when processing the payroll.
Remember, you must continue to review your eligibility status on the last day of every month to ensure you continue to meet the eligibility criteria. If you no longer qualify, you should de-register for EWSS with effect from the following day and untick the EWSS tickbox in the payroll software.
Want to find out more about the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme? Register for our next webinar on 27th July where our panel of payroll and HR experts will answer any questions that you may have.
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Jun 2021
29
Celebrating Pride Month at Thesaurus
As a company we wanted to recognise Pride 2021 and use the opportunity to promote awareness, educate ourselves and most importantly celebrate Pride.
Educating Our Workforce
During Pride Month staff communications were sent educating our team on the history of pride. Below is some of what was sent:
PRIDE stands for:
- Promote, Respect, Inclusion and Dignity for Everyone
History of Pride
- The Stonewall Riots, also called the Stonewall Uprising, began in the early hours of 28th June 1969, when New York police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay club located in Greenwich Village in New York City. The raid sparked a riot among bar patrons and neighbourhood residents as police roughly hauled employees and patrons out of the bar, leading to six days of protests and violent clashed with law enforcement outside the bar. The Stonewall Riots served as a catalyst for the gay rights movement in the United States and around the world.
Discrimination does still exist
- 25% of LGBT+ people are not out at work
- 62% of graduates go back into the closet when they get their first job, despite being out at college.
Our LGBT Colleagues
Some of our LGBT colleagues discussed their experiences in the workplace.
- “It’s the 21st century. Should we even talk about LGBT inclusive workplaces? All people are equal, and all people deserve to work in an environment that supports their choices. This still is an issue out there, but not in our company. Since I have started working at Thesaurus I haven’t experienced any form of discrimination, nor have I felt a part of the minority. Ireland has come far in recent years. I am happy and proud to be part of our company.” - Dario
- “There is an incredibly open and acceptation atmosphere in Thesaurus, so much so that no questions or assumptions have every been raised. It is a place that accepts and respects their employees regardless of how they dress or who they love.”- Robyn
- “Since starting with Thesaurus I’ve never experienced any issue from the recruitment process to now, everyone here including my co-workers never treated me any differently for being me, what a great company in terms of minority, I am proud to work for such an amazing company :)” - Shannon J
Celebrating Pride
To celebrate and show our support for the LGBT+ community, we asked all staff to wear bright colours to our virtual monthly company meeting. Once again our amazing staff came out in full support, the screen was awash with colour.
The small contingent of staff who are currently working in the office continued on the celebrations with a socially distanced pizza for Pride lunch.
Jun 2021
17
Thesaurus Software’s new energy-efficient offices
Since the beginning of 2020, Thesaurus Software has welcomed a total of 34 new hires. As a result of this significant growth, 2021 sees the opening of our new office. The purpose-built offices are at the top of the spectrum in terms of energy efficiency.
Key features of our new building include:
- 50 initial roof solar panels to offset energy usage
- 2 electric vehicle recharge points in our private car park, along with bicycle parking
- An attenuation tank which releases storm-water slowly into the drainage network
- Oil or petrol leakages from vehicles is filtered by a Petrol Interceptor before the water reaches the drainage network. Permeable paving also facilitates this.
Images of our new energy-efficient offices in Co. Meath, Ireland.
We have recently seen the gradual return to the office for our employees who have worked remotely during the pandemic. The excitement and energy around the new building has reinvigorated our efforts to live more sustainably, with the whole team eager to get involved.
Sign up to our sustainability newsletter for future updates on our sustainability efforts.
Jun 2021
11
Learning at Work Week
Learning, development and continuously moving forward is embedded in who we are and what we do at Thesaurus. However, it is not always payroll related!
For one week in May, through our Learning at Work Week, we put an extra focus on the personal development of all our staff.
When thinking about how we could further develop our skills, where better to look for alternative skills and knowledge than in-house to our own fantastic staff.
Over the course of the week, four talented staff volunteered to each run a virtual lunchtime workshop.
Day 1: Maria a Payroll Specialist from our Support Team kicked off the week with Holiday Spanish for our post Covid-19 holidays.
Day 2: Caoimhe from our Migrations Team shared her love and talent for Irish Sign Language, the preferred language of 5,000 deaf people in Ireland.
Day 3: Jonathan one of our Developers treated us to a yoga class, teaching us some of the beginner's poses and moon salutations.
Day 4: June from our Accounts department gave us a breadmaking demonstration and shared her famous soda bread with us. We tried to recreate June’s famous bread from our own kitchens and had fun sharing our creations afterwards.
About the experience, Caoimhe said; ‘It was a fantastic experience to be involved in and to be able to share my passion for Irish Sign Language was brilliant. I believe it is a language more should learn so to be able to teach some of the basics to my colleagues was amazing’.
A big thank you to Maria, Caoimhe, Jonathan and June for volunteering their time and sharing their skills. Engagement from staff right across the company was fantastic all week and boy did we have fun! We are excited for next year to see what hidden talents our colleagues will teach us next.
Related articles:
- How Thesaurus Software celebrated Earth Day 2021
- 1 Year On – COVID-19 & Working from Home
- International Women’s Day 2021
Jun 2021
1
Thesaurus Customer Update: June 2021
Welcome to Thesaurus Software's June update. Our most important news this month include:
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Automatic enrolment delayed until 2023
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How to use Thesaurus Payroll Manager when working remotely
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Ransomware: How to protect your payroll data
Protect your payroll data from ransomware attacks
With the recent ransomware attack on the HSE still disrupting Irish health services, the subject of ransomware is on all our minds. Taking backups of your data is so important in order to quickly restore data to get back up and running as soon as possible. All data in Thesaurus Connect is stored securely within Microsoft Azure data stores, access to which have been tightly restricted to a limited set of servers and IP addresses.
Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme extended
The EWSS continues to be a requirement for many, with 43% of small businesses still availing of the scheme. Yesterday it was announced that the scheme would be extended until 31 December 2021 with a modification to widen eligibility. The enhanced rates of support and the reduced rate of Employers’ PRSI will remain in place until at least September.
How to manage the annual leave backlog as the country Reopens
A self-service system is the simplest way to manage your staff's annual leave – both from a HR and employee perspective. Give employees control to request annual leave, view leave taken and leave remaining all through an app on their smartphone or tablet.
30 days until TWSS Reconciliation deadline
Employers have until June 30th, 2021, to:
- Accept the reconciliation calculation issued by Revenue
- Make corrections to payslips if necessary, or
- Make an enquiry through MyEnquiries
How Cloud innovation can help simplify the payroll process
By introducing cloud innovation to your business, employers can work more efficiently by streamlining administrative processes and delegating manual tasks to employees. Download our free guide to find out more.
