CluneTech Newsletter H1 2022■
Welcome
Welcome to the latest edition of the CluneTech Newsletter. As always, this newsletter aims to inform, empower and entertain you. This issue includes everything from business news, important workplace updates, and some more light-hearted moments from across the Group. We hope you’ll enjoy the read.
Note from the Editors
What a few months we’ve had at CluneTech! For many of us, we’ve gone from not seeing our teams for 2+ years to now being able to meet and celebrate together again. And wow have we had SO many reasons to celebrate!
From TransferMate reaching unicorn status to CluneTech being recognised as a Great Place to Work for the 7th year running, the good news just keeps on rolling in.
Most importantly, the last few months have seen a hugely positive shift in our culture and the way that we work. In May, we announced a number of new and improved benefits including Summer Flex Hours, Lifework days and Meeting Free Days. These new initiatives aim to empower you to decide what works best for you.
We’ve worked incredibly hard to get to where we are now and going forward, we will continue to place your voice at the core of everything we do. Thank you for regularly taking the time to share your thoughts with us. Your contribution ensures that we can turn your feedback into actionable outcomes, while truly being a Great Place to Work.
We couldn’t do any of this without your ongoing hard work and determination and we can’t wait to see what the next few months have in store; especially now that in-person events are back! We look forward to seeing all of the team reunions on Workvivo.
Kristina Ilieva
Marketing & Communications
Specialist
Rachael O'Shea
Head of Employee
Experience
Fiona MacCarthy
Head of Communications
Message from Terry
Block Quote
Hi everyone,
It’s hard to believe that we’re already halfway through 2022 but what a year it has been so far.
In our last newsletter, we had just launched our new brand, CluneTech, and it has been fantastic to see it truly come to life over the last few months. Our new brand is a much better reflection of who we are and what we do for our customers and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.
This year has already seen many causes for celebration. Together as a suite of companies, we have continued to develop our portfolio of industry-leading products and services, welcomed new clients and partners on board and been awarded multiple accolades. Not to mention the Unicorn in the room; Ireland’s newest Fintech unicorn, TransferMate!
One of the highlights for me personally is having the ability to travel again. It has been great to meet so many of you in person again after such a long two years. While we have enjoyed many virtual events, I’m delighted to see our teams back together again.
As we look ahead to the next six months, I hope they are full of many memorable celebrations. For now, on behalf of CluneTech’s leadership team, I’d like to wish you all a wonderful summer.
Best wishes,
Terry
Company Updates
Benamic's Net Promoter Score (NPS) increases to a record high
We are thrilled to announce a third consecutive increase in Net Promoter Score (NPS) in our May 2022 review of customer satisfaction.
NPS is a measure of how likely customers are to recommend a product or service to others, with scores above 50 considered ‘Excellent’. Our latest survey received a record number of client responses and showed a Net Promotor Score of 59, representing a massive 47.5% increase on the last survey.
This result is testament to the consistent efforts the Benamic team continues to put into building strong trusting relationships with clients - and we couldn't be prouder!
Expanding business with new and existing clients
2022 began with a bang, welcoming some exciting new clients including Chevron, Cisco, Jabra and X-Rite. It’s been wonderful to add such big names to our roster, and we’re looking forward to doing great work with them. At the same time, it's been gratifying to see our existing relationships continuing to grow - Panasonic, Hisense, Glanbia, Miele and Fellowes are all expanding their business with us, and we're thrilled to be able to support them.
Our Chatbot business continues to grow thanks to new partnerships with clients such as Hisense, Miele and TransferMate Education. We continue to innovate in this space having integrated our Chatbot with Benamic’s CRM to supply real-time campaign information allowing for a more seamless customer experience.
Our Digital Marketing business has grown too; we are currently managing Google AdWords and Analytics for several clients and we're also beginning to automate all our reporting using Power BI. Phase one of this project is nearly complete, and we're excited to see how this new system will streamline our workflows. Our goal is to provide our clients with the best possible service, and this new reporting system will help us do that even more effectively.
Welcoming new team members
We’re pleased to announce the new additions to our leadership team. Laura McGill newly joins us as Marketing Manager and Jamie Young has been promoted to Head of Sales. We have also expanded our sales team with the appointment of Ross Traynor as Business Development Manager and David Coen as Business Development Executive. These appointments bolster Benamic’s sales and marketing capabilities as we continue our commitment to expanding our market presence globally.
Laura McGill
Marketing Manager
Ross Traynor
Business Development Manager
David Coen
Business Development Executive
January is always an extremely busy time for the Taxback.com team and 2022 was no different.
From 1 January, it was all systems go for the team – with a particular emphasis on the Irish PAYE and UK self-assessed markets. As we left Q1 behind and moved into Q2, the team were busy with Canadian high season and the New Zealand tax filing deadline. We’re delighted to report that we enjoyed very successful seasons across all fronts. Interestingly, our average Irish tax refund has increased to €1,880! Not bad, right? So, it always makes sense to check how much you’re owed with Taxback.com!
Our Financial Wellbeing Service continues to grow and grow. In H1 we partnered with numerous clients including Calor Gas, Chadwicks, Kefron, Perrigord and Glenveagh Properties. The success of our FWS is something that we, as a team, can all be very proud of. And none of our success would be possible without the hard work of every member of our team.
In April, we hosted our second annual Employee Wellbeing Summit! We had a fantastic line up of panelists on the day - including Eoin McGee (Financial Planner), Fania Stoney (Healthy Place to Work® Ireland) and Claire Hellen (IBEC) – and discussions during the event surrounded the evolution of wellbeing in the workplace. As it was in 2021, the Employee Wellbeing Summit has once again proven to be an invaluable opportunity to network and communicate with our clients and prospective partners regarding our FWS. We can’t wait to start planning the third installment of this exciting event!
Onwards and upwards!
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Describe H1 for Sprintax in one word?
Trailblazing!
It has been nothing short of an incredible start to the year for Sprintax. And it is important to mention from the
outset that none of our success would be possible without the efforts of every single member of our team. From the get-go in January, every facet of the Sprintax team – be it tax-filing, customer support, sales, development or marketing - came together as one united force to produce a Trojan effort right throughout tax season.
And with this in mind, it has been so rewarding for the team to reap such fantastic awards at the tax deadline. In fact, the week leading up to the tax deadline will long be remembered as one of the most exciting in Sprintax history. We set a new daily record for revenue almost every day – smashing our previous record by 10-20% each day! We also saw a record number of registrations and revenue through our blog and email marketing activity too. And traffic on our website was up across the board.
The weeks leading to the tax deadline are consistently a very busy time for our customer support team. A key member of that team - Hristiyan Vasilev – deserves special recognition. Hristiyan deservedly won our #OneTeam award in H1. During a very busy period, Hristiyan played an exemplary role in helping the sales team in resolving complex situations and consistently went the extra mile to support customers through tax season.
The Sprintax team were also able to get out and about once again to deliver tax workshops at key conferences and events including WETM Malta and the NAFSA National Conference. These events are always invaluable opportunities to network and meet with our clients. How we have missed them over the past two years!
We are also thrilled to report that a number of major schools have partnered with Sprintax for our tax preparation services this season, including Princeton University, MIT, Stanford University, UT Austin, Washington University in St. Louis as well as the University of Colorado System.
A number of key partners are joined on the Calculus side too including Elon University, Life University, and Maryville University, Ginko Bioworks, Advent Health and more.
Congratulations are due for Neil Duffy in particular for signing up Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University as the latest Sprintax Calculus customer. The school is the oldest and largest aviation-focused university in the world with over 33,000 admissions. ERAU graduates are frequently hired by NASA and SpaceX. 2 out of the 4 astronauts on SpaceX's first civilian-crewed mission were Embry-Riddle graduates! Soon you will be able to file with Sprintax from outer space!
Finally, in May the Sprintax team gathered in Varna for meetings and some socialising (!). It was great to see so many of you in person once again after two long years.
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It has been an exciting start to 2022 for Visa First.
First things first… our sales team have worked wonders in achieving their targets and bringing in new business for Visa First. After what has been a challenging few years for the entire team, we are proud to report that our business is flourishing once more. Our employment permit services continue to go from strength-to-strength. For example, the number of permits applied for through our biggest partner Grant Thornton has increased yet again this year.
And in an exciting development, we are almost ready to launch our new platform for employment permit applications. (Watch this space!)
With the help of Stela Radeva and Zoe Byrne, we are currently preparing for an Open Day with the Australian Irish Chamber of Commerce in June. This is a big opportunity for our team to promote our Australian visa service.
We are delighted to have welcome a number of new partners on board, including Nexventur who are availing of our Australian visa services. Meanwhile, Wendy Wu – a key partner for Visa First – have expanded their partnership to include more of our tourist visa services.
And a special mention must go to Evgeniia Sukhopliueva for her work with key partner Visas DAA International. Revenue from this partner has increased six-fold in just three years. Well done Evgeniia.
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We are proud to report that it has been a very successful start to the year for Property Tax International.
In fact, as we write this update, the PTI team has once again navigated our way through busy French, Polish and Hungarian tax seasons and deadlines. We are delighted to report that we have enjoyed a 15% increase in revenue in H1 when compared with the same period last year. It took many hours of hard work to achieve this significant milestone and every member of the PTI team should feel proud of their efforts. Huge credit and congratulations in particular must go to Emilia Simeonova and her team for their efforts in H1. In addition, Alina Moroianu’s work in securing new partners for PTI has been invaluable in our success so far this year.
We are also delighted to disclose that we have secured many thousands of euro in tax refunds for our clients. In fact, we are currently in the process of helping one client in claiming a French property VAT refund of €80,000. Earlier this year, another client retrieved €25,000 with the support of our team. Not bad!
Meanwhile, our blog continues to go from strength-to-strength. In fact, we have seen an increase of more than 60% in pages views this year and a rise of more than 250% in leads that have registered through our blog. It’s clear that we are getting better and better at engaging our target market through our blog. This progress would simply not have been possible without the tireless contributions of Kristina Valcheva. Well done Krisi.
Onwards and upwards for the rest of the year!
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Dialing in our Focus in 2022
Immedis has been busy revamping our sales and marketing strategy and efforts, further targeting in our ideal prospect and customer profile. As the company continues to grow and mature, we are learning more and more about the types or organizations that our global payroll solutions are best suited for and, inversely, what types of organizations are best suited for Immedis.
Notable Wins during the 1st Half of the Year
“We won this deal due to several factors, including our Technology/Analytics, Global Capabilities, Workday Integrations, Scalability, and Compliance protection. However, most importantly, we won this deal because of the trust and relationship that we built with them over the past 12 months. Celonis looked at Immedis as the true Industry Expert early on, which continued throughout the entire process.”
Our marketing assets and branding are evolving
As we have fine-tuned the type of prospects that we are pursuing, our marketing assets and branding are undergoing an evolution to better align with our target audience. Immedis launched a new homepage in June and the remainder of the site is currently being developed to present a modern, high-tech look and feel.
Events we attended
During the second quarter, we once again had the opportunity to interact with customers and prospects face-to-face during various industry events, including GPA’s Global Payroll Summit in London and American Payroll Association (APA) and Global Payroll Management Institute (GPMI)’s 40th Annual Payroll Congress in Las Vegas, Nevada. Immedis was a headline sponsor of Payroll Congress and delivered two thought leadership sessions and sponsored the closing keynote address.
Awards Won
At the Global Payroll Management Institute (GPMI)’s 40th Annual Payroll Congress in Las Vegas, Immedis was announced as the winner of the two Payroll Solutions Showcase Standout Awards, Overall Best Demo and Cutting-Edge Technology.
Welcoming customers in our office
Our team hosted several customers in our office for our first Customer Advisory Board (CAB) since the pandemic. We spent two days with payroll leaders from Adobe, BioMarin, DocuSign, First Derivatives and Musarubra to share updates coming with our platform, new solution launches and gather their feedback on working with Immedis. We are excited to bring the Customer Advisory Board to the States for our US-based customers. Our inaugural US CAB meetings are scheduled to take place in July in New York City and San Francisco.
New Partnerships
New Partnership signed with Deel – Will enable us to refer our customers who are looking for global Employer of Record (EOR) services.
Our Team
Over the last few weeks, it has been amazing to see our teams get together around the world. We have missed this over the last two years, and I think the smiles in the photos say it all. We are Immedis.
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TransferMate Secures $70m in Funding
TransferMate became Ireland’s most recent tech unicorn in May after raising $70M in further investments, bringing the company to a valuation of $1BN and $130M of total funding.
This funding will allow us to invest in our growth, our people and our technology as the world's leading provider of payments infrastructure as-a-service.
HAAS F1 Partnership
This quarter we announced our global partnership with the Haas Formula 1 team. The partnership brings together two like-minded organizations, each with a strong commitment to challenging norms through innovation.
As an official ‘Team Partner’, we will provide cross-border payments services through our unrivalled global payments infrastructure, while the TransferMate logo will be featured on the Haas F1 Team’s VF-22 car and the apparel of drivers Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher throughout the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship.
Product Updates
Global Accounts
Undoubtedly our most significant product release so far this year was the arrival of Global Accounts. With our Global Accounts solution, through one account locally an operational global account can be opened in any one or all of 28 currencies in about 30 seconds. An innovative alternative to traditional banking — where account setup is a slow and cumbersome process.
Global Accounts provides a smarter way to manage multiple currencies and transfer money internationally.
· One account in your name.
· Hold balances in 30 currencies.
· Access local payment rails, globally.
2FA Improvements
Our product team recently released UI improvements to TransferMate’s 2FA system now making it clearer and easier to input and request PIN numbers – delivering to your phone via SMS.
A security enhancement has also been rolled out so that when a user requests a PIN it is now a one-time use and only valid for 60 minutes.
To further enhance the security of user accounts, 2FA is now mandatory for the following actions:
· Registration
· Making a payment from Global Accounts
· Making a payment via direct debit/reverse wire
· Showing bank details
· Password changes
Awards
TransferMate Nominated for Best Compliance Team
TransferMate Global Payments were delighted to be nominated for ‘Best Compliance Team’ in the International Compliance Association Compliance Awards.
This award recognizes the huge range of challenges facing compliance teams and celebrates their successes in overcoming them. Our risk and compliance team work tremendously hard every day to keep our business, customers, and partners safe, introducing 30+ new rules in 2021 to further enhance our global risk and compliance capabilities.
TransferMate Named Commercial Payments Fintech of the Year
TransferMate Global Payments is thrilled to be voted as Commercial Payments Fintech of the Year in the Aite-Novarica Group 2022 Banking Fintech of the Year awards. This accolade recognizes innovation achieved by fintech vendors leveraging technology to set a higher standard.
Events
We’ve had a packed events schedule in H1, sponsoring 11 in total. The focus on events and getting the team out and about meeting clients and prospects in person has led to a healthy pipeline of nearly 200 new leads for the business. While the team are busy working through those, we’re planning the H2 schedule which is looking just as packed!
• Transact 360: 14-16 March
• SAP Concur Fusion: 15 – 17 March
• Coupa Inspire, Las Vegas: 4 – 7 April
• Ivalua Now, Paris: 5 – 6 April
• Retail Technology Show: 26 – 27 April
• Smarter Faster Payments Conference: 1 – 4 May
• APA Payroll Congress, Las Vegas: 10 – 13 May
• Money 20/20, Amsterdam: 7 – 9 June
• Multimodal: 14 – 16 June
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TBI Expert View
TBI Expert View, our in-depth look into the world of VAT, continues to grow. The variety of speakers and topics gives our audience an insightful look into aspects of VAT they might not otherwise hear about. This strategy is resonating, as our audience has grown to nearly 40,000 viewers. This is a clear indication of the need for a dynamic voice within the fast-developing world of VAT.
Elevate
Our client loyalty and retention program ELEVATE has excelled since its inception with the viewership now three times bigger than when we started. In fact, our latest Gathering in June tripled the number of attendees from our previous event. We are thrilled to be able to bring such value to our clients and, moreover, this collaborative program has yielded significant sales opportunities.
Nora Duggan, Chief Marketing Officer, comments “We are delighted with the growth of our two leadership programs. It is truly building our credibility in the field of VAT Compliance Technology.”
Awards
Taxback International has made a consistent effort to increase brand awareness and industry recognition in the past year. We hope to continue to receive recognition of our unique position and dynamic technology.
Content
We have listened to our clients by producing content more closely linked with their interests and concerns. In addition to weekly blogs, we have produced in-depth e-books and have created comprehensive Country VAT Guides. These have been reshared and circulated by our clients through LinkedIn and other social media.
Technological Development
Under the direction of Chief Technology Officer, David Keating, our technology teams have transformed the business structure of the company while they continue to develop the Comply platform. The team has expanded from 17 to 46 members in the past year, with expanded development teams and a new QA team of fifteen members hired since January 2022.
Speaking to David Keating, he said, “From a technology perspective, the future of Comply is a journey to end-to-end VAT digitalisation, allowing businesses to meet country-specific regulatory requirements with ease and accuracy.”
The Future
Taxback International continues to go from strength to strength and this is reflected in the attitude of Chief Strategy Officer, Joe Healy. “I feel unbelievably excited about what’s coming in the next few months. Comply is being adopted by our Global Named Account customers, including Sanofi, Metsa, Mondelez and ITW. We have also signed BPO partnership deals with RSM and WTS - both Global CPA firms. It’s our time!”
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IDLF have had a successful first half for 2022 so far, with the signing up of several new global immigrant partner agencies, a second Investment Fund set up with new investors subscribed, a significant milestone in-person event in the USA, a substantial new funded investment in the hospitality sector, the launch of a new client referral programme, the creation of a new brand for the USA retail investor market and a notable uplift in the IDLF pipeline of prospects from the launch of new brand campaigns on Google and LinkedIn Ad Marketing platforms.
IDLF signs up partnership agreements with several new immigrant partner agencies worldwide
IDLF were delighted to host a US Delegation of American State Legislators and Representatives in our Dublin HQ.
IDLF launch new client referral programme to incentivise existing clients and encourage new investors for Fund 2.
IDLF in partnership with global immigration agency, Latitude host a live webinar with potential investors from South Africa, USA and Asia.
IDLF hosts evening event in Boston, Massachusetts in partnership with our USA fund managers and welcomes special guest speaker, Enda Kenny (former Taoiseach, head of Irish Government) to promote the IDLF offering to over 60 C-Suite American Business Leaders.
IDLF invest in Trim Castle Hotel, a 4 star luxury family-owned Hotel in Co. Meath, Ireland
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Gradguide’s management team celebrated one year of going full-time in their roles this past April, in what has been an incredible journey so far, helping over 15,000 students and graduates to land roles at some of the world’s leading and most exciting tech companies.Not only that, but there have been some fantastic achievements made by the team thus far, with the first half of 2022 being some of their busiest months yet.
The past six months have saw Gradguide:
- Host their second ever career fair with over 2,800 attendees.
- Kick start their Campus Ambassador Programme, offering students hands-on experience
- Launch “The Gradguide Podcast” to help students and graduates transition into the working world and breakdown strategies to kick start their career within tech. (Over 1,000 downloads so far!).
- Sponsor the feature race and spoke during live TV coverage of the Leopardstown Student Race Day.
- Attend Q-Summit, the largest entrepreneurship and innovation conference in Germany that is solely organised by students, to continue expansion into the German market.
- Partner with two NGO’s in INCO Academy & SPEAK to provide jobs to less represented students and graduates.
- Run multiple in-person company presentations and workshops with university partners across Ireland and the UK.
- Develop over 60 company partner relationships, with the most recently formed partnerships being with & Open, Clear Strategy & Supermetrics.
- Host first in-person mentor meet-up to celebrate each of our 300+ mentors.
- Deliver two company presentations at Dublin Tech Summit, Europe’s fastest growing tech conference.
CEO and Founder, Mark Hughes has detailed how proud he is for all the hard work that each team member has put into growing Gradguide and is looking forward to the next six months already."
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Workplace Updates
CluneTech reimagines the employee experience to deliver better work-life balance
“My hope, and that of the rest of CluneTech’s leadership team, is that these additional benefits help our people to make the most of their free time, all while knowing CluneTech cares about them and their wellbeing”
In May 2022, CluneTech has announced significant changes to its employee benefits package, placing a clear emphasis on employee wellbeing and work-life balance.
The enhancements reaffirm our commitment to creating a flexible and responsive working environment where people feel valued for their individual skills and contributions, and where they are supported to truly reach their full potential.
Our new global benefits include “Lifework Days” ̶ an additional half day’s leave per quarter where employees can get their life jobs done without having to use their hard-earned annual leave. Whether it’s renewing insurance, getting the car NCT’d, or taking the kids to the beach, all can be done during this additional leave.
CluneTech is also introducing summer flex hours where employees can work their standard five-day week across four and a half days. The company expects that most people will take a half day on a Friday, giving them a longer weekend through the summer, but where possible, employees will be able to choose whichever half-day suits them.
Other initiatives introduced by us include Meeting Free Days, to help free up employees’ time and enable them to carry out focused work without disruption, or take that time off without missing important meetings.
CluneTech has also enhanced its benefits for employees in Ireland, who are set to enjoy more annual leave days, increased sick leave support and earlier access to top-up salary for maternity leave and paternity leave, among a range of employee supports and benefits. At the beginning of 2022, our Bulgarian team also saw a change in their paid annual leave which increased from 20 to 22 days.
To learn more about our country-specific benefits, check out Employee Benefits sections for Bulgaria and Ireland on Workvivo.
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CluneTech recognized as a truly Great Place to Work
With increasing competition in the jobs market, CluneTech aims to stay ahead of the curve in attracting and retaining talent across its companies. Following our commitment to creating a workplace of choice, we were delighted to be recognised as one of Ireland’s Best Workplaces for the seventh year running. CluneTech was listed as the 20th Best Large Workplace in Ireland at the annual awards ceremony hosted by Marty Whelan and broadcast virtually on 23rd March, 2022.
The overall Great Place to Work Awards took place just a short time after CluneTech was recognised as a Best Workplace for Women™. This accreditation recognises those organisations that are creating positive and supportive workplaces for women in particular. CluneTech bucks the gender gap trend, with women making up more than 46% of employees in Ireland, and 58% of our total workforce worldwide. This puts us well ahead of the industry average of 33% overall female representation in global technology firms, as predicted for 2022 by Deloitte Global.
Speaking of tech, in May 2022 CluneTech was officially recognised as one of Ireland’s Best Workplaces in Tech for the accreditation’s second year. The accolade was earned after a thorough and independent analysis conducted by Great Place to Work Institute Ireland. Introduced in 2021, the process is based on direct feedback from employees, provided as part of an extensive and anonymous survey about the employee experience.
CluneTech Founder and CEO, Terry Clune, shared: “As a group of global software technology companies, this recognition is very important to us. I want to thank our employees, in Ireland and worldwide, who embody our culture and our shared values. Our people are at the heart of everything we do, and we’re proud to be named as one of Ireland’s Best Workplaces. Our aim is to continuously improve our culture and working environment in support of all our employees.”
About Great Place to Work Accreditation
The Best Workplaces in Ireland™ awards are part of the Great Place to Work programme, whose purpose is to celebrate organisations that have committed to creating a high-trust organisation. The award accreditation is based on direct feedback from employees, provided as part of an extensive and anonymous survey about the workplace experience, along with a culture audit carried out by each organisation. In addition to providing invaluable insights into the employee experience, the feedback serves to inform improvements that each organisation can make to enhance their workplace. The Best Large Workplace Awards are designed for companies with more than 250 employees.
The full 2022 list of organisations and award winners, as well as rankings from previous years, are available at www.greatplacetowork.ie.
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Learning & Development at CluneTech
Learning is a key aspect of our lives. It enhances our skills, knowledge, and competency and results in better performance and greater employee satisfaction. Therefore, here at CluneTech we take Learning & Development really seriously. Here are some of the great things Learning and Development that happened in CluneTech lately.
Tihomir Kolev
WinTel Admin Jr.
Miroslav Tsolov
IT Service Desk Engineer
Yordan Slavov
Customer Service Representative
Manager Development
Throughout the quarter, a total of 85 people managers have begun to undertake their journey on our in-house Manager Development Programme. This programme is aimed at providing consistency on how we lead our people across CluneTech, provide the foundations to inspire and motivate our people, and achieve sustainable business results. Across 5 individual 90 minute modules, we discuss creating a thriving work environment, explain how we all play our part, develop people, build relationships and achieve sustainably.So far our participants have rated the training very positively:
Quality: 96%
Interaction: 94%
Relevance: 94%
This journey will continue into our second quarter before celebrating those who have completed their full journey. If you would like to sign up, we will welcome new participants for another journey in August. Meanwhile you can learn more from our pilot participants in 2021 on Workvivo.
Skills Development Programmes
We have worked with internal and external partners to build skills development programmes to compliment some of our first quarter business objectives.In January, one of our project managers ran a very informative introduction to Agile Methodologies where she discussed Scrum, Kanban and how they are applied into day to day roles. Training recordings and support materials can be accessed on Workvivo. To help with plans to return to new forms of flexible and hybrid working, we undertook a series of learning modules to help prepare for the new ways of working. We focused on supporting managers to have hybrid working conversations, hybrid working top tips for all, maintaining social connections, building resilience and demonstrating emotional intelligence. Access training recordings and support material here.
Every mistake is a learning opportunity
At Clune Tech we are passionate about creating a culture of learning. This means creating an environment to foster learning and development and adopting learning principles into the flow of work. We can all do little things in our day that helps us to grow, learn and development at work. One easy this we can do is change how we view mistakes.
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CluneTech■ Values
At CluneTech, our #OneTeam culture is central to everything we do. The goal of #OneTeam is to ensure that CluneTech is a place where people feel included and empowered to make decisions. In order to achieve this, we must attract, retain and develop the best talent while fostering collaboration between teams across the group. It's essential that we work together by reaching out for help, and also providing support when needed. Every employee within the group plays a critical role in the company’s overall success and company successes should be shared with everyone. We must commit to creating an environment that allows everyone to go beyond their limitations. In a nutshell, #OneTeam means working smarter, working better and working together as #OneTeam.
Our #OneTeam culture is articulated and brought to life through four values:
#OneTeam
In a world that is constantly evolving, we seek to foster collaboration between teams to proactively adapt our models and processes to meet client and market needs. In order to revolutionise the industries in which we operate, we aim to attract and retain the best talent, and promote and celebrate great work.
Innovation
The essence of our organisation is one born from entrepreneurial spirit. We celebrate creativity, thinking outside of the box and coming up with new ideas, products and services. We are open to ideas that challenge the norm and drive innovation. We innovate to influence the markets we play in.
Passion
What we do, we do well, and we are committed to always asking our customers and our people “what can we do better?”.Our passion is what drives our desire for continuous improvement and we are always future focused and action oriented.
Respect
We respect and support each other both as people and as colleagues. We’re welcoming, authentic and see strength in diversity. It is our duty to be fair to everyone in our organisation. We believe that all individuals can and want to contribute to their fullest potential at CluneTech.
What do our values mean to you?
#OneTeam:
“I joined the great team of Taxback more than 15 years ago. Since then, I’ve seen this company grow as a family, create all the opportunities for every employee to reach their true potential, always respond empathetically to our needs and the challenges we face – and the last 2 years had a lot of challenges! During the pandemic, maybe even more than before, we’ve seen the fruits of our commitment to our values: great collaboration between people and between departments, communication, innovation, inclusion. I am happy and proud to be part of this great, great team!”
Daniela Solnitzky
Payments Administrator,
Taxback.com
Respect:
“In our organization, respect is not just another “beautiful concept”, it’s a practical concern. I am an eyewitness to the constant effort to be open and receptive to all ideas at all levels of the corporation, regardless of cultural differences, gender or beliefs. We all have a voice.”
Marcelo Tanaka
BDM / LO Sales Team Leader, Taxback.com
Passion:
“There is a clear desire across the entire group to collectively meet goals and expectations set at the beginning of each year, and the growth of the business is evidence of that. People here are extremely passionate about their work, and are given the opportunity to express their talents on a day to day basis” - Decky McQuillan, Client Onboarding Manager, TransferMate
Declan McQuillan
Client Onboarding Manager, TransferMate
Innovation:
When we talk about innovation, we should divide it into three main areas for our company:
- The first one is innovation in our business. We are trying to provide innovative products and services for our clients and by this, I mean that we are offering different services that have never been offered by anyone else in the way that we are presenting them. Projects like E-Filing, the first software that allows US Nonresidents to file their income tax returns completely online etc.
- The second innovation approach is for solving software problems by thinking outside the box. We are developing custom frameworks and solutions to simplify the development process while simultaneously providing the best user experience. One example for this is our Question Framework that is capable of handling even the most complex decision-making grid.
- The last one is people's innovation. Nowadays there is a shortage of experienced developers which is a big problem for companies that are expanding. Instead of looking for highly qualified people, we are looking for people that have a lot of potential, but no experience, and we are giving them the opportunity to develop themselves and a chance to shine. Thanks to this policy, a lot of young and motivated people that are rejected by other businesses because of their lack of experience, have the possibility to start their great path to the stars.” - Elena Koeva, .NET Developer, Sprintax
Elena Koeva
.NET Developer,
Sprintax
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CluneTech Cares Q1 & Q2 Recap
Our CSR Programme - CluneTech Cares, is a fantastic representation of what we are - a team of truly caring individuals giving our best to support and add value, not only to our customers, but also to the communities in which we operate. It has been a busy six months and we're delighted to see some in-person fundraisers taking place again! Below are just some of our latest activities.
Charity Business Run and another €4,000 donation for Karin Dom's Therapeutic Centre
Coalition for the Homeless, New York Donation
€5,000 Donation for life-saving equipment for Vinitsa Children's Medical Centre
Monere Development's Thriving Teens Programme Sponsorship
Help for the Ukrainian refugees in Varna
Fundraiser for Jamie who’s fighting brain cancer
Daffodil Day raising money for the Irish Cancer Society
Career Counseling Program in Varna, Bulgaria, helping young people in their career exploration
Shoes for the youngsters from Community-based social service “Izgrev” in Varna
Therapeutic Juggling Table for kids with special needs in Veliko Tarnovo
Volunteering at CluneTech
Introduced in 2021, our CSR Volunteer Day empowers each employee to give back to the charities and causes closest to them. Since the inception of Volunteer Day 58 CluneTech employees contributed to causes which they find meaningful, and this number keeps growing. See some of them below
Daniela Tsoneva and Toni Ivanova, supporting the young ladies from the Gavroche Shelter in Varna, Bulgaria
Ralitsa Mladenova and Galina Kirilova, supporting the local Red Cross Centre in Veliko Tarnovo.
Joanne Buckeridge who volunteered at CBS Primary Kilkenny
To see more from our volunteers, check out CluneTech Cares Space on Workvivo.
CluneTech Goes Green
With one of the key pillars of our CSR Programme CluneTech Cares being sustainability, we could not miss all recent events under the #CluneTechGoesGreen unbrella which we organized for our staff globally. These included daily sustainability tips, recycling and grow your own veg webinars, and last but not least - in-person clean-up events. See them below.
CluneTech & Leave No Trace clean-up event for World Earth Day on April 22nd
#NoElevatorsDay and #StairsWithoutWaste in Varna, Bulgaria
Grow Your Own Veg Webinar
Recycling Done Right Webinar
CluneTech Cares is led by our employees!
CluneTech Cares is employee-led programme which has three key pillars: Wellness, Culture & Community, and Sustainability. It revolves all around your input, and we're incredibly proud to support the charities and causes that are closest to your hearts. With this being said, we want to remind you that you can submit your request by emailing gptw@clunetech.com
Want to know everything #CSR and get more inspiring volunteering ideas and content? Join CluneTech’s CSR Space or check our Q1 and Q2 CSR recap articles on Workvivo.
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7 reasons why CluneTech is a Great Place to Work
“A Great Place to Work is one where: you trust the people you work for, have pride in what you do, and enjoy the people you work with.” – Robert Levering, Co-Founder of Great Place to Work
For the 7th consecutive year, CluneTech has been recognised as a “Great Place to Work” and as a “Best Workplace for Women”. In addition, we were extremely proud to be recognised as a “Best Workplace in Tech” for the accreditation’s second year.
As we celebrate our 7th year being recognised and a 20th place ranking, we want to take a look at 7 of the main reasons why CluneTech is a Great Place to Work.
1. #OneTeam
Culture Our Great Place to Work accreditation can be largely attributed to our incredible #OneTeam culture that fosters collaboration, innovation, and entrepreneurship. In a world that is constantly evolving, our teams work together to proactively adapt our models and processes to meet client and market needs.
At the core of this #OneTeam culture is of course our amazing people. We employ over 1,500 employees in 20 countries, all of whom passionately work together towards one common goal – making business better. At CluneTech, we are unique in that we have six CEOs across the Group, all of whom live by our values, inspire innovation, set a phenomenal example, and most importantly, trust and empower our teams to drive CluneTech forward.
2. Work-Life Balance
Work-life balance is hugely important to us and we aspire to make CluneTech a company where the people closest to us would want to work. We all have a unique challenge in integrating our work and personal lives and in acknowledging that, we want to encourage flexibility to ensure our employees can achieve an optimum work-life fit.
As part of this commitment, we have implemented our very first permanent Flexible Working Policy which saw the introduction of a number of flexible work opportunities for staff, and indicated to all that remote and flexible working are here to stay. These opportunities include; hybrid working, remote working, flexi-time, part-time roles, job sharing, IVF and pregnancy support leave, and much more! We also recently increased the annual leave allowance for our Bulgarian teams from 20 to 22 days.
3. Connect. Collaborate. Engage.
Our internal communications strategy is based on 3 core pillars: Connect. Collaborate. Engage. These three pillars guide our activities, ensuring that all communication and engagement initiatives are aligned with our #OneTeam mantra and culture.
Connect – Firstly, we aim to connect with our employees in a meaningful way. It is of paramount importance that our people feel involved in our communications and are given a reason to continuously check our internal communications platform, Workvivo. Since moving to remote working in 2020, we have gone to great lengths to ensure that everyone stays connected while working apart. We run a jam-packed calendar of virtual events, run countless competitions, host virtual spaces where people with similar interests can come together and communicate, and much more.
Collaborate - As part of our internal communications strategy, we craft initiatives that inspire active involvement and collaboration between our teams. An example of this is our Zoom-In Thought Leadership Sessions - a peer learning initiative where anyone in the organisation can volunteer to run a 45 Minute training session globally for their colleagues via Zoom.
Engage - The final, and arguably the most important, pillar of our internal communications strategy is Engage. By engaging our employees, our aim is to bring our #OneTeam culture to life and ensure that our workplace is one that our employees love to be a part of. This is done through various means of celebrating, recognising and thanking our people for continuously going above and beyond.
4. Feedback, Feedback, Feedback!
At CluneTech, we want to ensure that our employees are given every possible opportunity to have their voice heard. After all, we have a fantastic history of employee feedback and ideas that have led to the implementation of hugely beneficial initiatives for the Group. Last year we felt that the lack of a more frequent, formalized outlet for employees to submit feedback was hindering our ability to harness their ideas and use them to better our work environment. Thus, the decision was made to introduce our Quarterly Pulse Survey, which goes live on Workvivo at the beginning of each quarter. The Pulse Survey enables us to pulse check employee engagement and satisfaction, while facilitating open and honest feedback through an anonymous channel.
This is just one of the many ways our people can submit feedback. Other available channels include our Anonymous Feedback Survey, the Great Place to Work Trust Index Survey©, and our global Great Place to Work focus groups.
5. Giving Back - CluneTech Cares
CluneTech Cares, our CSR programme, is a great representation of what we are – a team of truly caring individuals, giving their best to support and add value, not only to our customers and our teammates, but also to the communities in which we live and operate! CluneTech recognises that participating in these sort of activities contributes not only to the development of communities, but also enriches the lives and promotes the wellbeing of our people. Hence why we introduced a Volunteer Day to our employee benefits in 2021.
CluneTech Cares is an award-winning programme, picking up the award for ‘Best Use of CSR’ at the 2021 HR Management & Leadership Awards'. In 2021, we supported 34 different causes across the world. These included the Irish Cancer Society, Karin Dom, Race for the Cure, A Very Special Place Inc, MS Ireland, Jack & Jill, E-ducare and many more.
6. Our Great Place to Work Team
It is safe to say that our organisation would not have improved as much as it has culturally without our magnificent Great Place to Work Team.
What do the Great Place to Work Team do?
• CluneTech’s Great Place to Work Team consists of volunteers from all areas across the group.
• Essentially, they’re the voice of the employees, ensuring that your views are brought To management.
• Their aim is to promote positive change through a happier work environment, both now and in the future.
• One of their key focus areas is to improve the employee experience so that we can both attract and retain top talent.
7. Always Striving for Better
And last but not least, is our commitment to continuous improvement. Similar to our products and services, when it comes to our culture and benefits, we regularly ask our people “what can we do better?”. Here’s a brief recap on some of the many initiatives that have been implemented as a direct result of employee feedback through Great Place to Work.
• Summer Flex Hours.
CluneTech employees can now work their 5 day working week across 4.5 days. In most instances, employees will use this benefit as an opportunity to finish early on a Friday ahead of the weekend.
• Lifework Days.
We don’t think you should have to use your hard-earned annual leave just to deal with the day to day jobs that pop up in life. That’s why, effective from July 1st 2022, we’re introducing Lifework Days; a ½ each quarter where you can get your lifework done.
• Volunteer Day.
Introduced in 2021, our CSR Volunteer Day empowers each employee to give back to the charities and causes closest to them.
• Workvivo.
Prior to December 2019, we had a pretty outdated intranet. Workvivo was implemented to better allow our global teams to communicate and stay in touch in a fun and engaging way!
If you, like us, think that great things worth sharing, than bringing a friend to CluneTech might be the next best thing you can do. Our Refer-a-Friend Programme is a great way for you to help a friend find a job and get rewarded. Learn all about our programe by visiting Employee Benefits Space Ireland or Bulgaria.
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Work-Life Balance
Onsite events are back!
In June our teams created a splash with the return of in-person events at CluneTech!
From kayaking in the beautiful Kamchiya River in Varna, Bulgaria to stand up paddle boarding in (the much colder) Dun Laoghaire in Dublin, Ireland, our teams were so excited to be back together again
Here's to a summer of making up for lost time 🌞
Meetings in Person
One of the best things that happened to all of us lately is having the ability to meet again in person. It is, without a doubt, great to meet each other again after such a long two years and to celebrate our achievements and life together.
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Employee advocacy on social media - what is it and how to do it right?
Social media advocacy comes down to employees sharing company’s content on their personal social media accounts. Everything from job postings (and other resources for job seekers), blog articles, and industry resources, to new product launches, counts as employee advocacy. Employee social media advocacy can help building trust between the brands and their followers and increase CluneTech group of companies brand awareness.
Some of the great effects of employee social media advocacy include:
• Positive impact on sales due to increased brand awareness and favorable perceptions (“brand sentiment”).
• It improves staff recruitment, retention, and engagement.
Employee social media advocacy works better than advertising but why?
Average people like themselves. 93% of people trust brand information shared by their friends and family, while only a fraction of those same people trust general social media posts (51%) or advertising (38%).
Social media advocacy posts are win-win for all parties involved as it can also help YOU - the employees.
Besides helping the organization, promoting company specific content on social media can help you enhance your credibility and position yourselves as industry expert. Nearly 86% of employees involved in a social advocacy say it had a positive effect on their careers.
How can I do it?
There’s no one right way to do social advocacy. Everything from announcing your new job on LinkedIn, to sharing company content, or talking about something you like about your workplace can improve the brand perception!
Don’t underestimate the power of personal message and adding the relevant hashtags tо your posts /for example #CluneTech #OneTeam #CluneTechCares/ as this increases not only the visibility, but also the credibility of your posts and builds trust.
Some great examples for social advocacy posts from CluneTech employees
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CluneTech photo competition winners Q1 and Q2
Back in January, we have launched our brand new Quarterly Photography Competition! Each quarter we are giving you the chance to win some great prizes simply by posting the best pictures that you have taken. Besides getting some great prizes, our winners have their picture featured as the background of Core for the remainder of the quarter. See what our two latest winners had to share about the photos they have taken.
The photo was taken during a trip from the photography course in which I am enrolled in. Actually, it was very hard to make it as we were more than 40 people and the road over the place is very tight. The location is in the Rhodope Mountains, the meander of Arda River and it is really worth it to be seen.
Kalina Vakova
Immedis - Q2 winner
This picture was taken on the cold morning of November 3rd, in Varna. An interesting thing about it is that it took me 10 minutes and a splash of cold wave to take this shot. The results were obvious; I had a wet sock and a beautiful photo to share with you.
Mariya Yo Yordanova
Sprintax - Q1 winner
If you want to be part of this, make sure to check Wirkvivo for the next round of our competition. The winner of each quarterly photo competition receives a pair of Apple AirPods and has their photo displayed as the background of Core HR so get entering!
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What our new-found flexibility means to you?
The health, safety, and wellbeing of our staff is our top priority. We aspire to make CluneTech a company where the people closest to us would want to work. We all have a unique challenge in integrating our work and personal lives and in acknowledging that, we want to encourage flexibility to ensure that our employees can achieve an optimum work-life balance.
With this in mind in 2020 we implemented our very first Flexible Working Policy which saw the introduction of a number of flexible work opportunities for our people and confirmed that a hybrid model and flexibility are the new reality that is here to stay. As employees begin to return to offices all over the world, we wanted to highlight and discuss what our new-found flexibility means for them.
I’m thrilled to see the addition of the Summer Flex Hours this year! This is a huge benefit over the summer months and allows me to balance the demands of work with personal life. I can work up my hours through the week to finish early on a Friday, meaning Friday afternoons can be spent getting all the necessary things ticked off the list ahead of the weekend, so I’m actually able to enjoy my weekend ‘off’!
Sinead Rookard
Marketing Executive, Taxback International
I am happy that I can choose whether to work remotely or from the office! This allows me to have quiet days at home where I can spend time on more creative and focus-oriented tasks, and go straight to the office in case I have events, meetings or just want to socialize. For me hybrid working is the best as it gives me the perfect balance between focus and real, face-to-face interation!
Kristina Ilieva
Marketing & Communications, CluneTech
To learn more about how CluneTech supports Flexbile working check out our blog posts on Flexible Working at CluneTech explained, our new global flexi benefits, and our Flexible Working Policy on Workvivo.
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