Go Back
Module: SSW Employment Guidelines

πŸ“– Training, conferences, self-education and software licenses

Created 3 years ago by Ulysses Maclaren|

Modified 25 days ago by Matt Wicks

Note: This is one of the perks mentioned on SSW Employment page.

Follow Purchase Please for events where you are working for SSW (e.g., SSW booth in NDC) or presenting.

1. Training events & conferences

We want you to be the best you can be, and updating your skills is a big part of that. If you would like to do professional development (whether a conference e.g. NDC, a Scrum training course, or an SSW Hack Day), SSW will cover these costs:

  • Half of the $ cost of the event ($0 for SSW events)
  • Half of your travel and accommodation expenses
  • Half of your annual leave (contractors only invoice for half a day)
  • You must attend in person for local events
  • If on client work, you should give them about 1-month's notice (depending on your relationship with them)

If this event is overseas 🌏, Adam must be at least cc'd in the approval

Figure: SSW's booth at a past NDC Sydney - See Adam's blog post about it

TODO: update this when SSW EasyLeave | Training Type is implemented

2. Process for attending training and conferences

⚠️ You need to complete all 4 steps.

Step 1 - Speak with your State Manager to get approval to attend the event

Step 2 - Send an email - using Outlook | New Email | Content Chooser | All Staff Email Templates | Select event-attendance-request

Note: Speakers on SSW chargeable events are 100% covered. E.g., Dev Superpowers.

Step 3 - Send a 'meeting' to SSWAbsence using Outlook Calendar | New Meeting | Content Chooser | All Staff Email Templates | Select event-absence-half-annual-leave (Not required for weekend)

Step 4 - When entering timesheets, put in half against "Annual Leave" and half against "SSW - Training & Conferences & User Groups".

3. Developers and Designers - Self-education and software licenses

SSW provides a lot of software licenses and training materials for employees out of the box, but some people like to take things even further, and we want to encourage that πŸ˜€

πŸ’‘ Heads up: This Learning Item is a little bit of a hassle for very cheap tools.

The idea behind this SSW policy is to help reduce your cost burden (sometimes small, sometimes large) and encourage more people to consider using tools they like. Paying 50% is not a panacea, but it does help you save $ and get the tools you need to be more productive. More and more people are taking advantage of this offer, so we are seeing different tools being used each year.

If you'd like to purchase these self-learning materials or software licenses, get pre-approval from Brady via email (no verbal approvals).

If approved then SSW will pay 50% of the purchase price.

Approved self-learning materials and software licenses are:

  • GitHub Copilot
  • JetBrains Rider
  • Pluralsight subscription
  • A Cloud Guru
  • ReSharper
  • Gitkraken
  • SnagIt (Pro version)
  • Camtasia (Pro version)
  • Grammarly
  • Password Manager e.g. 1Password

If you think there is anything missing from this list, talk to Brady. The special approval is only valid for up to 1 year, to renew it, you need a new approval.

Annual subscriptions are encouraged. Any monthly or consumption based licenses won't get approved as the accounting efforts almost always outweighs the original purchase price.

Tip: Remember that the 50% you pay is also likely to be tax deductible, so you might end up paying only 25% of the full cost, once you've put in your tax return. (Based on $100K salary and no deductions.)

❌ Ineligible software licenses (because they are too ubiquitous, or are only charged monthly or by consumption) examples:

  • AI Text Generation Tools (e.g. ChatGPT)
  • AI Image Generation Tools (e.g. MidJourney)

4. Non-Devs - Self-education and software licenses

At SSW, we recognize the value of acquiring professional skills and certifications (e.g. CPA membership for accountants or Loom for video recording). To ensure a smooth and efficient reimbursement process, it is essential that you obtain pre-approval from Brady or Stephan directly, before embarking on your self-education or certification journey.

Non-developers can follow the same email template for developers below, sending it to Stephan (cc Brady and SSWAccountants@).

5. Process for purchasing self-learning materials and software licenses

Warning: You must get authorization prior to purchase.

Once you have pre-approval:

  1. Purchase the Tools/Materials
  2. Add an Employee Benefits entry against your User in Dynamics 365 (see next section for detailed instructions)
  3. Send the Purchasing Tools/Materials approval email using Outlook | New Email | Content Chooser | All Staff Email Templates | Select purchasing-tools-and-materials
    (remember to drop the cents as per https://ssw.com.au/rules/avoid-using-too-many-decimals/)

To renew the eligible Tools/Materials, reply to the initial approval and follow the steps to add your CRM and XeroMe record again.

πŸ“£ Tip: Tell the world about cool tools you use! We encourage you to write up a social media post to promote them and indicate why it is useful. This helps spread the word to other developers and shows that we like to use cool stuff!

French Office: You should send the Purchasing Tools/Materials approval email using Outlook | New Email | Content Chooser | All Staff Email Templates | Select purchasing-tools-materials-french-office
Tip: Remember to drop the cents as per https://ssw.com.au/rules/avoid-using-too-many-decimals/)

πŸ—οΈ Condition: SSW will get the benefit of this for 12 months. Employee benefits provided within the last 12 months of employment are deducted from your final pay.

Note: You will be introduced to the CRM in a later module so don’t worry about setting it up