Co-operation and networking across institutions is an essential factor in successful occupational reinsertion. The customer (always an accident victim in the context of what follows) should be able to benefit from as comprehensive a service as possible from social insurance institutions.

When unemployment and accident come together accident victims are faced with an accumulation of problems. In Switzerland the situation is made even worse since in such cases several separate independent bodies have a role to play: the Regional Employment Service, the Unemployment Insurance Fund and the Swiss National Accident Insurance Fund. In the past there was scarcely any co-ordination between any of the processes, which led to an inefficient use of resources and dissatisfied accident victims. Insurance benefits were unnecessarily high because accident victims had to concentrate all their efforts on obtaining benefits instead of recovering the ability to work quickly.

To address this situation the processes of all the institutions were merged into a single process focussed on the accident victim. Aids for simplified electronic communication were developed, process owners were defined and staff awareness was promoted.

This improvement scheme enabled accident victims to benefit from unbureaucratic advice and support across the institutions involved, staff expanded their own knowledge through training courses and increased satisfaction, effectiveness and efficiency was achieved as a result of process improvements.