The institution – if it covers occupational diseases – participates in the development of a national strategy on occupational diseases and the regular updating of the national list of occupational diseases.

The institution cooperates with national and international institutes to share research and development work and establish global research and development networks.

Member organizations of the International Social Security Association (ISSA) that are involved in the management of employment insurance and assistance schemes, either directly or indirectly, comprise a broad and diverse group of social security institutions. In addition to evolving economic, demographic and labour market changes, new and significant challenges are being imposed on many of these organizations.

Continuous training and appropriate guidance are available for workers throughout their careers.

The benefits are delivered on time and accurately.

It is essential that social security institutions engaged in the promotion, advocacy and support of effective return-to-work programmes include a broad range of institutional and individual stakeholders in this process.

Internal and external business units and professionals play important roles in the return-to-work process to support and facilitate the return to work.

Key professionals include the human resources manager, employee representatives, medical and other care and rehabilitation professionals, and other collaborators in the return-to-work field.

The return-to-work field is complex and involves many stakeholders, including the social security institution, other government agencies, employers, trade union organizations, health-care professionals, service providers and people whose jobs are in jeopardy as a result of an injury, illness, or acute, long-term or chronic health condition.

The institution adopts a formal methodological approach to service quality starting with a clear statement on the importance of service quality and how it intends to deliver and measure it.

The social security institution must have a legal and financial mandate for its role as a workplace health promoter. The mandate defines the institution’s scope of action and allows individualized services as well as community-based workplace health promotion activities. The mandate establishes a statutory right to health promotion services for insured persons. It may also state that a specified amount of the social health insurance budget may be used for (workplace) health promotion.

The social security institution supports a workplace review to identify existing structures and activities which support workplace health promotion and develop a health profile of the target population.

The institution encourages and enables good communication practice in workplace health promotion.

Assumptions used for a valuation of a social security scheme are sufficient to value the scheme in accordance with its financing objectives and consistent with the overall socio-economic environment of the country. The development of assumptions combines the analysis of historical trends with a forward-looking approach. Social security institutions assign major responsibilities to an actuary in the assumption-setting process.

Where it is the responsibility of the actuary, he or she uses appropriate methodology and assumptions to determine the conversion factors of lump sums to income. Unless these factors are set so as to meet specific policy objectives, they are determined as cost-neutral. If the factors are not cost-neutral, the actuary discloses this fully and determines and reports on the implications on adequacy and sustainability of the scheme.

The social security institution sets out appropriate processes and structures to measure risk.

The measurement of risk consists of assessing the frequency and severity of the risks identified as well as the likely distribution of outcomes. The frequency of a risk is the probability the event will occur; the severity is the financial implication; while the distribution refers to how widely outcomes are likely to vary from the mean expected event.

The current legal and effective coverage situation are analysed both in the light of current legislation and scheme administration, as well as within the global context of employment trends and population changes which may trigger changes in both legal and effective coverage.

The institution develops a long-term social security coverage extension plan subject to the guidance and support of the relevant authority. The inclusion of relevant stakeholders in the development of the plan helps to identify issues early but also helps in securing external support in the implementation phase.

The institution combines administrative solutions with supporting policy measures to foster compliance with minimal intervention required.

To increase the efficiency and effectiveness of its communication activities, the institution identifies the major groups and sub-groups of its stakeholders.

The communication unit establishes service level agreements with relevant internal units for the provision of communication services.

The ISSA defines governance as the manner in which the vested authority uses its powers to achieve the institution’s objectives, including its powers to design, implement and innovate the organization’s policies, rules, systems and processes, and to engage and involve its stakeholders.

The institution defines a strategy on fraud control and error risk management.

The strategy should include an organizational structure, specialization of roles (e.g. analysis, planning, control in the field), methodologies and procedures. It should balance preventive and corrective approaches, and be based on both intensive use of information and field activities (on-site inspections).

The concept of governance is understood in many ways by different people. Its definition often depends on the goals to be pursued, the entities involved, and the socio-political environment within which these goals are to be achieved.

The board implements the established actuarial measures to ensure the financial sustainability of each of the social security programmes established by the institution. For institutions that have investment reserve funds, standards and benchmarks are established for the returns on investments to support the financial sustainability of the social security programmes.

The principle of accountability is at the heart of good governance. At a political level, it means making rulers accountable to the ruled. To enforce accountability, governance structures and mechanisms are needed to enable the principals to hold their chosen trustees legally responsible for their acts and decisions.