The objectives and actions of the Head of Management and senior officers are aligned with those of the board in pursuit of the mandated mission of the institution.

The management enforces compliance with the duties and responsibilities of the members of the institution.

Risk management involves having policies, measures and approaches to manage, mitigate or prevent the detrimental effects of risks faced by the institution. Whether risks arise from internal or external factors, the goal is to defuse their detrimental effects on the administration of the social security programme, including its financial sustainability; fund investments; the management of coverage and contributions, and the delivery of member benefits and services; and human and ICT resources capacities.

There are many areas to be addressed in enforcing the prudent person principle in the investment of social security funds. These guidelines are addressed specifically to institutions with internal investment units.

The institution provides its members with quality service in the collection of programme contributions.

The use of information and communication technology (ICT) in social security institutions represents a global trend. As institutions turn to ICT, the goal is the development of solutions that enable them to accomplish their mission, providing high-quality services, satisfying stakeholders and improving efficiency of key processes. Moreover, the challenges resulting from social security’s permanent evolution require a more intensive and sophisticated use of technology in the social security domain.

The institution monitors the performance of ICT-enabled investments and services, evaluates whether they generate the expected value and match the institution’s goals, and determines whether adjustments are necessary.

The overall goal is to ensure that value is created and continues to be created throughout the investment life cycle.

The institution establishes an interoperability framework to formalize a systematic and standardized approach to the implementation of integrated social security systems.

The framework covers all levels of the organization and specifies the political and legal context, the business processes and concepts involved in interoperability operations, and the technologies used to implement them.

The institution establishes a framework for the application of mobile technologies which defines the main procedures, duties and responsibilities, and technical standards, and includes an application strategy plan.

The application strategy could be a medium-term, three- to five-year plan.

The institution defines architectures for the master data system, the master data governance system and the master data management system.

These three information systems should be adequately defined and conveniently integrated into the institutional architecture in order to better support the master data operations through the master data life cycle. This implies designing adequate architectural styles for the master data systems and the management information system in order to leverage maximum value for the institution’s master data.

Interoperability techniques enable the connection of the systems of different institutions, particularly at the international level; they are therefore among the essential technologies for implementing international social security agreements. The specific guidelines in this section are:

• Interoperability framework for international agreements
• Semantic interoperability
• Interoperable services

The ISSA Guidelines for Social Security Administration were prepared by the ISSA General Secretariat with the ISSA technical commissions.

For social security institutions that have an investment mandate, legislation, policy or decree may establish the general direction of the investment policy and prescribe the types of allowed investment instruments. Any legal or regulatory restriction is documented and incorporated into the social security institution’s investment mission and strategy or appropriately communicated to external investment managers.

The investing institution follows the prudent person principle in managing the funds of the social security institution.

This principle requires that a person exercises the same care, diligence and skill in discharging his/her duties of office as a reasonably prudent person would exercise in comparable circumstances. The prudent person principle is integral to the fiduciary duties of the board and management in administering and managing the funds of the social security institution.

In order to structure and prioritize their occupational safety and health activities, social security institutions establish a prevention framework focusing on four key areas of action: workplace safety and health, safe technology, individual prevention capacities and behaviour, and clear instructions/guidance. If all these are addressed systematically, continuous improvement in safety and health can be expected.

Economic incentives in occupational safety and health refer to ways of rewarding enterprises for high levels of safety and health at work. While the government can reward an enterprise for improving its occupational safety and health performance by lowering its tax rates, social security institutions can use various means, including economic incentives, to reflect the safety and health performance of the enterprises they cover.

The institution maintains a database on occupational health risk exposure to arrange for medical screening and long-term follow-up, to collect exposure and diagnostic data and to verify insurance claims based on suspected occupational diseases.

The institution conducts training in prevention as a means to develop prevention skills and knowledge.

The following guidelines are organized in six parts:

Part A, Basic Principles, incorporates six guidelines and provides guidance on the identification of stakeholders, the legal basis of the programme for return to work after unemployment, and the need to refer to international good practice. It also deals with the evaluation of policies, programmes and services and the good governance of institutions.

Flexible short-term working arrangements and programming are facilitated through partial unemployment schemes in order to avoid or minimize lay-offs owing to temporary fluctuations in demand.

The authorities and competent institutions are responsible for setting up a framework that promotes the creation and development of stable and quality employment.

The return-to-work programme is supported by public policy, legislation, standards and other declarations. Knowledge of relevant instruments is essential to meeting reporting and accountability obligations.

There is compliance with professional and ethical obligations to ensure provision of appropriate services to the person concerned in the most efficient and cost-effective manner to achieve quality outcomes that are compatible with their individual requirements.

Those responsible for return-to-work services are certified to have achieved, and maintain, internationally recognized levels of professional competence. The same professional standards and certification requirements are promoted to their counterparts in partner and stakeholder organizations.

As the process of ensuring successful job retention and return-to-work outcomes is continuously evolving, those responsible for return-to-work services must achieve and maintain certified professional competence.

The institution considers and embeds quality at each stage of product development from concept (policy intent) to delivery of a social security benefit or service.

A product (or service offering) is defined as all the component elements that constitute a social security benefit or service, including: