Legislation, policy or decree defines the powers and responsibilities of the management. The powers and responsibilities of the management are clearly delineated from those of the board. There are no areas of ambiguity, dilemma or conflict of interest.

Members are regularly and promptly informed about the benefits due to them under the social security programme.

The strategic plan is cascaded to all units of the institution. Implementation is regularly monitored and assessed. The strategic plan is revisited, evaluated and fine-tuned, if necessary. Management aligns the performance trinity of strategy and vision, leadership and management, and institutional culture and values in implementing the strategic plan.

For institutions that have investment reserve funds, standards and benchmarks are established for the returns on fund investments to support the financial sustainability of the programme.

The board and management protect the institution from all forms of corruption and fraud in the payment of programme benefits.

The management ensures the integrity of existing ICT infrastructure and averts any threat of system failure. The overall goal is to ensure the high availability of the social security services.

The institution clearly defines its own concept of value and the management practices devoted to generating the results expected from ICT-related investments (in ICT-enabled initiatives, services and assets) throughout their economic life cycle.

This involves defining the value of the outcomes to be achieved, analysing the cost-result of ICT investments and evaluating the return on investment of ICT-related initiatives.

The institution establishes mechanisms to enforce security policies in ICT operations.

This includes software and patch management, protection against computer viruses and malicious codes, administration of operating systems and backups.

The institution implements measures to ensure adequate quality levels in the master data and to improve the quality when necessary.

These measures, which are based on data quality goals and indicators, typically consist of corrective master data profiling and master data cleansing operations. In order to be cost effective, the data quality goals have to be clearly defined.

If several national institutions participate in the agreement, they define an architecture covering national exchanges.

The national architecture focuses on the coordination between the liaison agency and the competent institutions in the country, enabling exchanges with cross-border institutions through the international architecture.

The institution, in coordination with the other participants in the agreement, defines service quality indicators and goals for the main operations in the agreement at the international level. In addition, the institution defines corresponding indicators and goals for its internal systems with the aim of ensuring the fulfilment of the goals established at the international level.

Investment decisions take into account the nature of the liabilities of the social security institution. In particular, investment strategy reflects the level, timing and nature of liability cash flows and the predictability of such future payment obligations.

All of the investing institution’s internal investment managers and external investment managers (“managers”) are monitored from a forward-looking perspective, with the key aim of determining whether they are likely to generate future outperformance net of fees.

The ISSA Guidelines on Prevention of Occupational Risks addresses occupational risks that are insured by social security institutions. It provides guidance on how social security institutions can develop and promote prevention activities that cover occupational accidents and occupational diseases.

The institution identifies the target groups to whom the prevention services are offered and their specific needs in prevention.

This enables the institution to produce well-focused prevention products for its target groups.

The institution supports the timely diagnosis of occupational health issues on the appearance of physical or psychological symptoms, which allows for early workplace interventions.

Such interventions could include changes to work processes, improved protective devices or the removal of workers from exposure, effective medical treatment and improving the safety behaviour of exposed employees.

The institution communicates the results of research and development to the general public and to the operational level of member enterprises to facilitate up-to-date prevention activities.

These guidelines focus on individuals who have lost or are in danger of losing their jobs as a result of economic factors, the evolution of technological processes, the relocation of production units or any other cause except illness or injury. The latter is covered in the ISSA Guidelines on Return to Work and Reintegration. These guidelines are also directed at young jobseekers who do not find work immediately after the completion of their studies.

Workers at risk of losing their jobs should be identified and provided with adequate support in order to avoid or reduce these risks.

The competent institutions encourage the reintegration of jobseekers through the correct use of both the incentive and disincentive provisions of unemployment benefit programmes.

Promotion and support of an effective return-to-work programme involves a broad range of individual and institutional stakeholders.

This usually includes but is not limited to the injured, ill or disabled person and their family, employer and employee representatives (social partners), colleagues, health-care professionals, community services, interfacing agencies, government departments, and other individually and jurisdictionally specific stakeholders.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. An individualized approach to the return to work addresses psychosocial issues related to factors such as motivation, working conditions and personal circumstances.

Those responsible for providing return-to-work services – whether within the institution or in partner and stakeholder organizations – have the requisite knowledge and skills to conform to internationally recognized levels of competence.

These guidelines assist social security institutions to: