Risk management is the process of identifying, analysing, accepting, mitigating or transferring uncertainty in investment decisions. Fund managers apply risk management by analysing and attempting to quantify the potential loss of an investment and then acting accordingly.

We were predicting that a large number of persons who had fled the Russian aggression in Ukraine to Finland and are under temporary protection would become customers of the Social Insurance Institution (Kansaneläkelaitos – Kela) after residing in the country for one year and thus getting broader entitlement to Kela benefits. The risk was that our customer service would get strained by many new customers seeking assistance and that our benefits processing would get overloaded with a large number of new applications under a relatively short period.

A family leave reform was introduced in Finland in 2022. The aims of the reform included a more even distribution of family leave and childcare responsibilities between parents and better equality on the labour market. In support of these aims, we created an easy-to-use online calculator that parents can use to get an idea of the impact that sharing the family leave between parents is likely to have on the family’s income. Sharing the entitlement to family leave can often prove financially worthwhile.

Institutions are being transformed thanks to the integration of new technologies. This vision represents a corporate change with a social impact, reducing costs, simplifying processes and procedures, and raising awareness of the importance and benefits of this transformation.

Having easy access to accurate and up-to-date information on social security is important to all levels of government as well as the private sector and the media. The Social Insurance Institution (Kansaneläkelaitos) – Kela, as a key institution on social security in Finland, produces such information and wants to maximize its usability for interested parties. To achieve this strategic goal, a new web service, Kela’s Info Tray, was launched in September 2022.

Article 12 of Law No. 5508 on the Promotion, Protection of Maternity and Support for Breastfeeding establishes that maternity allowance should be paid to employed women by the social security scheme of Paraguay’s Social Insurance Institute (Instituto de Previsión Social – IPS). This amount is equivalent to 100 per cent of her salary at the time of delivery, and is paid for the prescribed months of rest. This used to be given to women in a single payment.

The work of a farmer is binding, physically demanding and exposes to accidents. Farmers in Finland feel that their work ability is lower than many other professional groups. Farmers also have to resort to disability pensions more often than other professional groups. In response we developed an online service which is first of its kind.

The issue of population growth and social security planning is one of the biggest challenges facing governments today, and is a key part of a good social security system that instils confidence in its members.

The Retirement and Pension Fund for Employees of Banks and Related Institutions (Caja de Jubilaciones y Pensiones de Empleados de Bancos y Afines) (Bank Fund, hereinafter) is in constant communication with its members. It therefore continuously updates its databases, in order to have a better understanding of members’ current realities, experiences and needs.

Digital transformation is happening in institutions through the integration of new technologies. This vision represents an institutional and social change, optimizing available resources, reducing costs, shortening processes and procedures, and raising awareness of the importance and benefits of this transformation.

Good practice in health – service quality.

As health-care systems have evolved to become more complex and due to the resultant increase in patients coming to harm in health care settings, patient safety has emerged as a health-care discipline.

The Actuarial Advisory Office (Asesoría Actuarial) of the Social Insurance Institute (Instituto de Previsión Social – IPS) carried out an actuarial valuation of the Common Retirement and Pension Fund (Fondo Común de Jubilaciones y Pensiones). The valuation looks to comply with international best practices and observe the guidelines and standards of the International Standards of Actuarial Practice 2 (ISAP 2), and the ISSA-ILO Guidelines on Actuarial Work for Social Security, with technical support from the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Like most of the world’s countries, Paraguay has adopted lockdown measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. These steps taken by the government have impacted the productive sector, leading to mass suspensions of employment contracts for persons insured with the Social Insurance Institute (Instituto de Previsión Social – IPS) of Paraguay.

Finnish Vision Zero Forum provides member organizations networking opportunities and up to date knowledge on safety, health, and wellbeing. Member organizations had asked for a monthly theme material on different aspects of safety, health, and wellbeing at work. This material is used by the workplaces in their own occupational safety communication and in making safety related issues visible at workplace. The Monthly Theme has been one of the most used contents that Vision Zero Forum provides.

Paraguay’s Social Insurance Institute (Instituto de Previsión de Social – IPS) used to make sick leave payments at its administrative offices, which had associated administrative costs and meant beneficiaries had to visit the IPS service counter in person.

The purpose of the Finnish Vision Zero Forum’s regional networks is to bring together the affiliated workplaces in a given province or region. The regional networks meet approximately every six months. These meetings involve visits to the different workplaces of the network members. The visits are not only to learn about current safety, health and well-being at work, but also to meet colleagues from other workplaces. This creates links between the different workplaces, lowering the threshold for cooperation and the sharing of lessons learned in the future.

To make handling international situations easier for employers, the Finnish Centre for Pensions (Eläketurvakeskus – FCP) has designed a service that allows employers to find out what contributions they must pay to Finland for an employee who comes to work in Finland or goes abroad to work. By answering certain questions employers get guidelines for their situation.

“AV+”, a voluntary insurance (assurance volontaire – AV) management project, is the fruit of the shared determination of Mali’s National Social Insurance Institute (Institut national de prévoyance sociale – INPS) and SAER-EMPLOI, which joined forces to increase the number of people registered with a voluntary insurance scheme. This partnership was founded through the signing of a delegation of management agreement on 10 April 2017 and rendered effective through the creation of a company, SAER-EMPLOI-AV+/SASU.

Social security is a complicated and wide-ranging topic that can be difficult to grasp for many of our customers. We often receive feedback from customers criticising the language we use as difficult to understand and telling us about the challenges of completing benefit applications. Based on that feedback, we have taken steps to simplify the language we use and to streamline the applications. One of the ways we have tried to make it easier to discover and interpret information and to complete benefit applications has been to deploy a chatbot.

How can specific customer groups be reached with content that is relevant, interesting and understandable enough to be read and shared in social media channels? How can this be done in the context of social security?

The Social Security Institution of Finland (Kansaneläkelaitos – Kela) is developing a new communication concept for social media. The concept “The Kela Tips” is a structured format for social media articles.

Every Kela Tip has:

In 2010, the government of Mali introduced a compulsory health insurance scheme with third-party payment for civil servants and workers to guarantee affordable health care.

In 2011, the National Sickness Insurance Fund (Caisse nationale d'assurance maladie (CNAM)) concluded agreements with all public agencies, in particular with hospitals, referral health centres and community health centres.

Kela operates a total of 40 different benefit schemes. Clients file claims through a variety of channels. Additional documentation is often required to supplement a claim for benefit. We receive several million such documents on paper each year. 

Kela's strategy is to develop further our self-service offerings for clients. With the increase in online service, the amount of mail we send out has decreased significantly. Sixty percent of all claims are filed over the internet.

Why?
To reach the largest possible number of clients and to answer their questions.

What?
Kela-Kerttu answers clients' questions on Suomi24.fi, a discussion forum, and sends updates about family benefits to Facebook users who have 'liked' the Kela-Kerttu page.

Here is the direct address:
http://keskustelu.suomi24.fi/debate/6037

When?
Kela-Kerttu was launched in March 2010. The service was piloted for three months in spring 2010. It was resumed in autumn 2010 and continues to this day.

The answer was found through the combination of different service channels and new technology. As part of the restructuring, a lot of service applications were made available via the internet and phone. These new channels made it possible to offer 24/7 service.

Synchronous with the new service channels, the network of agents declined by 60 per cent. Many of the remaining agents got a full time job. More intensive training and utilization of the "learning by doing" - principle resulted in an improved agent competence.