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.

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.

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 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.

In Malaysia, private sector employers are mandatorily required to make retirement contributions on behalf of employees to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF). However, many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have failed to comply with the law since they do not have a proper payroll management system in place.

The EPF has developed a free basic payroll solution that is available to all private sector employers:

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).

Back Protection and Rehabilitation Programme (BPRP) is a dynamic and proactive solution to control and manage the commonest musculoskeletal disorders at the workplace, which is backache or low back pain. The main objective is to reduce the incidence and impact of back pain, prevent worsening of disability, reduce the disability period, and finally retain skilled workers affected in the workforce.

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.

ELYA, abbreviation for “EPF Loves You Always”, was invented to reduce drop calls at Employees Provident Fund (EPF) Contact Centre of Malaysia and to empower customers with self-service facilities in a conversational approach. This is the first bilingual Virtual Assistant (VA) for social security organisation powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) using Natural Language Processing (NLP) and supported by Live Chat. The inspiration to create ELYA’s outgoing persona is a culmination of EPF staff’s personalities and passion to help customers from different walks of life.

Expanding its services from assisting up to 1,200 jobseekers with employment injuries or illnesses annually in 2008, Social Security Organization (SOCSO) now delivers employment services to all categories of job seekers in Malaysia through the establishment of the MYFutureJobs National Employment Services, a framework similar to the Public Employment Services defined by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

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 Medical Board of the Social Security Organization (SOCSO) is a group of medical professionals that is responsible for performing impairment evaluation and determining the social security benefits due to employment injury or invalidity filed by Malaysian employees (insured persons) with SOCSO.

During the current COVID-19 pandemic, the whole country’s government mechanism is mobilised to manage the impact of the pandemic. The Social Security Organization (SOCSO) of Malaysia plays its role in the social security and provides economic stimulus for the country.

Since 1996, the Members Investment Scheme (MIS) has provided an option for members of the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) of Malaysia to divert retirement savings to investments outside EPF for the purpose of maximising their retirement savings. These investments are managed by third-party Fund Management Institutions (FMIs), and promoted through their agents.

The use of robots in rehabilitation has widened the treatment options and improved the outcomes for patients with neurological disabilities. These devices promote functional recovery of the upper or lower limb movements through neuroplasticity and motor relearning processes. The cybernic treatment combines interactions between man, machine and information to improve, enhance and support the wearer’s limb mobility function. It regenerates the patient’s own brain-neuro-physical functions through the signal interactions between human and robot.

Malaysia, which prioritises the welfare of its people, provides various benefits and assistance to the citizens through government and non-governmental organisations. Despite this, poverty still exists and the high cost of living is a burden to the B40 group – the bottom 40 per cent of households with monthly income of 3,900 Malaysian Ringgit (MYR) and below.

India has a federal structure of governance, where health is a provincial subject and social security and labour are in the concurrent list. Healthcare and cash compensation for employment injury in the formal sector are provided by the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) while the pension and provident fund are provided by the Employees Provident Fund. The employees of factories and establishments in the formal sector are entitled to social security benefits through the ESIC scheme.

The Commuting Safety Support Program (CSSP) was introduced in 2017 by the Social Security Organisation (SOCSO) in collaboration with the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS). The program aims to facilitate employers’ implementation of commuting safety at the workplace through practical intervention. It aims to reduce motorcyclist accidents and was initiated through partnership with various stakeholders. Improvements in commuting safety positively impact on working conditions, productivity, economic and social development.

Integrated System for Prosthetics and Orthotics, Inventory and Rehabilitation (INSPIRE) was introduced to manage the rehabilitation facilities of the Social Security Organization (SOCSO) of Malaysia through a web-based platform to ensure continuity and provision of rehabilitation benefits to SOCSO insured persons.

As part of the social security establishment, it is a statutory requirement that every qualified employee should be registered by a registered and qualified employer. Apparently, there are still employers who fail to register their employees. The failure by employers to register their employees will result in the non-coverage of the employees, unfairly depriving them of social security coverage and benefits in the event that they were to become unfit to work or worse, if they were to suffer permanent disability or invalidity.

Industrial and commuting accidents in Malaysia continue to be a burden to the working population, most especially road accidents related to their occupations. Prompt treatment of the injuries is of the essence to ensure better clinical prognosis and outcome, reduction of disability and continued employability of the contributors. However, in several cases the provision of the surgical implants during acute treatment maybe prolonged due to financial hurdles or processing delays when claiming from the social security organization.

The extension of the ESI scheme was not progressing at the desired pace. In 2010 the threshold coverage level was reduced from 20 to 10 employees through an amendment to the Act. Moreover, in sparsely populated areas many establishments could not be covered even with the threshold of 10 employees.

State Governments are instrumental in delivering healthcare services under the ESI Act. An enabling provision was inserted in the Act to establish a body at the State level to address certain operational issues.

A committee, entitled Medical Services and Medical Education (MSME), was constituted to explore various options to improve operational efficiency.

The Employees  Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), under the Ministry of Labour & Employment, Government of India provides social security benefits to its members in terms of provident fund and old age pensions under the Employees' Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 (referred to as the Act hereafter), enacted by the Parliament of India, which extends to the whole of India except the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

The issue of inadequate savings faced by the members of the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) coupled with a low level of financial literacy demonstrate the urgent need to enhance the knowledge and skills in financial and retirement planning among Malaysians.

The inefficiency and complexity of various processes involving a multitude of forms and returns and the resulting difficulty in delivery of online services to over 60 million contributory subscribers and over 200 million accounts, was a big challenge for the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) of India since some time back. The sheer size of stakeholders heightened the need of digitization.

To ensure adequacy and improve the quality of social security benefits the following actions have been taken:
 

The ESIC has taken the following measures to proactively improve the scheme:
 

Malaysia is experiencing an increase in non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The Social Security Organization (SOCSO) had noted an increase in the number of claims made for invalidity and survivors' pensions due to NCDs, and the impact may continue to rise even further.

In early 2000 the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) adopted a quick-fix to headhunt talent to achieve and sustain breakthrough performance in the short run. Now a long-term strategy is employed to ensure that internal talent is identified and nurtured to provide a steady flow of talent to fill key positions and provide critical skills. The organization wants to ensure 20 per cent of the executive workforce, selected on merit-based criteria, undertakes a structured strategic leadership programme to create a pipeline of talent to fill the organization's needs.

• The minimum amount of monthly dependants' benefit payable to dependants of a deceased insured person has been prescribed as 1,200 Indian Rupees (INR) a month.
• Long-term benefits (permanent disablement benefit and dependant's benefit) have been linked to the cost of living index.

ICT has been used to improve compliance, and to implement on-line registration of employers and employees, and make benefit payments.
Forms and the procedure for benefit rate calculations have been simplified.

The new systems and procedures resulted in savings of about 25 per cent of Branch Office staff which could be utilized in other information and communication technology (ICT) related work during its transition phase.

The strategy comprises four CA prevention programmes to face the increase in commuting accidents, namely:

The Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) undertook a number of actions which led to the following measures being introduced to extend coverage:

One of the key areas under IT governance is in the area of IT project and portfolio management processes which will be used to help JTM to align IT initiatives closely with business objectives. In order to achieve this, JTM needs a structured approach in IT investment planning, prioritization, selection, project tracking and reporting. JTM also manages request demands from business users and maintenance of the existing systems and applications via one of the functionality in the IT Portfolio Management tool.

The Employees Provident Fund's (EPF) vision is to be the best Social Security organization in the world and the best government agency in Malaysia. To help realize this vision, the IT Department has to ensure that the IT Operations are ever ready to support the Business Needs and Requirements. As a major contributor to EPF's operational and management efficiency and effectiveness, the IT Department has adopted best practice IT Service Management based on ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) V3. The ITIL Implementation Project in EPF was kicked-off in June 2008.

SOCSO believes that financial compensation alone is not "social security" and will not guarantee social well-being. However a bio-psychosocial rehabilitation programme together with proper coordination in compensation and prevention through systematic case management will be able to promote job retention, re-employment and social reintegration for workers who suffer from employment injuries and invalidity.

A structured risk management framework aids its decision making process by taking account of uncertainty and the effect on achieving objectives and assessing the need for any actions. Structured risk management enables EPF to practice good corporate governance and strengthen its competitive strategic and operational efficiency.