The collection and processing of salary notifications is one of the core tasks of the compensation offices. As many channels as possible are made available here to simplify the administrative processes for employers and the self-employed. Employers and self-employed persons must settle wages within 30 days of the end of the payroll period. The salary statement must therefore be received by the compensation office by 30 January of the new year at the latest. This is the requirement for submitting the annual salary statement.

Figure 1: Screenshot “Wage declaration online” in the new online portal “connect” IGAKIS Genossenschaft

Today, the implementing agencies pursue a multi-channel strategy. This means that the employer decides independently which channel to use. The following variants are available today:

• Salary declaration via paper form
• Salary notification via the portal of the compensation funds
• Wage reporting using Swissdec/ ELM (machine-to-machine communication)
• Individual solutions (mail, Excel files, individual interfaces, etc.)

Each channel today also implements a different standard in the area of security/data protection. The “lowest” standard is certainly to be found in the paper form, which today offers no possibilities for identifying the sender and checking the data. This means that every incoming message is accepted and must be processed manually. In contrast, the security standard is increased when employers work with the portal of the competent compensation office. There, they work with logins that identify the user through multiple identification (onboarding) before the first login. A “higher” level of protection is implemented here.

Figure 2: Screenshot “Productive ELM notification” in the AHVeasy web portal of IGS GmbH

The “Digitised forms in social insurance” project

All roads lead to Rome, not only when it comes to wage registration. The project “Automated/ Digitised Forms Processing” is currently in the conception phase. This project is being implemented jointly by the Information Office and eAHV/IV. The aim of the project is to make around 50 forms available on the internet and to transfer the data via sedex directly to the specialist applications of the implementing offices. This will both modernise and speed up the process and increase data quality. With the help of this project, employers and insured persons will be provided with another channel for communication with the social insurance. Data protection will also be an important issue in the realisation of the digitalised forms. However, the premise of as good as necessary and not as good as possible also applies here.

Conclusion

From the point of view of social insurance, it is important that data protection is very well taken into account and that security standards are as high as necessary and not as high as possible. It is a great concern to receive data electronically, but also to ensure that overly complex onboarding processes do not discourage users from submitting data electronically. This philosophy optimally implements the multi-channel strategy for data delivery and ensures that “Many roads lead to Rome”.

References

1. The IGAKIS cooperative is a community of interests of association and cantonal compensation funds as well as the Federal Compensation Fund, www.igakis.ch
2. The IGS – Informatikgesellschaft für Sozialversicherungen – is the IT competence centre for cantonal social insurance funds and compensation funds, www.igs-gmbh.ch