Interinstitutional cooperation (IIZ)

Interinstitutional cooperation (IIZ) means a coordinated approach towards helping the people affected. The cooperation of all the involved institutions from the areas of social security, integration and training aims to prevent the affected people being excluded from their working and social lives. Coordination between the different insurance offices is especially important for people who are registered at two or more institutions. This is because job seekers who are registered at more than one institution are in principle harder to place in a job. They run the risk of being shunted backwards and forwards within the insurance system. To prevent this, in recent years IIZ projects have been launched aimed at boosting cooperation between disability insurance, social services and unemployment insurance, which will enable a coordinated approach for reintegration in the workforce. Depending on the model in the cantons, the training, vocational and career guidance offices as well as the migration authorities are also IIZ partners.

Interinstitutional cooperation is currently defined as follows:
IIZ refers to the cooperation of two or more institutions in the area of social security, integration and training (unemployment insurance, disability insurance, social assistance, vocational training and foreigner integration) with the overall aim of improving the chances of reintegrating people into their primary labour markets and optimally reconciling the various systems with each other. It should be possible to implement the measures and offerings of the enforcement bodies in a more effective and efficient manner – all in the interests of the people receiving assistance and the targeted use of government funds. The goals of the individual institutions, in particular the training and work integration units, should be supported with the assistance of the IIZ.

A system-wide, networked way of thinking and acting must be embedded within the individual institutions and developed on an ongoing basis.

When various institutions work together in a coordinated manner to reintegrate job seekers into the labour market, the following advantages arise:

• The institutions involved coordinate their analyses regarding the reintegration strategy for job seekers, which eliminates overlaps.
• The various interfaces between the institutions are defined thanks to active communication between them and complex processes are simplified.
• “Boxed-in thinking” - i.e. each institution only considering their own finances - is avoided in day-to-day work.
• The revolving-door effect (a person always finding themselves in the same situation and being shunted from one institution to another) is avoided, which facilitates their reintegration into the labour market.

The results are multi-faceted. In addition to successfully placing many people in work, which saves tens of thousands of francs each year per case, the affected people are integrated into working structures that ease their re-entry into the labour market and decisions on benefits are made more quickly. In addition, people who are supported within the framework of IIZ take on a more active role in shaping their futures. Thanks to mutual coordination, the information flow between the IIZ partners is significantly improved. This has an impact on the daily decision-making processes at all the institutions involved. It increases the quality of the advice and support given to people registered with more than one social insurance institution and gives rise to a coordinated, interinstitutional reintegration strategy. The interface processes at the institutions are also streamlined, which promotes a quicker, sustainable integration into the labour market. Ultimately, the people affected receive information from a single source wherever possible and know about the overarching coordination.

Are you affected?
Your RAV personnel consultant can assist you in this regard and provide information on how the IIZ process in organised.

Don't wait too long! - A case study:
A 40-year-old woman with a slipped disk that radiates out into her hips is no longer able to carry out her full-time work as a deputy branch manager of a petrol station because of her health limitations. Then, after having an operation, she is able to work again, part-time at 50% of working hours, and the DI (disability insurance) and UI (unemployment insurance) both start providing assistance towards occupational reintegration. She is also paid a daily sickness allowance. Due to her limited health, the client can no longer lift any loads heavier than five kilograms. Also excluded for her are work activities that involve repetitive turning movements or bending down. Instead, an activity which involves varying types of load (alternating between sitting, walking and standing) is recommended from a medical perspective. In order to achieve a stabilisation of the client's capacity to work, while also taking into account her affinity for fashion, the RAV (regional employment centre) plans a programme of temporary employment for her in a second-hand shop. At the same time, the client is also offered the chance to work in the bistro at a petrol station. The client decides to choose this opportunity in the form of a work placement, and cancels the other temporary employment programme. The client starts the work placement with an attendance time of 80% to 100%, and a performance capacity of 50%. Even though the tasks are rather different in nature to her original occupation, in the second month of the placement, the client finds that this work is too demanding as well. The client's back problems start coming back and get worse. The result is that she is again unable to work.

Following this incapacity to work, the previously planned temporary employment programme is reactivated. The client is able to stabilise her capacity to work, but not yet improve it. At this point in time the payments from the daily sickness allowance are used up. In order to avoid obstructing the ongoing job search, the UI (unemployment insurance) provides advance payments before the DI (disability insurance). In the meantime the DI office succeeds in finding an employer who allows the untrained client to do a three-month work placement, funded by the UI, as a fashion sales assistant. Here too the attendance time is 100%, the performance capacity 50%. Because the person achieves very good results and sales, the employer offers her a permanent position, and receives an induction grant from the DI for three months. The health of the client has now improved so much that she is again able to work full time.

A 40-year-old woman with a slipped disk that radiates out into her hips is no longer able to carry out her full-time work as a deputy branch manager of a petrol station because of her health limitations. Then, after having an operation, she is able to work again, part-time at 50% of working hours, and the DI (disability insurance) and UI (unemployment insurance) both start providing assistance towards occupational reintegration. She is also paid a daily sickness allowance. Due to her limited health, the client can no longer lift any loads heavier than five kilograms. Also excluded for her are work activities that involve repetitive turning movements or bending down. Instead, an activity which involves varying types of load (alternating between sitting, walking and standing) is recommended from a medical perspective. In order to achieve a stabilisation of the client's capacity to work, while also taking into account her affinity for fashion, the RAV (regional employment centre) plans a programme of temporary employment for her in a second-hand shop. At the same time, the client is also offered the chance to work in the bistro at a petrol station. The client decides to choose this opportunity in the form of a work placement, and cancels the other temporary employment programme. The client starts the work placement with an attendance time of 80% to 100%, and a performance capacity of 50%.Even though the tasks are rather different in nature to her original occupation, in the second month of the placement ,the client finds that this work is too demanding as well. The client's back problems start coming back and get worse. The result is that she is again unable to work.

Following this incapacity to work, the previously planned temporary employment programme is reactivated. The client is able to stabilise her capacity to work, but not yet improve it. At this point in time the payments from the daily sickness allowance are used up. In order to avoid obstructing the ongoing job search, the UI (unemployment insurance) provides advance payments before the DI (disability insurance). In the meantime the DI office succeeds in finding an employer who allows the untrained client to do a three-month work placement, funded by the UI, as a fashion sales assistant. Here too the attendance time is 100%, the performance capacity 50%. Because the person achieves very good results and sales, the employer offers her a permanent position, and receives an induction grant from the DI for three months. The health of the client has now improved so much that she is again able to work full time.