- Behavioral culture and service style of civil servants and public employees in the social insurance sector Behavioral culture and service style of civil servants and public employees in the social insurance sector have changed positively towards the goal of providing the best service to social insurance participants and beneficiaries. As a result, in the first 6 months of 2016, the time for performing administrative procedures of the social insurance sector has decreased to 48.5 hours. The social insurance sector is striving to promote electronic transactions by the end of 2016 to reduce it to 45 hours - equal to the average of ASEAN countries. The results from the reform of administrative procedures have improved the quality of public services of the social insurance sector, thereby creating favorable conditions for businesses, contributing to improving the business environment, enhancing national competitiveness according to the objectives of the Government's Resolution [44].
The above efforts of the social insurance sector have positively affected the participation of employees in social insurance. The evidence is that the rate of employees participating in social insurance at non-state enterprises increased from 2016 to 2018 [43].
4.1.2.2. The implementation of policies and laws on social insurance has negatively impacted the participation of employees in non-state enterprises in social insurance.
- The procedures for implementing social insurance policies are still cumbersome and complicated.
Many non-state enterprises responded that the procedures are still cumbersome, with many unnecessary and complicated steps: For example, for sick leave and maternity leave, the settlement of one-time benefits for men whose wives give birth but do not participate in social insurance, because social insurance is managed by the province, it is impossible to check the wife of a male employee if she participates in insurance at a unit in another province. Or in the case of employees whose children are sick and do not want to go to the hospital because of the cumbersome and complicated procedures, they go to private facilities for examination. Because they do not have the right to issue leave certificates for social insurance, private medical facilities can only issue them to employees with sick child books. According to regulations, the social insurance agency does not accept sick child books, so the rights of employees have been narrowed. Employees who are on sick leave for more than 14 days must wait for the social insurance agency to complete the settlement of the sick leave regime before reporting a reduction, causing difficulties for businesses."
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Non-state enterprises and employees still face many difficulties when implementing medical examination and treatment using health insurance cards such as: referral procedures, lack of medical examination and treatment organization
outside of working hours and on weekends, incorrect information about the unit name in the health insurance benefit certificate, handover of health insurance cards to enterprises, revocation of health insurance cards of employees who have quit their jobs, limitation of the scope of initial health insurance registration...
- Time to resolve administrative procedures of the Social Insurance industry
When asked about the time to process social insurance procedures (the average number of hours a year a business needs to complete the procedures for registering and paying social insurance and health insurance), the results of the business responses showed that 54% of businesses have less than 50 hours/year to process social insurance.
– lower than the average number of hours that Vietnam Social Security declared to have achieved in 2016: 48.5 hours/year; of which only 20% of enterprises achieved less than 20 hours/year; 34% of enterprises spent from 30 to 50 hours/year. 46% of enterprises had to spend more than 50 hours/year to resolve administrative procedures related to social insurance; of which 22% of enterprises spent from 51 to 70 hours and 24% of enterprises had to spend more than 70 hours/year for social insurance.
This result shows that although the reform of social insurance administrative procedures has been highly appreciated by enterprises, bringing great convenience to enterprises and employees, the actual amount of time that many enterprises have to spend on social insurance administrative procedures is still high, requiring the social insurance industry to further strengthen its plan to reform social insurance procedures.
Many enterprises are stuck and facing difficulties due to the slow processing time of social insurance procedures, exceeding the prescribed number of days. According to enterprises, the processing time and results return according to regulations are reasonable, however, in reality, the social insurance agency often returns later than the appointment, especially for social insurance policies. Some enterprises even say that the actual time is always 2 to 3 times longer than the prescribed time. For example: the time to complete procedures for closing social insurance books, printing and issuing health insurance cards, printing social insurance books, processing and paying social insurance policies, procedures for re-issuing books or re-issuing declarations:
“The time prescribed in the law for handling social insurance procedures is reasonable. However, the social insurance agency does not properly implement this procedure. The actual processing time is always longer than the prescribed time, from two to three times longer; the time to print social insurance books for new employees is still quite long, normally it takes 2 months for employees to have a book; the social insurance agency often returns results later than the appointment letter (on average 5 days); the process of the social insurance accounting department transferring social insurance benefits to employees is still slow, usually 1 to 2 months after the application is approved;
Time to print health cards for new employees: takes nearly 02 months from the date of submitting valid documents
In-depth interview, 42-year-old male, Hanoi Social Security agency.
It is worth noting that some businesses believe that returning results via post or electronic transaction software is often slower than submitting documents directly to the Social Security agency:
“If you submit your application directly to the insurance agency, the result will be returned on time. If you submit your application through the insurance software, it will take longer, sometimes more than a week.
- Guidance for employees and businesses to participate in social insurance is still limited.
Non-state enterprises have not updated and informed promptly about changes in procedures, documents, and forms, causing confusion, difficulty in accessing, and time-consuming for enterprises to fix. For example: declaration software changes interface but is not informed in advance, forms change but non-state enterprises are not notified promptly:
The information is publicly listed but is not complete, specific, or clear, causing non-state enterprises to make mistakes and errors that must be revised many times.
“ As mentioned in the document name, there are no guiding regulations, the procedures are still sketchy and unclear. The page to look up information about the employee's social insurance participation process has not been fully updated. Or we do not receive information from the supplier or social insurance agency when the declaration software changes the management interface. Information exchange from the social insurance agency is still slow, the processing time (eg: closing the book for employees, re-issuing cards... must wait about 15 days, return results by post)”
In-depth interview results Female 43 years old, Hanoi social insurance
+ Non-state enterprises have not received specific and complete instructions when encountering problems, causing enterprises to have to travel a lot, wasting time and money: When enterprises encounter problems that need to be resolved, the Social Insurance agency does not provide specific and complete instructions, causing enterprises to have to travel a lot, wasting time and money. When submitting insurance documents, if there is a request to supplement or edit information, sometimes there is still no clear instruction. The method of calculating and resolving the regime is not public, causing
Workers and businesses do not understand why the Social Insurance can calculate the amount of benefits for that policy.
- Social insurance declaration forms still have many shortcomings.
Inappropriate forms make it difficult for non-state enterprises to declare and compare data: For example: request form for maternity sickness, unemployment allowance, declaration for increase or decrease in labor. When reporting an increase in insurance payment for new employees, the software requires entering personal information (address, place of birth, hometown...) of the employee by code, but when printing the declaration, the information is displayed in text form. This makes it difficult for enterprises and employees to declare and compare data.
Frequent changes in forms make it difficult to update forms. For example: forms on health care, sickness, and maternity benefits: Forms on health care, sickness, and maternity benefits change frequently, making the form unstable. The current declaration information has a section for declaring the place of birth certificate issuance (House number/Ward, Commune/District/Province, City), making it very difficult for units to get information from employees."
In addition, the social insurance book material is thin, easily torn/wrinkled, and the ink is not clear:
“Social insurance books should change the material, because social insurance books are paper with a validity period of 6 months to 1 year but are very thin, easily torn, the ink is blurred, unclear, so the material should be changed to be integrated with the card....".
In-depth interview, male, 42 years old, social insurance officer, Hanoi.
- Software for electronic transactions is not convenient and effective.
Some non-state enterprises have encountered difficulties when conducting electronic transactions via the software of the Social Insurance sector. For example: slow transmission, errors, and irregular updates.
“ The process of declaring labor fluctuations using electronic transaction records faces many difficulties due to slow transmission lines, slow processing and follow-up by staff, leading to enterprises submitting 15 days before receiving a notice of processing their records, and enterprises not having time to submit additional records within the month to match the data on the social insurance. This leads to the situation of: arising unnecessary penalty interest for enterprises; In addition, if enterprises do not have time to edit within the month, enterprises must redo the entire record the following month, resulting in many other procedures. Data declaration software (Ivan)
The latest data has not been updated regularly, the information on the software is incomplete, there is no information about foreign employees, or the software has not automatically deducted sick leave for foreign employees for 14 days. The insurance staff still has to update manually;
In-depth interview, 43-year-old female, social insurance officer, Hanoi
+ Electronic software is not convenient and difficult to use:
“In the process of implementing social insurance procedures using electronic software, when transacting, new software is often updated frequently. When registering for an increase or decrease, it is not possible to confirm whether the registration for an increase or decrease is successful or not. Comparing after entering the changed data on the software with the social insurance agency is still difficult and time-consuming .
In-depth interview, 45-year-old male, social insurance officer, Hanoi
- Application to notify application results via unused email
The application for notifying the results of the application via email has not been used yet. Therefore, enterprises must regularly update the software to monitor, check the status of the application and download the results; When there are problems using the software, the support of the Social Insurance is slow, sometimes enterprises have to submit hard copies, causing time and effort loss, incurring additional costs for the enterprise, while for enterprises with few employees, electronic transactions do not really bring many changes.
“ The new declaration software can only be used for social insurance collection. Other functions are not yet available while the declaration software currently in use (TS24) still has many shortcomings in the declaration process. The enterprise has asked the social insurance agency and was told that other functions (health insurance, social insurance regime) have not been applied and the enterprise does not know when it can be applied, it still takes time to prepare paper documents and time to travel to submit documents directly between the enterprise and the social insurance agency”.
In-depth interview, female, 48 years old, social insurance officer, Hanoi
- Processing and returning of documents
The processing and return of documents via post by the Social Insurance Agency is still slow and late, causing difficulties for businesses in paying benefits to employees. Many businesses encounter difficulties because this method depends on the post office. All transactions with the Social Insurance Agency via post are only convenient when the documents are error-free. In case of mistakes or errors that need to be corrected, the process is carried out.
Currently, postal transactions are costly and time-consuming, even exceeding the deadline, affecting the payment of benefits to employees.
The reception and settlement staff of the Social Insurance sector have not yet enthusiastically and clearly guided the procedures for electronic transactions, answered questions, were rigid and inflexible; the coordination between departments of the local Social Insurance unit is not good, especially the one-stop staff and other departments:
“ One-stop staff receive and resolve administrative procedures in accordance with regulations. However, the results returned to the unit have not complied with regulations on processing time. The processing is not really flexible and does not meet the wishes of businesses.”
(PVS, 39 years old, Social Insurance Officer, Hanoi)
4.1.2.2. Information and propaganda work on social insurance
Information and propaganda work on social insurance plays an important role in encouraging employees in non-state enterprises to participate in social insurance. According to the theory of social intervention of the media, the press provides information, knowledge and creates a public forum to share knowledge, skills and experiences, helping the public to broaden their understanding, change their awareness, and adjust their attitudes and social behavior [09].
At the central level, the work of information, propaganda and dissemination of the Party's guidelines and the State's legal policies has always been of interest and focus to the social insurance sector. Vietnam Social Insurance has closely coordinated with ministries, departments, branches, socio-political organizations, unions, and press agencies to sign and implement propaganda activities in each period, such as: Regulations on coordination with the Central Propaganda Department, the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Labor
- War invalids and Social Affairs, Ministry of Information and Communications, Central Vietnam Farmers' Union, Central Vietnam Women's Union, Central Vietnam Red Cross Society, Central Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Vietnam Cooperative Alliance; Central media, radio and television agencies (Nhan Dan Newspaper, Vietnam Television, Voice of Vietnam, Vietnam News Agency...).
Propaganda activities are deployed synchronously from the central to local levels with many diverse and rich forms, suitable for each development stage of the industry and each development period of the country. Harmoniously combining traditional forms of propaganda, such as: conferences, seminars, talks, direct dialogue with workers and people; propaganda through publications... with modern forms of information and communication on internet applications, producing clips, videos, skits, short films, programs, reality TV game shows; propaganda, consultation, answering questions about regimes and policies on the Customer Care System (call center) , Automatic Response System (chatbot) , Electronic Information Portal and Vietnam Social Security Fanpage... are increasingly attracting the attention of a large number of workers and people with over 100 million visits [05].
In Hanoi, the information and propaganda work on social insurance policies and laws continues to be promoted by the social insurance sector, paying attention to both breadth and depth; being implemented regularly, synchronously and uniformly throughout the city, proactively holding dialogues and discussions with businesses and employees; coordinating with departments, branches, sectors, People's Committees of districts, towns, socio-political organizations, and unions to organize over 200 conferences on propaganda, training, discussions, and dialogues with businesses in the city with 48,814 participants; hanging 2,477 banners, slogans, billboards, and posters;
Hanoi Social Insurance has closely coordinated with the City Party Committee's Propaganda Department, newspapers, radio and television agencies to publish 425 articles on the outstanding results of the City Social Insurance; in addition, the City Social Insurance has also sent 85 articles to the electronic news page of the Party Committee of the City's agencies; the City Party Committee's electronic website, the Vietnam Social Insurance's information portal, social insurance newspapers and magazines; coordinated with the district's cultural and information departments to set up a separate radio station on social insurance at fixed times; in 2018, 108,906 propaganda articles on social insurance policies were broadcast on the commune, ward and town radio systems and district radio stations [05].
The Social Insurance sector and the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs are the most important channels for businesses to access information on laws, policies and administrative procedures: 65.5% of businesses have accessed information through the Social Insurance agency; 59.4% through consultation workshops for businesses and professional training courses organized by the Social Insurance agency and the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs; 57.4% of businesses access information through the website of the Social Insurance sector. In addition, the agencies
Media such as newspapers and television also contributed significantly to updating new information for businesses: 30% and 15.7% respectively (see Figure 6). This result shows that the Hanoi Social Insurance Agency has closely connected with businesses in disseminating and informing about changes in policies and procedures on social insurance.
Figure 4.1: Channels for accessing information about social insurance of enterprises (%)
4.1.3. Factors related to employees in non-state enterprises
The limitation of this content in the topic is that the researcher does not have a complete set of data on factors related to employees in non-state enterprises to use in analyzing the influencing factors. To overcome the above limitation, although not really clear, in the analysis process, the researcher has tried to use some theories, research works and available data to partly reveal the influence of factors related to employees in non-state enterprises on social insurance participation.
- The theory of reasoned action (TRA) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB) are two theories that are frequently used by social scientists in analyzing factors influencing people's behavior. The theory of reasoned behavior (TRA) was first developed in 1967 by Fishbein, then revised and expanded by Ajzen and