Switzerland’s Invalidity Insurance is launching a campaign designed to reach out to employers

The Swiss federal social insurance office (OFAS) has published an article concerning the new campaign of the invalidity insurance (AI) which aims to increase the involvement of enterprises in prevention of invalidity and re-integration of handicapped persons in the main labour market.

Bern, 03.06.09 (OFAS) - The Invalidity Insurance body is launching a national information campaign in the form of posters, TV and radio adverts and over the Internet. The campaign, which is aimed at employers and human resources managers, aims to highlight the transformation of Switzerland’s invalidity insurance (AI) into a more rehabilitation-focused insurance and to promote the new tools of the 5th revision.
The new tools of the 5th revision are designed to encourage employers to maintain handicapped persons in their jobs and to hire new ones. Persons whose work capacity is likely to diminish are detected and helped more rapidly. Indeed, as of 30 days of work incapacitation, the insured party and the employer can already request backing from AI. The invalidity insurance body provides them with advice and financial help to maintain an employee whose work capacity is limited in his or her job or to help him or her reintegrate into the labour market, giving them a chance to prove their worth in the main labour market. The backing provided by AI includes adapting the employee’s workstation using auxiliary means, financing complementary training to prepare the employee for holding another post in the company, as well as various forms of financial assistance. If need be, the AI offices can also advise the employer about the active management of health at the workplace.

“One job. Two winners”: giving integration a chance
The Invalidity Insurance campaign aims to make employers aware of the vital role that they play when it comes to the integration and re-integration of people with health problems. The people in charge of AI are convinced that even in difficult times, it is always possible to create additional jobs for people with health problems. A job is better than any handouts. It offers benefits for all parties involved. The insured party retains or secures a job and gets better quality of life. The employer can keep its experts, or acquire new ones, without increasing its payroll costs or its social security contributions. Finally, each successful integration lightens the burden on AI.
Initially, the campaign will involve posters, radio and TV ads, Internet banners, ads displayed on the giant screens of stations and on our own web pages. The www.jobs-ai.ch site, for instance, features a link to the www.compasso.ch portal. This new portal, which is dedicated to the reintegration of handicapped persons, is run jointly by Switzerland’s Union patronale suisse, by organisations for the protection of the rights of handicapped persons and for health promotion, by health and accident insurance companies, as well as by AI.
The “Un emploi. Deux gagnants [one job – two winners]” campaign will run from 2009 to 2012. The first wave of advertisements will hit Switzerland from early June to mid-July, and the second will begin in mid-October 2009.
The graphical representation of the message symbolises both the acronym of AI in German (IV) and the slogan of the campaign: the first raised finger represents a job in the main job market, the other two symbolise the winners: the insured party and the employer.
The campaign, which will last for four years and which has a total budget of 6.7 million Swiss francs, was designed by the Saatchi & Saatchi Simko agency in Zurich.

AI’s campaigns
A general awareness and information campaign was launched in early 2008. It presents the latest changes introduced by the 5th revision and their focus. It is due to last for four years, and it communicates its message to members of the public mainly by means of TV ads.
The new “Un emploi. Deux gagnants” information campaign is aimed at employers and aims to contribute to the transformation of Switzerland’s Invalidity Insurance, which was formerly focused on paying out benefits, into a reintegration-focused body.

Sources:
Office fédéral des assurances sociales [Swiss federal social insurance office] - 03.06.09
Internet: www.news-service.admin.ch/NSBSubscriber/message/fr/27268

http://www.news-service.admin.ch/NSBSubscriber/message/attachments/15838.pdf