A day in the life of serving the people
- By Zhang Rui
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China.org.cn, December 8, 2011
Social insurance centers face many challenges but see opportunities to improve public service.
Wang Zhongmin, the head of the social insurance center of Wanshoulu Community, in southwest Beijing, acknowledges difficulties associated with his job, but is looking towards the future.
"Some people aggressively complain and scold us for outdated government policies," Wang told China.org.cn this past November., "But we have to endure and find a way to serve them better."
There are 36 blocks, 220,000 people, 36 communities and 4,600 companies and institutions in the prosperous Wanshoulu area. Many central government departments and large enterprises are here and many Chinese leaders also live nearby. Also in the area, the Mastercard Center, the official site for the 2008 Olympic basketball tournament, hosts many sports, and entertainment events.
The Wanshoulu Community insurance center, established ten years ago, was one of the first such administration facilities in Beijing. "We started as a very small agency, and now we have become a five-star center," Wang said.
The social insurance department just moved into their new office facility in June. Currently, there are 21 personnel working at 24 service counters windows in the 1000-sm space. Another 150 social workers from other area administration departments assist them.
The center's major tasks include employment services, distributing unemployment insurance, and administering pensions and medical insurance. Over 200 people visit the center every day, with a ratio of one service worker per 1,666 residents, in this community of over 30,000 people. Most of the center's staff are retired military personnel.
Due to upgrades in technologies and hardware to document files and data, Wang said the center's administrative work is running more smoothly than ever. He said the center is considering setting up a digital archive next year.
"Thanks to science and technology, we are working more efficiently," Wang said. "Just a decade ago, we had to write down tens of thousands of insurance records by hand."
Other internal plans for future development include a personnel rating system to evaluate employees. However, in a small insurance center like this, the prospects for promotion are dim. Wang acknowledged that motivating staff to perform better in a challenging, often hostile work environment was a large concern.
"Many [citizens] come to us with various demands, difficulties and complaints, some even usher their anger toward government policies direct at us," Wang said. "So, it's difficult to motivate our staff."
Despite challenges, Wang says the center does its best to learn from best practices to better serve the public. "If there's a demand for improvement for a particular service, we will make note of it and try to serve other customers better next time," he said.
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