Hoang Mai Town Post Office: Top of the province in collecting social insurance and health insurance

(Baonghean) - Separated and officially put into operation since July 2016, Hoang Mai Town Post Office is now gradually improving its quality, better serving the increasingly diverse needs of the people; actively participating in social activities, helping the community.

We arrived at the Hoang Mai Town Central Post Office early in the morning, just in time for the arrival of mail, parcels, and goods, so everyone was busy. Mr. Dao Nguyen Thuan - Director of the Town Post Office said: Due to the recent separation, the physical facilities of the Town Post Office inherited the previous Hoang Mai Post Office, so the working conditions were quite cramped; however, it did not affect work efficiency much as the staff and workers were all focused and made efforts to complete their tasks.

The staff of Hoang Mai Town Post Office is 31 people, including 12 staff, the rest are postmen and staff of the Commune Cultural Post Office. Every day, Hoang Mai Town Post Office undertakes dozens of types of services and work contacts. From traditional services such as delivering newspapers and official documents, letters, money transfers; international express delivery VN Quick Post, DHL to new services such as issuing and renewing driving licenses in villages and agencies; acting as an agent for collecting social insurance, voluntary health insurance (SI, NHITN), life insurance, non-life insurance; paying pensions, social security; postal savings, bank credit, consumer goods... Although the work is difficult and stressful and the unit has just been separated, Hoang Mai Town Post Office strives to excellently complete the assigned tasks.

Quynh Di ward post office staff do voluntary health insurance procedures. Photo: Dao Thuan

In the field of social insurance and health insurance collection, although newly established, Hoang Mai Town Post Office has quickly caught up and has breakthrough solutions to develop sales. In just 3 months of the first quarter of 2017, Hoang Mai Town Post Office ranked first among the units under the Provincial Post Office in terms of social insurance and voluntary health insurance collection, contributing significantly to the goal of universal health insurance coverage of the Town.

Right from the beginning of spring 2017, the Town Post Office proactively discussed and coordinated with Hoang Mai Town Social Insurance to co-sponsor the Town's women's sports tournament. In addition to the meaning of creating a playground for gathering a large number of people, mainly women, this sports tournament also had the participation of the Town Women's Union officials to the hamlets, thereby preparing to supplement the core force of collaborators to propagate and receive the needs of social insurance and health insurance.

In addition, to continue the period of participation in social insurance and health insurance, right before the deadline, the Town Post Office proactively goes to the hamlets to propagate and encourage people to continue participating. Every month or every quarter, the organization gives lucky prizes to households participating in social insurance and health insurance, with priority given to choosing gift-giving locations in some communes and wards with low participation rates to increase propaganda and awareness. In fact, each occasion before, during and after the award ceremony is for people to better understand social insurance and health insurance and to have new effective collaborators.

To continue the period of participation in social insurance and health insurance, right before the deadline, the Town Post Office proactively went to the hamlets to propagate and encourage people to continue participating. Every month or every quarter, the organization awarded lucky prizes to participating households; prioritized locations for gift giving in some communes and wards with low rates of participation in social insurance and health insurance to propagate and raise awareness; at the same time, the Post Office sector had new effective collaborators.

As a regular customer of Hoang Mai Town Post Office, Mr. Tran Ngoc Duy, Quyet Tien block, Quynh Lap commune said: “After more than 30 years of participating in the services of the Post Office, I have seen a big change in the attitude and quality of service of the Post Office. As a retired military officer, I recently completed the procedures to pay voluntary social insurance compensation so that my wife can enjoy retirement benefits. Because I have to pay at once to compensate for many years of missing payments to receive a pension book, this regulation is quite new, so the leaders of the Town Post Office also directly consulted and guided me enthusiastically. This is completely different from the service of the old Post Office and some other sectors related to the business sector and public services for the people”.

One of the services that Hoang Mai Town Post Office does quite well is paying pensions and social security. After handing over the payment of social security from the commune to the post office, the post office proactively coordinates with the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs to pay timely and on-time to the beneficiaries. Since the beginning of 2017, Hoang Mai Town Post Office has also gone to the hospital beds to pay pensions to leprosy patients in Quynh Lap. This is a service with profound humanitarian significance, highly appreciated by the community and directly serves and encourages patients who are unfortunately disadvantaged in society.

For traditional delivery services, in addition to finding ways to improve the quality of the fastest delivery service, the unit also has many flexible solutions to attract businesses and people to choose to use the postal service. This is the core service of the industry, the flesh and blood, closely associated with the "name" of the Postal industry for over 70 years.

To improve the quality of delivery, the first effort is to shorten the time from the delivery to the delivery. With great effort, the post office now sends express delivery service from Hoang Mai to Ho Chi Minh City in just 24 hours. After nearly 1 year, the delivery revenue increased 2.6 times compared to July 2016; all local mail is processed and delivered within the session, from 8 am.

Hoang Mai Town Post Office has arranged staff to deliver pensions to people at home. Photo: Phuong Ha

Thanks to the service business strategy of Vietnam Post Corporation along with reasonable flexibility with local conditions, since the separation, the monthly sales and income of commune cultural post office staff and commune postmen have increased by an average of 25%. Mr. Le Dinh Chien - Deputy Director of the Provincial Post Office assessed: Implementing the industry's policy, Hoang Mai Town Post Office has drastically and effectively deployed the multi-service cultural post office model. Commune cultural post office is one of the new rural criteria, based on the direction of the Provincial Post Office, Hoang Mai Town Post Office has invested in upgrading commune cultural post offices, training staff to meet the quality of public service and postal services as well as the diverse needs of the people.

Thanks to the extended arm of cultural post offices, commune postmen and the proactive and creative spirit of the workers, Hoang Mai Town Post Office is developing the "Family Post Office" model. Accordingly, family members are encouraged and facilitated to participate in or support the development of postal services. With this approach, it not only exploits the idle labor force of rural workers but also brings revenue to the industry.

Awarding prizes to households participating in voluntary health insurance through agents. Photo: Dao Thuan

A typical example is the delivery service when the Town Post Office goes to households growing and producing turmeric starch to market from the beginning of the season. In the first quarter of 2017, nearly 3 tons of turmeric powder from people in Quynh Vinh commune, Quynh Di ward, Quynh Thien... were delivered by the Town Post Office as parcel service or cash on delivery (COD) to all parts of the country.

Mr. Dao Nguyen Thuan - Director of Hoang Mai Town Post Office believes that if there is a separate website and introduces Hoang Mai turmeric starch or Quynh Di tobacco and the Post Office plays a good intermediary role connecting production and consumers, the above products of the town will be consumed better...

Although Hoang Mai Town Post Office has achieved some successes, there are still many difficulties and challenges ahead. Hopefully, with the spirit of solidarity, proactive and creative participation, the unit will continue to grow and constantly improve service quality.

Phuong Ha