The Department of Education and Wellbeing in the City of Riihimäki has taken the lead in improving modern work practices across the city organisation – working with consultants from Tietokeskus to make everyday work smoother and more effective. The main goal is to get more out of Microsoft Teams.
Riihimäki first commissioned Tietokeskus to conduct an audit of modern knowledge work. The aim was to identify ways to improve the efficiency and productivity of knowledge workers. The audit focused on areas such as M365 functionalities, document management, communication and teamwork, process automation, and reporting.
After the audit of modern knoledge work, a playbook for new work practices was created in SharePoint through a series of workshops. In addition, Microsoft Viva Engage – included in the city’s existing Microsoft licences – was implemented as Riihimäki’s internal social media platform.
“Our collaboration with Tietokeskus has been excellent. Their expert has provided valuable insights into how to best build our technical environment in the cloud. The trainer was also very popular – professional and pleasant to work with.”
–Minna Rautiainen, ICT Specialist, City of Riihimäki
The audit of modern knowledge work delivered a clear roadmap
In spring 2023, the audit revealed a familiar situation: files were stored across network drives, SharePoint, and local hard drives. Teams had not yet been properly launched – it was mainly used for meetings and chat. The outcome of the audit was a roadmap for migrating files from servers to the cloud, introducing Teams for broader use, and guiding its effective adoption.
This situation, which is fairly common in many organisations, required action to ensure existing Microsoft licences wouldn’t go underused. That is why Riihimäki established a pilot group within the Department of Education and Wellbeing to act as pioneers for new ways of working.
“The pilot group of around 15 people includes staff from administration, education services, early childhood education, and adult education – a diverse mix of roles. While they all do knowledge work, many in their units don’t sit at a computer all day.”
“The aim is to gradually roll out the new work practices developed within the department to the city’s entire workforce of more than a thousand employees.”
The playbook provides clear guidelines for both new work habits and applications
Through workshop collaboration, the pilot group produced a Teams playbook that guides the entire organisation’s work habits and internal communication. It defines, for example, where files should be stored and how they should be named. The comprehensive, easy-to-use SharePoint-based playbook was developed through six half-day workshops.
“We designed the playbook to cover different types of roles and to be as clear as possible for users. The same SharePoint workspace includes guidelines for unified ways of working, internal communication, collaboration in teams, and step-by-step application instructions.”
With Teams used effectively, communication becomes clearer and information easier to find.
“By reducing the number of communication channels, we avoid having to search for information in WhatsApp, emails, or text messages. Conversations are centralised in Teams, helping us prevent data gaps – information no longer lives only on people’s personal devices.”
Viva Engage becomes the city’s internal social media platform
As part of the broader shift in work practices, in autumn 2024 Riihimäki introduced Viva Engage, a community platform included in Microsoft licences, across the entire city organisation. Previously, the city had used Meta Workplace, which will be phased out in 2025 – generating significant cost savings.
“An internal social media platform like Viva Engage has many uses across the city. The publishing threshold is lower than on the intranet, and it’s easier to capture people’s attention. We can quickly share service disruption notices, post photos from team days, or ask colleagues in other units for advice.”
“It’s convenient that our internal social media is accessible directly from the Outlook or Teams sidebar – you can easily check updates and see what’s going on with colleagues while you work.”
