Central government’s shared work environment concept updated in line with the needs of premises users and implementers
Progress is being made with implementing central government shared work environments across Finland. The first shared work environments were brought into use in Joensuu, Lahti, Lappeenranta, Pori and Kouvola in 2023–2024. Based on the feedback given by the employees of the agencies involved in these projects and the citizens who visit the customer service, the concept of shared work environments has been developed to even better respond to the needs of the users of the facilities.
During the 2020s, government agencies will move to working extensively in shared work environments. A concept has been developed for shared work environments to ensure they are uniform throughout Finland. The concept describes the principles and guidelines for the operation, facilities and services of work environments. It has been prepared and is being developed under the leadership of the Ministry of Finance in cooperation with Senate Properties, which is responsible for the implementation of the projects, together with the Government ICT Centre Valtori and agencies and institutions as part of the Renewal of the central government’s service and premises network in the 2020s project.
The goal of the Government Premises Strategy is for a quarter of central government personnel to work in shared work environments by 2030 which corresponds to approximately 20,000 public servants. By the end of 2024, around 8,500 people were already working in various shared work environments.
The next shared work environments will be introduced this year in Jyväskylä and Turku. The space projects for the shared work environments will be completed in stages. Senate Properties is responsible for the practical implementation of the shared work environments.
Shared work environments
Employees in several different agencies work in shared work environments. The facilities and related services are used jointly by the agencies. The facilities will be implemented as activity-based environments, with different spaces for different tasks. For example, there is a quiet space for work that requires concentration and suitable spaces for teamwork, and employees can choose the most suitable environment to work in at any time.
The customer service points of different authorities will also be brought together in shared work environments. The reform aims to enable more customer-oriented, cost-effective and systematic services for customers than is currently the case.
The aim of the service and premises network renewal is to create a single shared customer service network for central government and Kela customers by 2030 and to condense the number of premises in line with the Government Premises Strategy approved in December 2021. The aim of the joint service points is also to provide comprehensive access to local government services and such wellbeing services county services as are suitable to being provided in joint service points.
