Frequently asked questions

The Service Manual of the Uusimaa region (Palvelumanuaali) is a shared online platform of nine municipalities in the Uusimaa region of Finland for compiling services that promote employment, services that support work ability, and services that are related to the integration of immigrants.

Who is the Service Manual for?

Our goal is to bring together those searching for services and those that provide services. Regardless of whether you are a jobseeker living in the Uusimaa region, an employer operating in the region, an organisation providing services that promote employment and/or work ability or support the integration of immigrants, or an employee in the employment areas of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Kerava or Raseborg, the Service Manual is intended for you.

The service is available to everyone without a need to log in. The public section of the Service Manual allows you to search for services meeting your service needs and fitting your situation, find out more about the content of services, and find instructions on how to access services.

The login function and the additional services to which logging in provides access are intended for local service providers and employees of the employment services of the partner municipalities. By logging in, service providers can manage and maintain their organisation’s service offering. For municipal employees, the Service Manual that opens when they log in is a tool that supports client guidance by providing detailed work and process instructions related to services.

The Service Manual that you are now using is used in nine municipalities in the Uusimaa region of Finland (Helsinki, Espoo, Kauniainen, Vantaa, Kerava, Sipoo, Raseborg, Hanko and Ingå). However, it has been found that there is also a need for a corresponding platform elsewhere, and we are looking into the possibility of expanding the platform’s use.

How does the Service Manual differ from other service platforms?

The Service Manual of the Uusimaa region is the only platform in Finland to compile services promoting employment, work ability and integration, as well as the official work and process instructions related to them, across organisational boundaries. For this reason, the Service Manual is the primary service guidance tool used by the partner municipalities’ employment services.

We recognise the diverse life situations of jobseekers and have compiled a wide range of services to support their employment, skills development, integration, re-entry into the workforce, networking and work ability, among other things. In addition to statutory services that promote employment and support work ability, the service offering also includes a wide range of services offered by municipalities, educational institutions, organisations, projects and individual operators – so there is something for everyone!

For service providers, the Service Manual serves as a channel through which their services can reach jobseekers, employers and employees of employment services alike. The work and process instructions featured in the employees’ view, which employees can open by logging in, make it possible for clients to always receive current information on services and equal service during guidance sessions, regardless of who helps the client and where the guidance is provided.

During further development of the Service Manual, we will also look into interface options with other platforms that list services (e.g. Job Market Finland, Studyinfo, Suomi.fi, etc.).

The Service Manual appears unfinished, why is that?

The Service Manual that you are currently browsing is in active development: we test the use of the website and make the necessary changes regularly to ensure that the Service Manual will serve various groups of users and meet various user needs as much as possible in the future. The Service Manual will be in active development from 2023 to 2026. 

Due to the ongoing development work, there may be brief service interruptions during technical updates, even though we try to schedule the updates so as to cause the least amount of disruption to users. We announce upcoming service interruptions in advance on the service’s front page, and we also inform active users about major upcoming changes through a newsletter.

Additionally, we make updates to the range of services and the service information, but this continuous updating of the services does not affect the use of the manual. We update the range of services and the service information regularly to ensure that you always have access to current information and a comprehensive service offering.

The Service Manual is a website that is open to everyone.

Who can log in to the Service Manual?

Employees of the employment areas and service provider organisations are able to log in to the Service Manual.

In organisations that organise or provide services, the persons who add service descriptions to the Service Manual’s service offering receive credentials for logging in to the Service Manual.

As for the employment areas, credentials are provided to employment services specialists and content creators. Specialists use the Service Manual to support client and service guidance. Content creators add descriptions of the work and process instructions for services to the service information.

On what devices can I use the Service Manual?

The Service Manual can be used via a computer and mobile devices, such as a smartphone and tablet. Please note! The service’s responsiveness is under development, and there may still be deficiencies in the use of the service on mobile devices.

You can access the website via the most common browsers, such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge and Safari. In order for the Service Manual to function optimally, please make sure that you are using the latest version of your browser. 

Is the use of the Service Manual subject to a fee?

For the time being, the use of the Service Manual is completely free of charge for all users. The solution is maintained by the employment services of the Uusimaa region.

How is accessibility taken into account in the Service Manual?

The accessibility of the Service Manual web service will be assessed throughout the development lifecycle, and the aim is to design the service with consideration to the accessibility principles. For instance, attention has been paid to fonts and colours in the design and themes of the user interface. The service undergoes regular accessibility audits by an external service provider. You can find the observations made and the accessibility statement on the Service Manual’s Accessibility page.

In which languages is the Service Manual available?

You can use the Service Manual’s interface in Finnish, Swedish and English. Statutory and municipal services are also available in these languages. Translations are produced regularly, and there may be deficiencies in the different language versions in some places during the translation process.

In the future, it will be possible for service providers to add different language versions of other services to the Service Manual. This will allow users to search the Service Manual for e.g. services in their own language according to the language in which the service is provided, if needed. The development of the different language versions will be completed in stages.

How are different user needs taken into account in the Service Manual?

The project was launched in autumn 2020 with an extensive consultancy report on needs and the target state. In spring 2021, a temporary Service Manual was published for the duration of the development of the Service Manual that you are now using. User feedback and observations were regularly collected to support the development work during the use of the temporary solution. 

The needs of employment services specialists and content creator users from the employment areas have been mapped through service design and service map projects, workshops and user testing. Various observations and findings have been prioritised and added to development tasks.

The developers prioritised the development of the content creators’ view in 2022–2023, the employment services specialists’ view in 2023–2024, and the private clients’ view in 2024–2025. However, active development of all of these views will continue until the end of 2026, after which the service will move on to maintenance development. During active development, users from each group of users will be invited to participate in user testing, surveys and various service design projects in order to support the determination of user needs.

Can other content besides services be added to the Service Manual?

Service providers can add organisation-specific services that promote employment and support work ability and integration to the Service Manual. In addition to services, however, the Service Manual also features things such as various content and articles that support job seeking, work ability and integration. For the time being, only the Service Manual’s administrators can add content/article pages. User organisations’ need to create or manage various article pages will be examined at a later time.

Can I log in to the Service Manual with my organisational credentials?

The Service Manual does not allow for single sign-on (SSO) to several digital services with a single ID. A personal Service Manual user account is created for each user, and the credentials are service-specific.

Can I create my own lists of services in the Service Manual?

Currently, logged-in users are able to create a single personal Favourites list. Visitors are able to save favourites for the duration of a single browser session.

The Service Manual’s various personalised features and personalisation options will be developed, and it will be possible to create various personal lists and other things in the future.

Does the Service Manual also show inactive or outdated services?

Only active and published services are publicly visible. A service can be published once the organisations (including municipalities) organising or providing the service have produced all of the required information content related to the service. Additionally, persons who manage and maintain services can view services that are outdated or inactive (e.g. in draft mode) for each organisation in the service management and maintenance view.

Is client experience information available about the services?

Each service provider may have their own ways of collecting client experience information, and there is no consistent or uniform process in place for this purpose for the time being. However, it would be preferable for both the client and the employment services specialist to have information on clients’ experiences of using the services. We are looking into ways to incorporate client experience information into the Service Manual in a sustainable and reliable manner, such as in the form of clients’ accounts of their experiences.

Can the services information be shared to the customer?

Customers can access the Service Manual to view services. So you can share a direct link to the service to the customer. See Specialist instructions for more information (note only for Specialist users).

Later, it will also be possible to share filtered search results with the customer, as well as saving and printing pdf documents of search results and individual services. Pdf files can be distributed to the customer by e-mail, for example, or printed out for a customer meeting.

How are customers in the area informed about the Service Manual?

Customers are informed about the Service Manual and its use in the same context when the solution is put into Specialist use. Customers can use the public side of the Service Manual and search/browse published services. The service Manual will be developed to better serve customer needs after the service design project, which will be launched in 2024.

Is there customer experience information available for the services?

Each service provider may have their own ways of collecting customer experience data, and for now there is no consistent or uniform process for this. However, the hope is that both the customer and the employment services Specialist would have information about the customer experiences of the services. We are looking at how customer experience information could be sustainably and reliably produced in the Service Manual, e.g. in the form of customer stories.

The City of Helsinki’s project organisation is responsible for the technical maintenance of the Service Manual.

The maintenance of the service offering and the public information on the services, as well as the work and process instructions, is the shared responsibility of the Cities of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Kerava, Raseborg and Hanko and the diverse service provider network in the region.