The cities implementing the Six Cities Strategy of sustainable urban development are Espoo, Helsinki, Oulu, Tampere, Turku and Vantaa. This application applies for funding for an ESR project directed at Open and Smart Services of the Six City Strategy, in accordance with the special objectives 6.1 of the Sustainable Growth and Jobs 2014–2020 Structural Funds Program of Finland.

The objectives of the project are to make customer participation a natural part of the development of employment management and social services, as well as ensuring the quality of services by combining employment management, activation and involvement of unemployed persons, and strengthening of economic life in a new way.

The project’s novelty values are the intensive involvement of customers, the service processes, activation, new models of cooperation that will be developed into the interface of businesses, and the strong development of electronic customer service in support of the success of the customer’s entire employment process. Recognizing the customer’s personal know-how potential as an asset and “fuel” for solving businesses’ problems and challenges is a completely new way of handling the personal problem of the unemployed person – the lack of a job.

One objective of the project is to increase the participation of employment services customers in the creation, development and production of services in order to increase their quality, precision and effectiveness. The employment services include city employment management services, social services and business services. The project will develop and offer services by which the customer involvement will increase and the customers’ role in their own service and employment processes will strengthen.

The objectives of the project will be realized by creating and developing new services with the help of Service Design and together with customers, with the aim of developing together a versatile service process which is especially directed at the interface of businesses and in which the role and possibility of electronic use will be strengthened.

Some of the customers will be employed directly via the Future Workshop activities of the project, some will find new and innovative elements for their job-seeking, and some will be employed stepwise through cooperative activities, pay subsidy employment, and through real contacts with business life.