Community communication keeps members of the Aalto community informed about the university's activities, practices, services, guidelines, people, campus, events and other important matters. In addition to conveying information, community communication is also interacting and building a sense of community, and when functioning well, it positively impacts work motivation, the work atmosphere and well-being.

Instructions: How to reach Aaltonians

When you have a matter that our personnel should know about, here are some options:

1. Create internal news on the aalto.fi website. Before publishing:
   -Make sure your news piece is visible to target groups by adding metadata and classifications.
   -Offer your readers related content by adding links with liftup components at the end of the news.
2. Share the news on the internal social media channel, Aalto Social.
3. If you need more visibility for the topic, you can propose highlighting the news on the For personnel page or in the Personnel newsletter – please contact Aalto Communications: communications@aalto.fi.
4. If your matter also concerns students, create news in the Student Guide.
   More information from student services (LES) communications
5. If you are organising an event, add it to the aalto.fi event calendar.
6. You can offer your content to be displayed on the campus info screens in the campus buildings, see instructions here:
   Information screens and media walls on campus

Communication channels for personnel 

By following the channels below you will stay informed about matters in your own work community. You can also use these channels to share your own information to your colleagues.

When planning to publish content, it is worthwhile to consider the unique characteristics and requirements of each channel—such as images and visual elements, the style of the text, the length of the text and the language used.

Aalto.fi

The Aalto.fi website is the university's main communication channel and contains a wealth of information about the university's operations, guidelines, contact information, as well as current news and events.

For personnel page

The page provides the employee with up-to-date information and services as well as tools to make your work easier. Remember to log in with your Aalto account! Internal contents are only visible to logged-in users and can be distinguished from the lock image.

For personnel page

Personnel newsletter

The Personnel newsletter is sent bi-weekly to all employees. The newsletter guides you to read more about aalto.fi contents. 

Personnel newsletter

Aalto Social - internal social media

Aalto Social supports open and active discussion and community engagement. The platform can be found on Teams or at social.aalto.fi. Aalto Social is intended for interaction across the entire university: anyone can create a community around a topic of their choice, and all communities are always open to everyone. Discuss, comment, follow.

Aalto Social

Community events

All Aaltonians are welcome to attend community events four times a year to hear about common issues and celebrate together:

• This is Aalto in March sums up the previous year’s achievements.
• Meet our board in September will explore changes in the operating environment together with Aalto's Board.

Other gatherings of the whole community

• On May Day and right before the beginning of the holiday season, we meet up to celebrate together or around some other topical events.
• On  Aalto Day One we celebrate the opening of the academic year. The event is in the beginning of September each year.
• In Installation Talks we celebrate our new tenured professors with their engaging presentations. Events are open to all.
• Every year, approximately 250 public defences (i.e. public examinations of doctoral theses) are arranged at the university. Events are open to all.
• The university's internal and public events are listed in the Events hub

Other social media channels

Aalto's social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Bluesky, YouTube) are not primarily intended for internal communication. They share information about research, studies, innovation and societal impact as well as about working at Aalto. As for social media channels, you can contact communication services.

Social media recommendations and guidelines

E-mail

E-mail distribution to the entire staff are used to a limited extent, only in significant matters affecting work or in invitations to important university events. E-mails can also be used to reach all staff in exceptional situations or crises.

For team and project communication: Teams and other collaboration platforms

The Microsoft Teams platform is the main channel used for team and project work. There you can share documents and work on them together, as well as discuss with colleagues. You can use the Teams chat to reach colleagues around the whole Aalto University. 

Teams and Zoom are commonly used platforms to organise remote and hybrid meetings. We have also other tools in the supported toolbox, such as Google Workspace.

This page lists the collaboration tools available at Aalto University:

Learn more about collaboration tools

Communication to students

The main channel for student communication is the Student Guide. Study-related information is also distributed to students in a period letter sent by the Learning Services.    

More information about learning services