Step-by-step setup guide for administrators and implementation teams
Requires Zurich Patch 9 (ZP9)
Overview
This guide walks through the end-to-end configuration of Employee Slate powered by Moveworks — the recommended path for all customers. Moveworks delivers the richest Employee Slate experience: full conversational AI, enterprise search across 100+ business systems, and World Knowledge
Prerequisites
Ensure all of the following are in place before beginning configuration.
- Platform version: ServiceNow instance on Zurich Patch 9 (ZP9). This is a hard requirement; Employee Slate will not function on earlier patch levels.
- Moveworks license: Moveworks is licensed and configured.
- System Administrator role: Required to install applications and access the Admin Console.
- Employee Center (Pro) portal (optional): Organizations already running Employee Center will inherit existing configurations for Unified Inbox, Employee Profile, and Org Chart automatically. No migration work is required.
Additional license requirements:
- AI-powered widget creation (AIUX Widget Creation / Updation): Requires Now Assist for Creator.
Implementation Steps at a Glance
|
Step |
Title |
Key Actions |
|
1 |
Download the Applications |
Install Employee Slate for Moveworks + Employee Slate Advanced from the ServiceNow Store |
|
2 |
Configure the Admin Console |
Set Appearance, connect Moveworks assistant URL, configure Canvas + widget library, review Documentation module, package/export update set |
|
3 |
Configure Moveworks Conversational Assistant |
SSO via JWT Auth, create new bot (unified-frontdoor surface), configure suggested prompts, optional assistant branding |
|
4 |
Validate Tasks and Requests |
Validate Unified Inbox configs inherited from Employee Center; add custom task types if needed |
|
5 |
Org Chart and Employee Profile |
Validate Org chart and Employee Profile configs inherited from Employee Center (existing customers) or configure new employee definition and UI elements |
|
6 |
Build Announcements |
Requires Employee Slate Advanced; create and publish from Content Library with audience targeting |
|
7 |
Widget Configuration |
Configure Featured Apps, Holiday Calendar, Communication Banners, Quick Links, Popular Content |
|
Step 1 |
Download the Applications |
Install the following applications from the ServiceNow Store before proceeding. Navigate to
System Applications > All and search for "Employee Slate" to install. Check "Load Demo Data" during installation.
- Employee Slate for Moveworks (sn_ex_emp_hub_mw)
- Employee Slate Advanced (sn_ex_emp_hub_adv) — required for Announcements and App Launcher
Employee Slate Advanced is required for Employee Communications (Announcements) and the App Launcher. Confirm your SKU includes it before proceeding. See the Packaging section at the end of this guide for details.
|
Step 2 |
Configure the Product Configuration Console |
All configuration in this step is performed from the Admin Console, which organizes setup into discrete modules and tracks progress. You can leave and resume configuration at any time.
2a. Access the Product Configuration Console
- Navigate to Admin > Admin Home from the top navigation or from the platform administrator home page, locate the Employee Slate for Moveworks card under ‘Manage your Products’ section, and select View product overview.
- The Product Hub opens and lists all plugins associated with Employee Slate for Moveworks implementation.
- Optional — Upload Batch: If you are promoting configurations from another environment (e.g., staging to production), use Upload Batch to load a prepared XML update set. Skip this step for a fresh configuration.
- Select Configure to open the Admin Console. The configuration summary lists all available modules and the completion status of each.
Accessing the Employee Slate Product Hub and opening the Admin Console
2b. Configure Appearance
- In the Appearance module, set the portal name and URL suffix.
- Upload light mode and dark mode logos, plus a favicon.
- Set the primary, accent, and neutral palette colors.
- Use the preview panel to verify the experience across desktop and mobile, and in both light and dark modes, before saving.
- Save the changes and mark the module as configured to advance your progress in the configuration summary.
Configuring portal name, logos, colors, and mode preview in the Appearance module
2c. Connect Moveworks AI Assistant
- In the Conversational Assistant module, enter the Moveworks AI Assistant instance URL and save.
- The module provides a direct link to the Moveworks Setup experience where you can configure AI Assistant sources and behaviors. For detailed instructions, see Step 3.
Reference: Configure the Moveworks chat bot for Employee Slate
Entering the Moveworks AI Assistant instance URL in the Conversational Assistant module
2d. Configure the Canvas Widget Library
The Widget Library controls which widgets employees can add to their personal Canvas. In the Canvas module, select Canvas Editor to configure the default canvas dashboard.
- Toggle widget visibility in the widget library to control what appears in each employee's "available widgets" list.
- Out-of-the-box widgets at launch: My Requests, My Calendar, and Activity Hub. App Launcher requires Employee Slate Advanced.
- Edit or create new widgets from within the library. Administrators with Now Assist for Creator can use AI-powered AIUX Widget Creation for natural language authoring with live preview.
Reference: Configure the default canvas dashboard
Enabling widgets for the canvas layout in Widget Library
2e. Configure Default Canvas Experience
- Set the default Canvas subtitle message shown to all employees.
- Define the default widget layout for the Canvas. Employees can personalize from this baseline.
Important: Home page layout is fixed in the May 2026 release.
Organizations cannot add widgets to or change the layout of the home page. Admins configure home page content (branding, quick links, popular content) but not its structure. Employee-level widget personalization is available exclusively through My Canvas.
Setting the default canvas widget arrangement for employees
2f. Review the Documentation Module
The Documentation module in the Admin Console provides direct links to the ServiceNow documentation site for all Employee Slate features: home page, inbox, org chart, notifications, and employee profile. Use these links to complete feature-specific configurations that fall outside the Product Configuration console scope.
2g. Package and Export the Update Set
Once configuration is complete, select Package and download to export all configuration changes as an XML update set. To promote configurations to another environment (e.g., from staging to production), upload the exported file from the Product Hub page of the target environment using the Upload Batch option.
This export/import flow is the recommended path for multi-environment deployments. Always export from lower environments and import to production — not the reverse.
|
Step 3 |
Configure Moveworks Conversational Assistant |
All Moveworks assistant configuration is performed within Moveworks Setup on your Moveworks instance. Search source configuration, Enterprise Search, and Notifications are also handled here as part of this setup.
3a. Configure SSO via JWT Auth
- In Moveworks Setup, navigate to Employee Slate under Chat Platforms and create a JWT Auth connection. Select both: (A) Connector and (B) Trusted Issuer to establish SSO between ServiceNow and Moveworks.
Creating the JWT Auth connection with Identity and Trusted Issuer connectors in Moveworks Setup
3b. Create a New Bot for Employee Slate
- In Moveworks Setup, create a new Bot (ChatVar) and set its surface to unified-frontdoor.
- Do not modify the surface of the existing mwa bot. A dedicated net-new bot is required for Employee Slate.
The unified-frontdoor surface connects the Moveworks conversational assistant to the Employee Slate home page experience. Reusing or modifying the existing mwa bot will break the integration.
Bot naming convention: {org name}-employeeworks-webchat (the name of the bot must end in -webchat due to validation on the moveworks side)
Bot Friendly Name: Should match the current display name used across your organization.
Surface: unified-frontdoor (required — do not use embedded or assistant)
Creating a new bot with unified-frontdoor surface in Moveworks Set
3c. Configure Suggested Prompts
- In Moveworks Setup, configure the Suggested Prompts that appear in the Employee Slate home page search bar.
- Prompts guide employees toward the most common and high-value actions in your organization from the moment they arrive.
- Each prompt has a Display Text (max 16 characters, shown on the chip) and an Utterance (max 130 characters, the full action sent when clicked). Up to 4 prompts are supported.
Configuring Suggested Prompts on the Employee Slate home page search bar
3d. Configure Assistant Branding (Optional)
- Navigate to Manage Chatbots > Core Configuration to update the Assistant Name.
- Navigate to Organization Details > Assistant Avatar to upload a custom avatar image.
Search, Enterprise Search, and Notifications
Search source configuration (where data with ACLs is mirrored, indexed, and searched to generate summaries), Enterprise Search across connected systems, and Notifications are all configured as part of the Moveworks setup. No additional ServiceNow-side configuration is needed for these capabilities.
|
Step 4 |
Validate Tasks and Requests Configuration |
The Unified Inbox inherits all existing Employee Center task and request configurations automatically. For most organizations, no additional setup is required.
- Standard task types (approvals, campaigns, journey lifecycle, learning, and more) are supported out of the box based on your existing Business Unit licenses.
- Standard request types (Service Catalog Requests, Incidents, HR Cases, and more) are also preconfigured with no additional setup needed.
- Custom task types or external system tasks can be added on top of preconfigured defaults by navigating to existing Employee Center To-do configurations.
- Three experience paths are configurable per task type: natively in the Inbox, rendered from Employee Center, or linked out to an external URL.
Reference documentation: Configuring Employee Center To-Dos | Employee Center Requests Configuration | Unified Inbox Product Documentation
|
Step 5 |
Configure Org Chart and Employee Profile |
Employee Profile and Org Chart automatically reuse existing Employee Center configurations. Organizations migrating from Employee Center do not need to rebuild anything from scratch.
For organizations that have not yet deployed the Employee Center (Pro) portal:
- Opt in to the Employee Profile feature to enable the new employee details and design.
- Create an active employee definition and generate employee profiles.
- Configure UI elements for the Employee Profile and Org Chart per your organizational preferences.
With Moveworks: Employees can search for people conversationally and receive interactive profile cards directly in chat. Clicking any card opens the full Org Chart in split view alongside the conversation.
Reference documentation: Employee Profile | Org Chart | Employee Center Academy: Unified Employee Profile
|
Step 6 |
Set Up Communication Banners |
Content Managers and Admins can create and publish targeted announcements directly from within Employee Slate. Requires Employee Slate Advanced. The role required is sn_cd.content_manager.
- Navigate to Profile Options and select Communications.
- Create a new announcement banner from the Content Library.
- Edit the banner content, image, and publishing plan. Set an image focal point, configure audience targeting and scheduling window.
- Check the live preview and click Publish when ready.
Audience targeting for announcements derives from existing Knowledge Base and Catalog user criteria. No separate audience configuration is required.
Reference documentation: Employee Communications
Creating an announcement banner and setting audience, schedule, and publishing details
Accessing Employee Slate after setup is completeNavigate to: https://<instance-name>.service-now.com/aiux/employeeslate/home User Experience Analytics (UXA) is enabled automatically from the moment Employee Slate goes live. No additional setup is needed. |
Widget Configuration Reference
Widget configuration is independent of the Admin Console setup in Step 2 and can be completed at any point after the core installation is done. Widgets fall into two categories: Canvas widgets (added by employees to their personal canvas) and Homepage widgets (displayed directly on the Employee Slate home page for all users).
Homepage Widgets
|
Widget |
Holiday Calendar (Homepage) |
The Holiday Calendar widget displays upcoming holidays relevant to each employee based on their location. Holidays are configured centrally by admins and filtered per user using the country code on the user's profile record.
- Navigate to Employee Center > Holiday Calendar.
- Create a new holiday record for each upcoming holiday. Set the date, name, and Country.
- In the Country / Region field, select the applicable country or region. Employees will only see holidays whose country/region matches the country code field on their user profile.
Country/region matching is driven by the country code on the user record. If employees are not seeing expected holidays, verify that their user profiles have the correct country code populated.
Adding a holiday record and selecting the country/region for targeted visibility
|
Widget |
Communication Banners (Homepage) |
Communication Banners are admin-authored announcements displayed on the Employee Slate home page. Configuration is covered in detail in Step 6: Set Up Communication Banners. Role required: sn_cd.content_manager.
In brief: navigate to Profile > Communications within Employee Slate (visible to content managers only), create a banner from the Content Library, configure audience targeting and scheduling, and publish.
Creating and publishing a communication banner from the Employee Slate Communications panel
|
Widget |
Quick Links (Homepage) |
Configuration instructions coming soon. This widget surfaces a curated set of links on the home page for quick employee access to frequently used resources. Configuration guidance will be added in a future update of this guide.
|
Widget |
Popular Content (Homepage) |
Configuration instructions coming soon. This widget surfaces trending knowledge articles and catalog items on the home page based on usage patterns across your organization. Configuration guidance will be added in a future update of this guide.
Canvas Widgets
|
Widget |
Featured Apps (Canvas) |
The Featured Apps widget surfaces pre-configured web applications on an employee's personal canvas, providing one-click access to commonly used tools. Requires Employee Slate Advanced. Role required: System Administrator.
- Navigate to Employee Center > Web Applications.
- Create or open a web application record. For each application, configure the SSO connection following the guidance in the App Launcher product documentation.
- Set the User Criteria to control which audiences see the app. Use Available For and Not Available For fields to define inclusion and exclusion rules at the audience level.
- Check the Featured Apps checkbox on the web application record. This is what causes the app to appear in the Featured Apps widget on an employee's canvas. Applications without this checkbox will still appear in the full App Launcher but not in the Featured Apps widget.
SSO configuration varies by application. Refer to the App Launcher product documentation for step-by-step instructions for each supported app type. User Criteria matching follows the same logic as Employee Center portal audience targeting.
Configuring a web application record and enabling the Featured Apps checkbox in Employee Center
Appendix
Localization and Accessibility
- Languages at launch: French, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, and Italian. Additional translations planned for H2 2026.
- Moveworks assistant: Supports over 100 languages.
- Accessibility: Employee Slate has been designed for accessibility. AI-generated widgets (created via AIUX Widget Creation) automatically comply with WCAG 2.2 AA standards. Refer to the Employee Slate Accessibility Compliance Report for full product-level accessibility details.
Related Documentation
Employee Slate can also be deployed with Now Assist for customers for whom Moveworks is not yet available. Reach out to your account team for detailed implementation steps for Employee Slate powered by Now Assist.
