August 2024 enhancements to Employee Center (Pro)

[SmritiGupta]

We are back with another exciting release for Employee Center. The August 2024 release includes enhancements for Employee Center, Employee Center Pro, Now Mobile, and SharePoint Online Search Connector.

Below are the key new features and enhancements made in August 2024 store release:

• Guided Self-Service in Employee Center
• Enhancements to Employee Experience for Deskless Workers (Employee Center Pro Kiosk)
• Enhancements to Employee Communications functionality:
  • Social engagement with News
  • Reusable News Article templates
  • Portal shortcuts to author microsites
  • Content operations dashboard & analytics
• Enhancements to Integrated Experience and Service Feedback
• Enhancements to SharePoint Online Search Connector

Note: All August 2024 store release apps, except for Guided Self-Service in Employee Center and Webviews for mobile apps, are backward compatible with Vancouver Patch 4 and Washington Patch 3. Guided Self-Service in Employee Center and Webviews for mobile apps are compatible only with the Xanadu release. 

Download the latest Employee Center (version 34.0.7), Employee Center Pro (version 32.0.4), and Employee Center Pro Kiosk (version 2.0.2) from ServiceNow Store to get access to the below features and enhancements.        

1. Guided Self-Service in Employee Center

It is often hard to provide effective self-service solutions for complex, yet frequently asked requests, such as help me understand my benefits or how to install a new software. There are many nuances in the answer, leading to a maze of information presented in the form of long knowledge articles, with a big table of contents, or multiple requests forms, which employees need to navigate. With Guided Self-Service organizations can now provide a visual and touch friendly Q&A experience to help users self-serve on these complex, frequently asked requests.

Guided Self-Service takes users are through a set of pre-defined questions, with clickable answer choices, to find the right knowledge article or request form that addresses their need. Admins can configure Guided Self-Service flows to appear either as a quick link or as a separate widget called . Once configured as a quick link, this Guided Self-Service flow can be displayed either on homepage quick links or on topic page quick links as well.

We have pre-built two Guided Self-Service use cases as demo data - ‘Time off request’ and ‘Know your benefits’ – to act as examples for this functionality.

The Guided Self-Service admin experience is powered by Process Automation Designer playbooks The playbooks designer has also been enhanced for improved usability, via an out of the box process execution record that allows admins to test the playbook that they’ve created, making it easier for non-technical authors to create and manage content.

This new functionality streamlines the self-help process, making it easier for employees to find the information they need, reducing the number of support tickets and improving overall efficiency.

How to get access?

Plugins required – The Guided Self-Service capability is delivered via a new plugin called Guided Self-Service in Employee Center application (version 1.0.6) and Employee Center application (version 34.0.7). The Guided Self-Service in Employee Center has a dependency on Process Automation Designer plugin, which must be installed in the instance. Guided Self-Service in Employee Center app is compatible only with the Xanadu release.

Technical Details- The Guided Self-Service could be displayed either as a widget on the homepage and/or topic page or as a quick link. The Guided Self-Service experience can be configured by navigating to Guided Self-Service module under Employee Center. In terms of user roles, the user must have portal admin role (sn_hr_sp.esc_admin) and playbook writer role (playbook.write) to be able to configure playbook activity definition via the Process Automation Designer.

Refer to Guided Self-Service product documentation for additional details.

2. Enhancements to Employee Experience for Deskless Workers – Employee Center Pro Kiosk (requires Employee Center Pro)

In May 2024, we launched the new Employee Center Pro Kiosk experience, specifically designed to enable deskless workers to self-serve. With this release, we have enhanced the kiosk experience with personalized communications and an improved self-service experience. See details on the enhancements below:

• Employee Communication on Kiosk: Organizations can now engage deskless workers with targeted communications that provide easy access to key information and announcements.
• New Kiosk Taxonomy and Topic Pages: We have enabled the Unified Taxonomy for Kiosk and built a new taxonomy structure with simplified Topic Page template, focused on providing an efficient small-screen and touch-friendly interface. We have also pre-configured the topic pages to show only the content directly connected to it (instead of showing content tagged to both parent and child topics). This is enabled via a new instance option for the support resources widget on topic pages.
• My Favourites Widget: Users can now mark their frequently used content as favourites and directly access them on the home page.
• Experience Feedback Drawer Widget: Organizations can easily capture feedback on the Kiosk experience using the ‘experience feedback drawer widget’ on the home page. Admins can configure the feedback questions to be a rating or a multi-question survey, like the Employee Center Pro portal.

• Guided Self-Service: The new Guided Self-Service experience (explained above) is also pre-enabled for Employee Center Pro Kiosk. The visual Q&A format is touch friendly and designed for a kiosk experience. It is accessible via Get Support widget on the homepage, as a quick like or as a separate widget on the topic page.

• Send Information to SMS/Email: Users can access information (KB articles or schedule information) on-demand by sending it to their phone via SMS or email directly from the kiosk view. In case of knowledge articles, users receive a hyperlink that directly opens the article on a browser view. In case of schedule, users can choose to receive the day or week’s schedule for off-line reference. Admins can enable or disable options for sending information via SMS/email, customize the SMS and email templates to ensure information is shared in the desired format and branding, and validation to ensure email addresses and phone numbers are provided.

Note: Send knowledge article via SMS/email is also available on the portal experience for all Employee Center customers.

 

How to get access?

Plugins required – The Employee Center Pro Kiosk enhancements are available by upgrading the Employee Center Pro application (version 32.0.4) and Employee Center Pro Kiosk application (version 2.0.1). The Send to SMS functionality is dependent on Twilio license and plug-in installed for the SMS configurations. For accessing Shift and Time-off related features, organizations would need to deploy the Ultimate Kronos Group (UKG) integration, HR Service Delivery Integration with Ultimate Kronos Group application would be required. For accessing Health and Safety Incident catalog item, Health and Safety Incident Management application would be required.

The ‘Send Knowledge Article via SMS/Email’ feature is also available to all Employee Center customers for the portal experience. 

Technical details - The new kiosk experience could be accessed via the new kiosk homepage (eck_home). In terms of user roles, the user must have kiosk user role (sn_ex_sp_pro_kiosk.user) to access Time off and Schedule widgets.

Refer to Employee Center Pro Kiosk product documentation for additional details. 

Refer to Send info to self product documentation for additional details.  

3. Enhancements to Employee Communications (requires Employee Center Pro)

Employee Communications capabilities of Employee Center Pro are critical to driving pro-active employee engagement and productivity. They are also key for organizations using Employee Center Pro to replace their legacy Intranet portals. We are super excited to share many awaited enhancements as part of our August 2024 release. See below for details:

3.1 Social Engagement with News: Employees can now express their views and react to  Employee News. This capability enriches employee interactions and provides a means for the content managers to measure effectiveness of their content. Key features include:

• Reactions and Comments: Employees can express their opinions and sentiment through comments and reactions (such as likes, hearts, etc.). Logged in users can edit or delete their comments/reactions anytime (note, deleted comments are preserved in the back-end reports).

Admins can configure the reactions to align with organization's preference, including the reaction name, display text, and icons. Additionally, admins retain granular control over engagement by enabling or disabling comments, reactions, and view counts for all articles, certain article templates, or even for individual news articles. They can also disable comments/reactions in middle of the article lifecycle – all comments/reactions made before the functionality was disabled will remain visible on the portal.

• Flag a News article/comment: Employees can report an article with errors or flag inappropriate comments for moderation. Content authors can review flagged content and also delete an inappropriate comment to maintain a professional online environment. Additionally, admins can also configure their own survey questions for capturing the required details for reporting an article or comment.

• Content Engagement dashboard: Admins can track engagement metrics on their published news articles, this includes total number of comments, reactions, and unique views. Additionally, they can review flagged news articles and comments. These metrics help content managers measure the effectiveness of internal communications and gauge employee sentiment on new policies or initiatives.

 

How to get access?

Plugins required – The Social Engagement with News feature is delivered via a new plugin called Content Engagement for Employee Center Pro (version 1.0.6) and is available by upgrading the Employee Center Pro application (version 32.0.4).

Technical details – Upon upgrade, authors will have the option to enable or disable comments, reactions, and view counts as part of the News Article design.  Available reactions are configured separately via the new Content Experiences module by navigating to the reaction config table. All the engagement records are captured for admin viewing under the content record of the news article. The dashboards and reports for analysing the engagement analytics are visible by navigating to the content engagement module. In terms of user roles, the user must have content admin role (sn_cd.content_admin) to configure social engagement features for news articles.

Refer to Content Engagement product documentation for further details.

3.2 Reusable News article templates: Content authors can now save and reuse news articles as pre-defined templates, easily editing them with new text, images, and other elements. This feature drives efficiency in the content creation process and ensures consistent, professional-looking news updates. Only authorized role of content admin or content template owner can manage and edit these templates, ensuring controlled content delivery. Additionally, templates can be linked to specific content destinations, reactions, audiences, and categories.

 

How to get access?

Plugins required – The Reusable News article templates enhancement is available by upgrading the Employee Center Pro application (version 32.0.4).

Technical details - Any existing News article can be saved as a new template by navigating to the ‘Clone as reusable article’ function under the hamburger menu within the Content Library content interface. These saved templates can be managed by navigating to the ‘Reusable Article’ under the Reusable components. These templates could further be configured under any of the existing Content Template record and the used to create a News article afresh. In terms of user roles, the user must have content admin role (sn_cd.content_admin) to create or manage News templates.

Refer to News Article template product documentation for further details.

3.3 Portal Shortcuts to author Microsites: Content authors no longer need to navigate to the back end ServiceNow platform UI to edit microsite content (i.e. Rich Content) - we have enabled a shortcut on Topic pages for content authors to directly initiate editing from there, making it easier to manage microsites . Content authors who have edit rights, will now see a button to toggle their page view from that of a viewer to an author mode. Below are details on what they can do:

• Create and add new microsite (or rich content) directly from the portal: Once in author mode, Content authors will see an empty rich content widget with a ‘click to add your content’ action that will directly take them to the Rich Content authoring flow on the Content Library. The authoring flow opens in a separate tab and prepopulates the publishing destination fields to ensure content authors don’t need to remember the target page and widget names.
• Edit existing content directly from the portal: In the author mode, content authors will also see an edit action enabled on published Rich Content. When clicked, the edit button will directly open the associated rich content in a content library view on a separate tab. Authors can make the changes desired and come back to the page to continue their review.

 

How to get access?

Plugins required – The portal shortcuts to author microsites enhancement is available by upgrading the Employee Center Pro application (version 32.0.4).

Technical details - The portal shortcuts are currently only available for Rich Content on Topic Pages or standalone Microsites.  The option to toggle to “author mode” is activated only if the logged in user is permitted to add/edit the content based on Content Ownership properties set on the Properties page within Content Publishing. Please note that this functionality acts as a shortcut to simply the back-end navigation, the content authoring does not occur within the portal.  In terms of user roles, the user must have content admin role (sn_cd.content_admin) or content manager role (sn_cd.content_manager).

Refer to Create rich content from portal widget product documentation for further details.

3.4 Content Operations Dashboards: We are excited to unveil a new content organization and management dashboard for content authors. These dashboards will help content authors/managers take a data-driven approach to content management, with operational visibility and control. Additionally, it acts as the content author workspace, with the option to directly launch the content library, new content authoring flow. With the introduction of this, content authors no longer need to go to the content library list view or ServiceNow platform navigation for any authoring any communication content type.  Below are details on what’s included in the Content Operations Dashboard:

• My Content (a dashboard for all published content owned and more): The ‘My content’ dashboard provides an easy way to review content (including campaigns content) within various publishing stages and lifecycle. It also provides a dashboard view for managing content requests, including quick access to content requests across all stages - unassigned, due soon, ready to publish, etc.
• Publishing Calendar:  It provides a color-coded calendar view of scheduled content within specified timeframes, with the options to filter based on channels, pages, and widgets. Content managers can also filter content based on content library items, requests, and campaign content in the calendar view. This view empowers content managers to optimize engagement by preventing overload and enhancing visibility across scheduled content.
• Content Ownership: Communication teams can ensure clear ownership and accountability using the Content Ownership dashboard. It highlights who owns what across each component, i.e., content types, portal pages, topics, and audiences. Communication teams can manage the ownership, i.e. assign new owners or change ownership rights, directly from the ownership dashboard view.

• Content Library Analytics:  Content admins can now get analytics on all content within the Content Library, and not just Campaigns. The new 'Content Library Overview' dashboard offers detailed metrics for all content published through Content Library, including impressions and click-through rates, while also highlighting top-performing content. Content admins can filter data based on custom data range and build additional filters of choice.

 

How to get access?

Plugins required – The Content Operations enhancements are available by upgrading the Content Publishing application (version 32.0.4) and Content Governance application (version 31.0.3) which can be automatically updated by upgrading the Employee Center Pro application (version 32.0.4).

The Content Analytics enhancements are available by upgrading the Content Publishing application (version 32.0.4) and Content Analytics application (version 30.0.2) which can be automatically updated by upgrading the Employee Center Pro application (version 32.0.4).

Technical details - For Content Operations, Content admins could access the new Content Operations dashboard by navigating to any of the employee communications modules such as Content Publishing/Content Governance/Content Experiences > My Content Operations. The Content Operations dashboard would give a consolidated view of the enhanced content library, publishing calendar and content ownership matrix.

In terms of user roles, the user must have content admin role (sn_cd.content_admin) to configure the content operations features.

The Content Analytics upgrades include new visualizations provided by a new Platform Analytics Workspace and gives both an overview set of reports as well as individual content reports accessed from the hamburger menu within the Content Library content interface.

In terms of user roles, the user must have analytics admin role (sn_cda.analytics_admin) to configure and manage the content analytics dashboard.

Refer to Content Operations dashboard product documentation and Content Library Overview dashboard product documentation for further details.

In addition to the enhancements mentioned above, the August 2024 release also includes additional built-in demo data for commonly used campaigns, including new hire, recurring birthday/anniversary, tax time, and benefits re-enrolment campaigns. This demo data has been migrated from the Employee Experience pack store apps into Content Publishing app to avoid separate downloads.

4. Enhancements to Integrated Experience & Service Feedback (requires Employee Center Pro)

In February 2024, we launched Integrated Experience and Service Feedback to capture real-time feedback across multiple channels and touch points. The May 2024 release enhanced this with an integration to ServiceNow’s survey tools and added advanced configuration options like customizable trigger points. With this release, Experience and Service Feedback capability is now even more versatile, with support for delivering feedback directly within Now Mobile, Virtual Agent, and Kiosk, ensuring users can provide feedback seamlessly within their preferred channels. See the details below:

• Experience Feedback via Surveys - Organizations often want to capture more detailed experience feedback through multi-question surveys. To cater to this need, we’ve integrated Now platform’s survey capabilities into Experience Feedback Drawer widget.

Admins can configure the survey-based experience feedback drawer to be displayed as a modal or as a slide out with different trigger prompt conditions for nudging the user to provide feedback.

• Experience & Service Feedback on Now Mobile – Experience and Service feedback functionality is now available for Now Mobile users. Experience Feedback is pre-configured to appear under the ‘More’ tab for users to provide generic feedback on their mobile experience. Like portal, it can be configured to showcase experience rating or prompt a deeper survey questionnaire to collect the feedback. Like portal, the Service Feedback widgets are pre-configured to appear on the request pages during or after request is fulfilled.

All feedback widgets on Now Mobile appear via Mobile Employee Service Portal (MESP), so technical configurations for anonymity, feedback ratings, surveys, fatigue mitigation, and dashboard integration are consistent with the portal.

• Experience & Service Feedback via Virtual Agent – We have built pre-configured Topics to capture Experience and Service Feedback via Virtual Agent. The experience feedback is configured as “give feedback” topic that is always visible to users to provide anytime feedback. The service feedback topic is configured to auto-trigger at the end of any virtual agent conversation. Admins can configure both these feedback experiences to use a simple rating scale or invoke a ServiceNow platform survey.

How to get access?

Plugins required – The Integrated Experience and Service Feedback capability requires Employee Center Pro license. The above enhancements are available by upgrading the Employee Center Pro application (version 32.0.4), Now Mobile application (version 29.1.10)

Technical details - For experience feedback, all deployments will have the drawer widget enabled upon upgrade/first install. For Service Feedback, admins will need to enable and complete the full configuration via Feedback Definition table upon upgrade or new installation, as they don’t come pre-enabled across all channels. At the same time, admins can decide whether they want to display out of the box feedback questions or deliver a survey.

Refer to Integrated Experience and Service Feedback in Now Mobile product documentation and Configuring feedback for virtual agent product documentation for further details.

 

5. Enhancements to SharePoint Online Search Connector (requires Employee Center Pro)

Many organizations want to enable search for external content on Employee Center to enhance employee productivity and simplify content management. The SharePoint Online Search Connector, available with Employee Center Pro, is among the most desired and used external search connectors. Note: ServiceNow recently acquired Raytion, to provide additional external search connectors.

With this release, we're introducing finer control and flexibility for admins to streamline site permissions and provide more precise access control. Below are the added configurations:

• Selective access to individual sites: With Sites.Selected permission, admins can now grant the ServiceNow application selective access to individual sites, ensuring better data protection and privacy by limiting exposure to the entire tenant.
• Permission sync with M365 groups: The SharePoint connector now synchronizes permissions with Microsoft 365 groups, eliminating the need for managing site permissions manually with SharePoint groups.
• Support for everyone expect external users: It also supports everyone except external users, enabling end users to access information from company-wide sites.

How to get access?

Plugins required – The SharePoint Online Search Connector enhancement is available with Employee Center Pro license by upgrading the SharePoint Online Search Connector application (version 6.0.2).  

Technical details - The SharePoint Online Search Connector can be installed from the ServiceNow store and installation steps can be followed from the installation guide.

Kindly note that admins must delete the existing connectors and create new connectors if they want to change permissions of existing connectors, or they can rely on scheduled SharePoint jobs to index the new permissions.

Refer to SharePoint Online Search Connector product documentation for additional details.

What to know what lies ahead? Join us for Employee Center Confidential Roadmap Webinars to stay tuned on the latest advancements and insights on how to make the most of our enhanced features and capabilities.