Dispatcher workspace - workforce assignment group

[Chaz_]

Hi,

On the dispatcher workspace, within the workforce tab, I can see that only team managers can select the assignment.

1. Who or which role enables selection of one or more assignment groups? We would like to expand this to the dispatcher team.

2. How can we view stats of how much time each engineer is utilised as a percentage? I recall seeing a percentage value within the workforce section but can’t see how to get to it.

Thanks.

Chaz.

[Matthew_13]

Hi Buddy,

In Dispatcher Workspace, both of these are usually driven by Workforce/FSM roles rather than the workspace itself.

For the assignment group selection — by default only team managers can do this because it impacts capacity and scheduling. The permission comes from Workforce/dispatch management roles, not the dispatcher role alone. If you want dispatchers to be able to select one or more assignment groups, they’ll need the same Workforce-level access or an adjusted ACL that currently allows managers to do it.

For engineer utilisation, the percentage you’re remembering comes from Workforce capacity data. It’s calculated based on an engineer’s schedule, availability, and assigned work. You’ll typically see it in the Workforce view when capacity planning and schedules are configured. If it’s not showing, it’s usually because:

• schedules/shifts aren’t set up, or

• utilisation tracking isn’t enabled, or

• the view is set to team instead of individual resource.

Once those pieces are in place, the workspace will show utilisation as a percentage based on assigned vs available time.

@Chaz_ - If help you answer; Please mark Solution Accepted and Thumbs Up

[Joshua Chen MTL · Accepted solution]

@Chaz_  
question 1

• if you dont have work force optimizaiton
  • only the sys_user_group.manager (the manager in the assignment group) will be able to see the resources
  • make sure the manager has wm_manager role
• if you have workforce optimization plugin (requires FSM enterprise license)
  • it adds a related list "additional managers", then you can add your dispatcher users
  • make sure they have sn_wfo_fsm.manager  role
  • it's a different workspace "manager workspace" and not from csm/fsm configu workspace > workforce
• OOTB WORKAROUND :there are 2 propertie that you can enable to give visibility and bypass ACL

  • Workforce system properties

    Configure team calendar visibility for group members

    Configure territory view to allow users to see other members' schedules

• CUSTOM Solution
  • ui builder, custom acl script

question 2:

• you need to turn on dispatcher settings (click top right wheel in dispatcher workspace) productivity and utilization (THIS IS NOT THE SAME CALCULATION IF YOU HAVE CAPACITY MANAGEMENT plugin

• if using capacity management, you will see in 
  • the capacity usage dashboard
  • or the capacity planning console

[Chaz_]

Thanks for the responses. Both very useful.

Jow is capacity management different in what it offers in utilisation and productivity scores? Are there easy steps to help configure this? I did look at the documentation but not too easy to follow. Thanks.

[Matthew_13]

Yes — in ServiceNow, Capacity Management is different from utilization and productivity. It doesn’t generate those scores itself. Instead, it uses the data behind them to help with planning and forecasting.

Utilization tells you how much of your available resource capacity is being used for example, workload per agent, backlog per group, hours worked vs available hours.
Productivity tells you how much work is getting completed tickets resolved, MTTR, throughput, SLA performance.
Capacity Management sits above both and focuses on supply vs demand — do we have enough people/resources to handle incoming work now and in the future?

That’s why the documentation can feel hard to follow. ServiceNow spreads this across Performance Analytics, Workforce Optimization, and the underlying ITSM data model, rather than one single “capacity” module.

A simple way to start configuring without overcomplicating it:

1. Define available capacity
   Set schedules and working hours for agents or assignment groups so the platform understands resource availability.

2. Use ticket volume as demand
   Incidents/requests become the workload input. Make sure assignment group and state data are clean.

3. Build basic utilization metrics in Performance Analytics
   Start with things like active tickets per agent or backlog by group.

4. Add productivity metrics
   Tickets resolved per week, MTTR trends, SLA attainment.

5. Layer in capacity planning
   Use PA forecasting to compare incoming demand trends against staffing levels.

That’s usually enough to get a working model in place. Full ITIL-style capacity management can come later once the core metrics are stable.

@Chaz_ - If help you answer; Please mark Solution Accepted and Thumbs Up