ServiceNow Health and Safety has delivered several top innovations and enhancements in the January 30, 2025 release, including new Permit to Work and Exposure Management applications.
For additional details, refer to the product documentation and release notes on the ServiceNow Store listings.
New Features:
- Permit to Work
- Exposure Management
- Meeting Management
Permit to Work
Plugin: Health and Safety Risk Management (sn_hs_rm)
Persona: EHS Teams and Operations Managers
Roles:
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Role Name [name] |
Description |
Contains |
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Permit Requestor [sn_hs_rm.permit_requestor] |
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Permit Approver [sn_hs_rm.permit_approver] |
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Permit Coordinator [sn_hs_rm.permit_coordinator] |
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Permit Reader [sn_hs_rm.permit_reader] |
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Permit Writer [sn_hs_rm.permit_writer] |
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With Health and Safety’s Permit to Work feature, customers can efficiently approve hazardous work, control real time risks and streamline their permit to work process. By digitizing their process, organizations will have dynamic enhanced visibility and reporting. Using the power of the platform, organizations can be agile and maintain their permits to maintain regulatory compliance for process safety standards.
Permit to Work has been designed to be easy to use for employees, operations managers, and safety teams with dynamic forms and approvals to create a more consistent experience that can scale from a single project to the entire enterprise.
Permit to work is available on Employee Center, Now Mobile, and the Health and Safety Workspace.
How to Use:
Employee:
- Log in to employee center with the [sn_hs_rm.permit_requestor] role
- Navigate to the Health and Safety Taxonomy
- Request a permit to work
The configurable request guides employees through the permit request process to ensure all appropriate documentation and information is submitted on the permit request before submitting for approvals.
To save time for employees and managers, multiple permits to work types can be selected on one request. The fields are dynamic so that when a type is selected, specific fields for the request type will appear on the request to be populated by the submitter.
Eight types of permits to work are delivered out of the box. Additional types and fields can be configured to match a customer’s defined permit to work process. The fields can easily be updated and maintained with changing permit to work regulations from regulatory bodies.
Helpful tip: To Configure the Permit to Work Record Producer:
In the platform view navigate to:
Service Catalog> Catalog Definitions> Record Producers > Request a permit to work
From this view, you can configure the record producer in a consistent manner to configuring any record producer on the platform.
Permit requestors can associate completed risk assessments, job safety analysis, chemicals from the safety register, and completed inspections to the request.
The work task field references any table that is an extension of the task table. For example, if customers are using Health and Safety Actions, Workplace Service Delivery Case Management, or Field Service Management Work Orders to assign tasks or work.
How to Configure Work Task Tables for Permit to Work:
Under Health and Safety Administration > Properties > Permit to Work – Work task tables input the table name that you would like the field to reference
Ex. Sn_ohs_im_action
The location reference field references the WSD location hierarchy.
For locations not in the location tables, permit requestors can input their location in work area. An example of a location that’s not in cmn_location or the WSD location hierarchy could be a new project site with no address.
Start date and time, end date and time, and approvals due by determine the when the permit is requested, the length of the permit, and when approvals are due. These fields can be used to report on.
Requested for adds additional users to the permit. Every user that is added to the requested for list will received the request under My Requests in employee center and any Pre-Work and Closure checklists under My Tasks.
Note: If a user submits a permit to work request but does not add themselves to Requested for they still will have access to the permit request under My Requests.
Helpful Tip: Acknowledgements can be configured to match a customer’s internal terminology.
Once submitted the permit requestor can easily view the submitted information. Submitted permits will appear under My Requests.
From the view of the submitted permit request, permit requestors can print the permit request to bring to their worksite.
My Request > [permit number]> Actions> Print Permit
If the requestor has an additional question for the safety team, they can use the activity stream to communicate or attach additional documentation.
Pre and post work are automatically assigned to every employee that has been added to the Requested for list.
Out of the box we provide one example of pre/post checklists for Hot Work. This example can be used as a template for the other types of work.
For every type of permit work, there is one pre and one post checklist.
Assigned checklists will appear under My Tasks.
To configure the Permit to Work Checklist for a Permit Type:
Helpful tip: Out of the box we provided examples of checklists for hot works pre-work and closure as well as a pre-work for working at heights. Refer to those examples to help guide you through configuration
Navigate to > All > Service catalog > Catalog definitions > Record producers
Search for Permit checklist
Select Variable sets > New
Select single row variable set > fill in the fields to match your checklist question > Submit and repeat until all questions are completed
Next, link the checklist to a permit type.
Navigate to All> System definition> Decision Tables> Permit checklist configuration
Note: The window will open in workflow studio
Select the empty cell in the permit type column and type Choice input > OK
Select the empty cell in the checklist type and select the variable set in the Choice input > OK
Select the empty cell in the variable set and select the variable set in the Choice input > OK
SAVE – Your new permit checklists should appear on the type of permit chosen above
Permit to Work Approvals:
Approval flows can be configured to match a customer’s approval process after a permit to work has been submitted. For more information on configuring approvals please view docs.
Users with the [sn_hs_rm.permit_approver] role can approve permits under My Tasks in Employee Center or within the permit record approvals list in the Health and Safety Workspace.
Workspace: Permit to Work:
- Log in to Health and Safety workspace with the [sn_hs_rm.permit_coordinator] role.
- Navigate to Health and Safety Risk Management Icon
Helpful Tip: In the January 30 release, all Risk Management applications have been bundled under the Risk management icon. Previously to this release, there was an icon for JSAs, Risk Assessments, and Audits and Inspections.
- Navigate to All> Permit to Work
- Open a permit record from the list view
Note: Out of the box permit to work has 11 states. Customers can configure different workflows for each of the states.
- Draft
- Requested
- Pending approval
- Approved
- Rejected
- Active
- Suspended
- Pending closure
- Closed
- Expired
On the permit to work, Permit Coordinators can view submitted permit information, review approvers, review pre and post work checklists, and create Health and Safety Actions.
Once a permit has been approved, permit coordinators can issue the permit using the issue permit ui action. Within workspace, permit coordinators can oversee all submitted information and determine that the permit should be issued.
Permit coordinators would issue the permit if all safety requirements are met.
Once the permit has been issued, permit coordinators can close, cancel, suspend, or delete the permit.
Close permit is selected when the permit is complete.
Cancel permit is selected if there are unsafe conditions and work cannot continue.
Suspend permit is selected is if conditions needed to be changed, the permit can be suspended under completed.
When the UI action has been select, a verification window will appear prompting the permit for verification and a text reason.
Note: all of the state changes will appear in the activity stream on the permit record.
Setting Up Health and Safety Risk Management- Permit to Work:
Health and Safety Risk Management [sn_hs_rm] will need to be downloaded or updated to (5.0.0) from the store into your instance.
Release Compatibility: Yokohama, Xanadu, Washington DC
Exposure Management
Plugin: Health and Safety Risk Management (sn_hs_rm)
Persona: Employee, Manager, Industrial Hygienist
Roles:
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Role Name [name] |
Description |
Contains |
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Industrial hygienist [sn_us_rm.industrial_hygienist]
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Industrial hygienist who can:
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Exposure Writer [sn_hs_rm.exposure_writer] |
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Exposure reader [sn_hs_rm.exposure_reader]
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Exposure Management offers a streamlined solution to enhance workplace safety by simplifying exposure identification, assessment, and follow-up actions. Safety teams can easily track exposures, link them to risk assessments and safety records, and use a condition builder for precise exposure assessments. The solution addresses the common challenge of fragmented and manual processes that often delay assessments, increase risks, and lead to frustration. By centralizing exposure types and safety data, it empowers teams to manage exposures efficiently, ensure compliance, and prioritize worker safety. Follow-up actions can be assigned seamlessly, reducing the risk of incidents and improving overall workplace safety.
Exposure Management is available in the Health and Safety Workspace.
Workspace:
- Log in to Health and Safety workspace with the [sn_hs_rm.industrial_hygienist] role.
- Navigate to Health and Safety Risk Management Icon
Helpful Tip: In the January 30 release, all Risk Management applications have been bundled under the Risk management icon. Previously to this release, there was an icon for JSAs, Risk Assessments, and Audits and Inspections.
- Navigate to Exposure Types > All > New
Exposures are anything that may cause workers’ injury or illness. Exposure types define different exposures that are relevant to the organization.
Depending on a customer’s industry and the work that their employees perform, each customer might have different exposure types.
Customers can either create one exposure type per exposure source for example, noise. For organizations that require more granularity in exposure reporting, customers can associate attributes to the exposure types and have multiple of the same exposure type.
Ex. Noise exposure Dublin office, noise exposure Boston office, noise exposure London office
Out of the box there are 5 exposure types. However, more can be configured depending on a customer’s requirements.
For customer’s using Safety Registers and Health and Safety Risk Assessments:
Safety registers can be associated to any chemical exposures using the safety register reference field.
Any completed risk assessment related to the exposure can be associated using the risk assessment reference fields.
Helpful tip: be sure to change the state to active after creating a new exposure type otherwise you will not be able to create exposure assessments
From the exposure type, industrial hygienists can create exposure assessments. Using exposure assessments, industrial hygienists can begin to analyze and identify exposures that can cause harm to an employee’s health.
To create a new exposure assessment select Create exposure assessment
Each exposure assessment is based on location(s). Locations are referencing the WSD location tables and can range from a building to a space or area if a customer wishes for more granularity for where the exposure source is.
Note: multiple locations can be seleted. Each location will create an individual exposure assessment record.
On the exposure assessment, industrial hygienists can edit criteria of what level of exposure from the measures will create an exposure and who the affected people are. These are set using condition builders to automate the process and reduce the manual effort of assessing measurements and adding individual impacted people.
Both condition builders are built using the platform’s condition builder.
Exposure creation conditions set what the condition that will create an exposure. These conditions can be created off of an attribute off of exposure tables.
For example, to create a condition on a measurement:
Select Edit Conditions > Measurement > Greater than > 90 > Set
Helpful tip: multiple conditions can be set
Once the exposure creation conditions are set, when the measurements table is populated if there is a measurement greater than 90 an exposure will automatically be created.
Helpful tip: As regulations change for exposure standards, industrial hygienist can easily change the measurement thresholds.
Next, affected people conditions need to be set. Affected people are anyone who might be exposed. These conditions can be based on location, cost center, department, etc. These fields are pulling from the Health and Safety profile.
For example: User> Active is true
Make sure to select Set
Once set the condition builder will display matching results. If there is an exposure determined, the people in the affected people list will be associated to an exposure record.
Once conditions have been set, industrial hygienists can add measurements.
Navigate to the Measurements tab> New
Add the date and time of the measurement.
The measurement unit is set depending on the exposure type. For example, for an exposure type of noise the default measurement unit is dBA. These can be configured if a customer would like additional measurement types.
Measurement is the level of exposure ex. 85 decibels
TWA is the time weighted average of the exposure ex. 85 decibels over 8 hours
Exposures are determined by amount of exposure and the amount of time.
Time weighted averages are important to assess the impact on an employee’s health. For example, one loud noise that is only a few seconds loud might not impact someone’s hearing as much as the same decibel of noise heard 8 hours every day for as long as the employee works at a company.
Note: As of February 2025, exposures do not have any out of the box integrations to wearables or measuring instruments. However, if the product has an open API, integrations could be built during implementation.
If a measurement is over the set exposure condition, then a new exposure [EXPXXXXX] record will be created.
Within exposure details, industrial hygienists can view details of the exposure such as the location of the exposure and affected people. Any affected people added to the list are from the affected people conditions builder.
Additionally, controls can be added to track what controls are being used to control and reduce exposures for workers.
The controls reference field references [sn_hs_rm_control_measure]
Under Affected people are the workers that have been exposed to the specific exposure. Each employee has as unique exposure record.
Once exposures have been identified, industrial hygienists will need to take action to mitigate the impact of the exposure.
Navigate back to the exposure assessment record > open Action Schedule > New
Due to the amount of actions that will need to be created for the workers, exposures use an action scheduler.
Similar to sn_ohs_im_action, the action types are corrective, preventive, learning, and task.
Days to complete action after creation: This will determine how long after assignment the worker has to complete the action. Note this will set a due date on the action.
If this is a recurring action is selected the action will generate at the selected frequency until the schedule is made unactive.
Any employee that is listed under Affected people will automatically receive the action.
Note: employees can receive these actions via Email, Employee Center, and Now Mobile
Actions can be reported on to monitor any overdue actions ensuring visibility and timely completion of the exposure actions.
Setting Up Health and Safety Risk Management- Exposure Management:
Health and Safety Risk Management [sn_hs_rm] will need to be downloaded or updated to (5.0.0) from the store into your instance.
Release Compatibility: Yokohama, Xanadu, Washington DC
Meeting Management
Plugin: Health and Incident Management (sn_ohs_im)
Personas: Safety Managers
Roles:
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Role Name [name] |
Description |
Contains |
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Safety meeting manager [sn_ohs_im.meeting_manager]
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Safety meeting coordinator who can:
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Sensitive meeting content user [sn_ohs_im.sensitive_meeting_content_user] |
Can view safety meetings marked as sensitive |
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Sensitive meeting writer [sn_ohs_im.meeting_writer] |
Can create and update Health and Safety meetings |
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Safety meeting reader [sn_oh_im.meeting_reader] |
Can view Health and Safety meetings |
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Using Health and Safety Meeting Management, Safety managers can track records of safety meetings that have occurred for auditing purposes. Health and Safety Meeting Management is a multi- release investment with new features releasing over the next year.
How to Use:
Workspace
- Log in to the Health and Safety Workspace
- Navigate to the newly added Meetings icon
- New
Note: In the February release, meeting management functionality is only available in the Health and Safety Workspace.
- Populate details of the meetings.
Meeting management can track any safety related meetings from daily standups to safety committee meetings. Customers can configure the list of meeting categories to align with the safety meetings conducted in their organization.
Categories determine what type of meeting is being held
Start/end date and time is when the meeting is being held
Location can be added if the meeting is onsite
Meeting URL allows for Zoom, Teams, and Webex links to be added
Host is the assigned user who will host the meeting
For meetings of a sensitive nature, the sensitive content flag can be checked. Only users with the [sn_ohs_im.sensitive_meeting_content_user] role will be able to view the meeting record after saved.
Within the agenda text field, safety managers can format the content to be covered in the meeting.
Under attendees, safety managers can indicate who is expected to attend the meeting. Internal attendees can be added at a group or user level.
Note: The internal attendees reference field references Health and Safety profiles. If there are users in groups that do not have a H&S profile, they will not appear in the internal attendees list.
For attendees external to the company, external attendees can be listed. An example of an external attendee could be a representative from OSHA or an external trainer.
- Save
Once the record is saved, related lists Internal attendees and actions will appear.
Internal attendees is a list of all Health and Safety users added under the attendees section on the details page.
Actions creates Health and Safety Actions. These actions are the same actions that are found across the rest of the Health and Safety product. Actions can be corrective, preventive, learning, or task and assigned to anyone in the organization.
After the meeting has occurred, meeting managers can add internal and external absentees. When an internal attendee is listed as an absentee, they will automatically be removed from the attendees related list.
Additional notes that were taken during the meeting can be added under meeting notes or as an attachment.
The meeting state can then be updated to complete. For specific regulatory requirements or audits, the meeting record will detail who was at the meeting, when the meeting was, and the content of the meeting. The meeting record also will be actionable using Health and Safety Actions if there are any tasks required before or after the meeting has occurred.
Setting Up Health and Safety Meeting Management:
Health and Safety Incident Management [sn_ohs_im] will need to be downloaded or updated to (9.0.0) from the store into your instance.
Release Compatibility: Yokohama, Xanadu, Washington DC
Additional Enhancements:
Establishment Total Hours Updates:
To allow for more flexibility in reporting total hours worked on establishments, periodic total hours can now be added. Each year can now be broken down into specific time periods with associated hours. The added hours will automatically calculate for the year’s total number.
Log into the Health and Safety Workspace > Incident Management > Establishments > All > Select an existing establishment or create new
Navigate to Annual information > Select a year or create new > Periodic total hours worked
Using the date picker select the start date and end date and add total hours worked for that specific range.
Once added the total hours worked will get added to the existing hours for the year.
ServiceNow continues to find ways to enhance health and safety culture for organizations. We encourage you to view the product release note, attend our What’s New webinars and collaborate with our team and your peers from our community.
