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2 hours ago
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) – HRSD
Last updated for Zurich
*Safe harbor applies for any forward-looking statements*
This document comprises of our top FAQ covering various aspects of the HR Service Delivery suite, including CKM, Agent Workspace, Employee Journey Management, Employee Relations, and additional HR tools such as Manager Hub and Virtual Agent. It addresses topics like application security, case management, lifecycle events, COE security policies, integrations, and available out-of-the-box services and reports, providing essential guidance for users and administrators of HR service products. This will also cover our applications that focus on Hiring and Employee's Growth experience. Please use the search option to locate your specific question using keyword search.
Employee Self-Service Experiences – FAQ
Hiring Experiences - FAQ
Is Hiring Experiences a replacement for an ATS or other hiring systems?
It’s not. Hiring Experiences is not a replacement for an applicant tracking system or CRM. It provides the experience layers that sit on top of other hiring systems to provide a transparent requisition workflow and applicant experience, which are underserved by current tools in the market.
All activities enabling hiring are powered by a unifying experience, data & intelligence layer on the NOW platform which is agnostic to underlying tools.
How does job information get populated into Hiring Experiences?
Our job architecture supports information from the Job Profile table during requisition management; you can populate that how you see fit; we also have an ATS integration for applicant information that is shared with our Applicant Center. Requisition records are created as part of the workflows.
Can job requisitions be customized per business needs?
Job requisition fields are built using ServiceNow platform capabilities and are highly customizable. Existing fields and values can be updated, and new fields can be added.
Can job requisition workflows be modified?
Job requisition workflows leverage the highly customizable ServiceNow technology of Flow Designer. Our OOTB workflow is built to satisfy basic organizational needs, however provisions have been added to modify this workflow or create and use a new workflow using Flow Designer to accommodate custom business requirements.
Can I upload existing job descriptions from an existing repository?
You can. You can take advantage of our template functionality to upload existing job descriptions to be used as templates or populate the Job Profile table with additional job information in any way you choose.
Is any reporting included with Hiring Experience?
We do include a Hiring Dashboard with both workload and performance metrics OOTB for Hiring Experiences. This includes metrics like time to hire, average time spent in each applicant and requisition stage, workload balance, etc.
Where is job data and applicant data stored?
Job data is stored within the Job Profile table in ServiceNow, which can be populated through HCM integration or by other means and methods defined by the customer. We recognize we are not the sole system of record for job information but can store and populate information as we have it.
Applicant data is stored within the connected Applicant Tracking system currently. Shared data through the integration is stored within the job applications table in ServiceNow.
What OOTB Integrations do we have for Hiring Experiences?
We have built an integration spoke through Bristlecone with Workday Recruiting.
Employee Self-Service Experiences - FAQ
What are the core features of ServiceNow HRSD Product?
- Case Management: Tracks and resolves HR inquiries, requests, or incidents through a systematic process.
- Employee Self-Service Portal: Allows employees to access information, submit requests, and manage personal data directly.
- Knowledge Management: Provides a repository of policies, FAQs, articles, and how-to guides for employees and HR staff.
- Employee Journey Management: Automates workflows for welcoming new hires or managing exits.
- Analytics and Reporting: Offers insights into HR metrics, service levels, and trends to support data-driven decisions.
- Integration Capabilities: Connects with HCM, payroll, talent management, and other enterprise systems.
- Hiring experience & flows: Suite of applications designed to streamline and enhance the entire hiring journey for hiring managers, recruiters, interviewers, and applicants.
- Growth experience: Suite of applications to help employees develop, grow and deliver on critical business outcomes.
- Alumni centre portal: The Alumni Center provides a way to stay connected with former employees and non-employees like volunteers and contractors.
Why is HR a scoped application?
HR is a scoped application to ensure data security and separation of HR data from other business data.
How secure is HR Data?
HR data is highly secure and follows strict compliance and security policies to protect sensitive employee information. Apart from the security providers, HR products are scoped application and have many OOB ACLs and security configurations and policies in place. If you like anonymization of content or field, you can also use the ServiceNow Vault offering on HRSD.
How does a transfer case work?
Transfer a case is a UI action that's available OOB which allows for an agent to transfer cases from one COE/Service to another. We have two options OOB, to retain the same case number on transfer or to have a new case number on transfer.
What is COE security policy?
Configuration within HRSD where admin can control access to sensitive cases enabling defining groups who can read or write to specific case types within a COE.
When do you create a new service?
Out of the Box, we offer many services under a given COE. Our general guidelines are you create a new HR Service if any of the below are different compared to existing HR services:
- Case Creation Method
- Automated task creation/Assignments
- Agent fulfillment instructions/Checklists/Knowledge Articles
- Default values on fields are different
- Reporting requirements are different
How much time does it take to migrate from classic Agent Workspace to configurable agent workspace?
There is no one glove fits all migration script that allows to move from classic Agent Workspace to configurable Agent workspace. The effort and time are dependent on the number of customizations that are present and needed. Configurable agent workspace is built on UI builder, and it would be essential for the implementer to understand using UI builder.
Is there a migration script I can use to move from v1.0 to v2.0 version of agent workspace for HR?
No, we do not have any migration script. Classic Agent Workspace for HR and configurable agent workspace for HR are not considered 1.0 and 2.0 versions. The move to configurable agent workspace requires change management and technical effort as well. We have provided migration guidelines that can be followed to move from classic agent workspace to configurable agent workspace.
How are lifecycle events different from journey accelerator?
Lifecycle Events is great for journeys that require complex workflows, require you to task different departments (HR, IT, Finance, etc.) to complete activities, and/or require complex task types such as signing documents or submitting a catalog item. Lifecycle Events is very powerful, allowing you to automate complex business processes. Journey Accelerator is great for simpler journeys that require more flexibility. You can build sets of stages and tasks and assign them to different audiences. You can create templates for ‘Sales onboarding’ or ‘New leader onboarding’ without the overhead of building a lifecycle event.
If I already have created a lifecycle, will I need to redo it to create a journey?
If you have a lifecycle event you can migrate to using journey designer using the content in the below blog:
Do you have anonymous reporting using employee relation application?
Yes, we have an offering of Anonymous report center that has an OOB implementation for Employee Relations. Once the request is logged using the anonymous report center, the request is anonymous to the HR agent working on the case.
How do I generate documents using Document Templates?
Documents can be generated either automatically or manually:
- When the "Automatically Create Draft Document" case option is enabled for an HR service, a document task is automatically created for the employee once the case is initiated and its status is updated to Work in Progress or Ready. The document is then made available for signing. For new document templates, the corresponding case option is "Automatically Initiate Document Tasks."
- The document can be generated by the HR agent using the "Preview Document" option within the case. After previewing, the agent may choose to sign the document using the "Sign Document" option. Once generated, the document is attached to the case. If employee signatures are required, the document may either be emailed to the employee, or an e-signature task may be created and assigned. Multiple signatures can be inserted into the HR document template, whether in HTML or PDF format.
What formats are supported - PDF, HTML, or both?
Both. PDF supports fill and sign; HTML supports sign only.
What e-signature types are supported?
ServiceNow Sign, Adobe Sign, and DocuSign. Adobe and DocuSign require Integration Hub subscription.
Is there support for multilingual templates?
Yes, ServiceNow Document Templates support multiple languages, it can be done using the platform’s built-in localization framework. If the Dynamic Translation application is installed, the “Machine Translate” button is shown. The content in the document template or block is translated into the selected language by the configured machine translator, while token values remain unchanged. Read more on this here.
How to migrate from HR Document Template (HRDT) to Document Templates (DT)?
For migration guidelines, see Migrating from HR Document Templates to Document Templates.
How are documents moved into EDM?
Documents can be added to Employee Document Management (EDM) in two primary ways:
- Manual Uploads: HR agents or authorized users can manually move documents from HR cases or tasks into EDM.
- Automated Routing: HR services can be configured to automatically route documents into EDM upon case closure.
How is access to documents controlled?
Access to documents in EDM is governed by role-based permissions and document-level security policies:
Employee Access: Employees can view documents assigned to them via their profile.
Role-Based Access:
- Reader: Can view documents.
- Writer: Can create and update documents.
- Manager: Can configure EDM settings and manage document types.
- Legal Hold Writer: Can apply or remove legal holds on documents.
Security Policies: Organizations can define policies based on document type, department, or sensitivity to ensure only authorized users have access.
Is there support for folder structure?
EDM does not support traditional folder structures. Instead, documents are organized using metadata tags like case number, document type, and uploaded by
Can employees view their own documents?
Yes. Employees can access assigned documents via their profile. Access is controlled by document type and security policies.
What happens when a document is under legal hold?
Legal hold suspends the retention policy for that document. It prevents purging and ensures compliance with legal requirements.
What are the storage requirements for Employee Document Management?
By default, EDM stores documents in the instance's system storage, specifically within the sys_attachment table. This is the same storage model used for attachments across HRSD modules, ensuring consistency and security. Storage is included by default with the HRSD instance. If additional capacity is required, it can be purchased in 1 TB bundles per instance.
Growth Experiences - FAQ
What is the Implementation sequence in the growth experience suit of apps?
Recommended Implementation sequence can be found in this Now Create asset.
What are different apps which are part of Growth Experiences?
Growth Experience apps are Career hub (with Career/Skill Profile), Aspirations, Growth Plans, Learning, Mentoring, Conversations, Goals, Talent Feedback, Skills Foundation and Skills Workspace.
What are the OOB integrations?
Learning spokes (Cornerstone, Pluralsight, Workday Learning, Saba, Udemy, SuccessFactors Learning, SumTotal) Workday spoke (HCM, Skills, ATS, Goals, Feedback), Oracle spoke (HCM, ATS, Goals, Feedback), SuccessFactors spoke (HCM, Skills, ATS, Goals), Credly + all platform OOB integrations
Can Growth applications be used without skill data?
Yes, however much of the value is derived from skill-based recommendations and skill insights for workforce planning.
How does Growth experience fit into my existing HR tech ecosystem?
Growth takes your HR ecosystem and supercharges it with talent experiences by bringing together the best parts of your HR systems into a single streamlined experience for employees and their managers.
How do we overcome a crowded learning and skills ecosystem?
Growth does not require replacing customers' existing HR systems, it provides the talent experience layers that sit on top of the other HR, Learning, Skills systems that they already own. Growth offers Growth Plans, Career Hub, Feedback, Mentorship, internal mobility etc. with Learning being one of them. ServiceNow is uniquely positioned to provide the System of Engagement experience layer needed to drive employee and manager adoption with tools that we already provide – Employee Center, Manager Hub, etc. Service Now also provides Proactive Prompts in the flow of work via Systems of Action such as Outlook, Teams, SMS etc.
How does ServiceNow solution deal with proficiency?
Proficiency levels (definitions and scale can be configured) can be rated in various scales OOB (0,1,2 or beginner, intermediate, advanced) based on the type of skills (e.g., soft skills, technical skills, company value)
What languages are available for Growth Experience apps?
All platform languages supported by AI Search.
If customers leverage competencies where do competencies show up in Growth Experience?
‘Skills’ and ‘Competencies’ are treated the same way. From a product implementation perspective, a skill is just a field that can take in any definition including that of competency. For e.g. customers can use the field for assessing competencies or to evaluate all employees in their organization against their core company values. Overall, a lot of flexibility is built to configure and update ’Skills’. The level/proficiency across all these ‘skill’ types can also be assessed based on different parameters. For e.g. proficiency evaluation may range from 'living a company value' to 'teaching it to others' OR 'expert', ‘intermediate’ 'beginner' OR any other quantitative assessment. If a customer already has defined competencies, they can upload them on the product as 'custom skills', these will then be normalized.
Alumni Experiences-FAQ
What is the underlying technology on which alumni center portal built on?
Alumni Center is constructed using the same service portal framework, and with the Zurich release, it has feature parity with most components and widgets found in the Employee Center Pro portal.
Is it possible to have content that varies by region or country? If so, how do you get permission by user profile etc.?
Yes, it uses user criteria. If Alumni records are populated with this data, you could set up user criteria and create that by location/region. User Criteria allows you to say "all users with location is x" should be included in these criteria.
Is language translation supported on Alumni Center portal, and can we show translations based on country?
Language translations are supported, and it is based on preferred language - which is captured as part of portal preferences. Out of box languages and translations are available for many items (case fields, portal widgets, etc).
You can use the Dynamic Translator plugin to translate the text in cases, and activity log. The DynamicTranslation API enables real-time text translation into multiple languages.
How do we handle user data changes for alumni after separation, like location, contact, email?
With the upcoming enhancements, Alumni will be able to update their personal details which includes their contact details, address and location information in the profile page.
What does the sign in process look like for an Alumni? Do they receive an email to log in?
Alumni will have 3 steps as part of their Alumni onboarding: 1) Confirm their personal email during offboarding 2) Alumni user account is created automatically at the time of separation 3) After separation they receive an email with login credentials for their Alumni account.
Existing Alumni also has a self-registration process from the login page.
What are the types of services being used in the alumni module?
This is very configurable, and the customer can create any type of cases. Some examples are employee verification, payroll discrepancies/enquiry/access, tax documents, confirmation on asset reclamations, GDPR enquiry related, general enquiries etc.
