Triggering a lifecycle event in ServiceNow can be done either automatically or manually. This blog post will lay out the steps for both.
A lifecycle event needs to be associated to an HR service. You can trigger a lifecycle event in the same ways you would trigger any other HR service (i.e., record producer or case creation).
Manual triggers
You can set up a Lifecycle event to be triggered manually – either using a record producer or case creation. If you want an employee or a manager to be able to request and trigger a lifecycle event via self-service, you can create a record producer. This will make the HR service available from the HR catalog. You can capture the necessary data from the form and when submitted, the script in the record producer will trigger the HR service and associated lifecycle event.
Figure 1: Parental Leave of Absence Request Record Producer
Figure 2: Parental Leave of Absence Case
For example, you may want to create a record producer for parental leave requests. After an employee submits all the necessary information via the record producer, the corresponding HR service and lifecycle event will be triggered.
Learn more here for how to configure a record producer for an HR service.
If the self-service route is not sufficient, an employee can reach an agent via phone, live chat, virtual agent, or help desk. The agent can create the lifecycle event on behalf of the employee using case creation in HR agent workspace or platform case creation.
Automated triggers via an integration
You can configure the lifecycle event to trigger automatically based on information coming from a third-party system.
For example, you may want to trigger onboarding based on a new profile entry in your HCM. You can utilize the out of the box integrations for Workday, SAP, and Oracle to trigger onboarding.
The general steps to setting up your integration would be to:
1) Establish the API connections required to pull in worker information. Ensure that the account used for the Integration has the necessary HR roles to create the case.
2) Perform the data mapping to map the source data to the necessary ServiceNow tables using the transform maps.
3) In Flow Designer, set up the flows required to trigger the lifecycle event.
OR
4) Create a business rule that when run will detect changes coming from the integration and trigger a lifecycle event.
See below diagram of an example flow of data from you HR systems to ServiceNow for onboarding.
Figure 3 Example onboarding flow
More resources for setting up integrations with HCMs:
HR Service Delivery integration with Workday
HR Service Delivery integration with Oracle Cloud HCM
Conclusion
If you are in the process of building or planning to build a lifecycle event to manage complex employee transitions, the best way to trigger the lifecycle event is going to be dependent on the use case you are solving for. Do not let this question hold you back from building a better process and experience for your employees. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to your account team or to myself at lucy.curran@servicenow.com.
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