Many ServiceNow customers have been using HR Service Delivery to solve for their sensitive Employee Relations matters for years. As organizations have matured their programs and practices in this domain, their service delivery needs for Employee Relations cases have also evolved to be more robust and unique compared to typical HR cases in other Centers of Excellence (COEs).
In Paris, we’ve introduced a new purpose-built plugin to help accommodate these evolving customer needs, including the need for users to report misconduct. This new plugin is available to customers with the Professional and Enterprise HR Service Delivery packages.
What’s Included?
- Catalog Item: A new Report Misconduct Catalog Item is available for employees to report misconduct or inappropriate behavior. It prompts employees to describe the situation, list the employees who were involved, the date of the incident, and their preferred contact method. And as with other catalog items, you can configure this as needed or create a new version. The catalog item also has an accompanying HR service and case template, which ensure the Opened For user on the case can only see basic case details, such as their case number and any comments the agent makes visible to them via the Additional Comments field.
- Flexible Data Model: A new data model and several accompanying tables now make it easier for agents to track multiple involved parties, allegations, interviews, corrective actions, and other employee relations cases for involved parties.
- Involved Parties: This allows agents to track multiple involved people, beyond the ‘Opened For’ and ‘Subject Person’ that are typical within an HR case. Involved parties won’t know they’ve been added to the case or be able to see any details of the case. Involved parties can also be users that are not in the system if necessary. It’s also important to note that a many-to-many relationship between these individuals and any allegations and corrective actions can be defined.
- Allegation Types and Subtypes: To help track allegations in a way that makes sense for your organization, there is an easy, no-code configuration of allegation types and subtypes. Out of box, you’ll find a list of common types, and you can add or modify as you see fit.
- Interviews: Before the Paris release, if an Employee Relations case required agents to host several interviews with several individuals, it could be challenging to stay organized within the case work notes. The new interview record can capture who was at the interview (interviewee, interviewer(s) and any other people present) as well as the date of the interview. It also contains a rich text note field and allows for links and attachments. And none of the interview records will be visible to the person who submitted the case.
- Corrective Actions: Corrective actions, such as a suspension or perhaps a verbal warning that occurs as an outcome of the Employee Relations case can be tracked for any involved party. The Corrective Action record can capture the type of corrective action, the employee who is receiving this corrective action, a due date by which the discussion with the employee needs to take place, the current status of the corrective action, and who had the discussion and on what date. A rich text notes section and the ability to add attachments also allow for any additional information that needs to be tracked.
- Users Not in System: Agents can now track individuals who do not have a ServiceNow HR Profile as the Opened For user on an Employee Relations case, or as an involved party. This allows for the tracking of complaints and investigations involving people who are not employees, such as vendors who were witnesses, or perhaps customers who complained about an employee’s actions. This surfaces on the HR Case Creation screen with a Skip verification for external individuals or anonymous employees link, an External opened for checkbox on the case form, as well as a Not in system checkbox on the involved party form.
- Enhanced Security: Admins can create Case Restriction Configurations to allow groups (such as senior investigators or Employee Relations leaders) to restrict Employee Relations cases to be visible to only a specified group of individuals. This allows for an additional level of security on a case where the default level of security configured for the COE or HR Service is insufficient for a particular case, such as an involved party who is an executive, or a highly sensitive legal situation. Case Restriction Configurations are created by Admins at the Employee Relations table [sn_hr_er_case] level, and in the scenario above, an agent who is in the configured group would see a Restrict button on their Employee Relations case form that would allow them to restrict visibility to only team leads, and then un-restrict it if needed.
- New Roles: Five new roles are available within the plugin, including HR ER Administrator, HR ER Case Reader, HR ER Case Writer, HR ER Confidential, and HR ER Configurati... to ensure the correct personas have the correct access.
- Dashboard and Reports: An Employee Relations dashboard with four reports is now available, including Employee Relations case volume by month, allegation type, location, and department.
Technical Details
Before the Paris release, an HR Employee Relations Case COE table [sn_hr_core_case_relations] was already available to all HR Service Delivery customers. This table will continue to be available for customers who want to build relevant Employee Relations HR services and use cases in a “do-it-yourself” manner.
In the Paris release, the Human Resources Scoped App: Employee Relations plugin [com.sn_hr_employee_relations] is now available to Professional and Enterprise customers, and includes 9 new tables to support the data model and features mentioned above:
- Employee Relations [sn_hr_er_case]: The new employee relations COE table
- Involved Party [sn_hr_er_involved_party]: The parties involved in the related case, which can be classified as a complainant, subject of allegation, witness, or other
- Allegation [sn_hr_er_allegation]: An allegation against one of the involved parties
- Corrective Action [sn_hr_er_corrective_action]: A corrective action determined against an involved party
- Interview [sn_hr_er_interview]: An interview of an involved party
- Associated Allegation [sn_hr_er_m2m_allegation_party]: The relationship between an allegation and an involved party
- Allegation Type [sn_hr_er_allegation_type]: A category of allegations
- Allegation Subtype [sn_hr_er_allegation_subtype]: A sub-category of allegations
- Case Restriction Configuration [sn_hr_er_case_restriction]: Configuration records for case restriction
The new tables and functionality available in the Employee Relations plugin can be used in conjunction with the core case management capabilities, meaning you can configure additional HR Services like you would with other COEs, but with the added benefit of the new tables and features within the plugin. Also note that all future investments in the Employee Relations domain will be made within the new plugin versus the legacy table.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How do I migrate from the legacy table to the new plugin and tables?
While each customer should evaluate their specific situation to determine the best path forward, a clean cutover is recommended in most scenarios. The basic process for this would include deactivating the legacy table [sn_hr_core_case_relations] and replicating any HR services on the new table [sn_hr_er_case]. Selecting a specific date for this cutover is also recommended to ensure there is a clear delineation for reporting purposes. Also note that the old HR Services should only be deactivated once existing, open cases that were created using them have been closed.
Why wasn’t the new employee relations functionality built on the legacy table?
This decision was made for licensing and technical purposes. The new plugin is only available to HR Service Delivery Professional and Enterprise customers, whereas the legacy table is available to all HR Service Delivery customers. The new plugin and accompanying tables also provide a better landscape and architecture for future investments within this domain.
When should a case be opened for an external user?
Agents have the ability to open an Employee Relations case for an external user by using the new External opened for checkbox. This allows for scenarios where an employee calls the service center and wants to remain anonymous, or when a non-employee calls to open a case about an employee. Agents can also input an external user as an involved party using a Not in system checkbox.
Will the new Employee Relations cases and features work in HR Agent Workspace?
Yes, the new Employee Relations cases and features will work in HR Agent Workspace, and the out of box HR Service has a Workspace View so the same tabs for involved parties, allegations, interviews, and corrective actions are available, as well as the Restrict case button. The External opened for and involved party User not in system checkboxes are also available. However, note that to use the Skip verification feature when an agent creates a case, the agent will need to use the legacy case creation form but can subsequently work the created case within Agent Workspace.
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