One of the most important aspects of an effective HR Service Delivery model is ensuring that employee cases get to the right person, at the right time, with as little friction as possible. Over the years, I have worked with many organizations who have evolved from manual case routing to advanced AI-driven assignment strategies. I call this journey the Case Assignment Continuum – a framework I have put together for understanding the maturity of HR case assignment within ServiceNow.
This continuum (pictured below) moves from fully manual to fully automated case assignment, with several stages in between.
It’s important to note that the methods in the Case Assignment Continuum are not typically mutually exclusive. In many organizations, multiple approaches are used together to balance flexibility with automation. For example, you might configure an HR Template to automatically assign a case to the “Payroll Administration” assignment group, while also using Assignment Rules or Matching Rules to determine which specific payroll specialist should handle the case. This layered approach allows teams to tailor automation to their unique structure and maturity level.
With that in mind, let’s walk through each stage with examples.
Stage 1: Manual Routing (Fully Manual)
In the early stages, case assignment is entirely manual. HR cases are created and then “someone” (most likely a Tier 1 team member) has to decide where they should go – whether to a different HR service via a transfer, a specific assignment group, or even an individual HR specialist.
Example: An employee submits a case requesting maternity leave guidance into a “General Inquiry” HR Service. A Tier 1 HR agent reviews the case, identifies it belongs to the Leave of Absence team, transfers the case to a related HR Service, and even possibly manually reassigns it to the right assignment group. This works in smaller teams but quickly becomes inefficient at scale.
Stage 2: HR Template Usage
The next step introduces the usage of HR Templates as part of HR Service Configuration. HR Templates allow predefined values – like assignment group, required skills, or even a named HR specialist – to be automatically populated when a case is created.
Example: An employee selects “Payroll Issue” from the HR Service Catalog via the Employee Center. The corresponding “Payroll Issue” HR Template automatically assigns the case to the "Payroll Administration" assignment group, pre-populates the case with a priority of "High", and applies the required skills. The case still may need manual refinement or intervention, but much of the repetitive assignment work is reduced.
Stage 3: Assignment Rules & Matching Rules (Partial Automation)
At this stage, baseline automation is introduced. Assignment Rules and Matching Rules attempt to assign the case automatically by evaluating a set of predefined conditions. These conditions can include relevant case related criteria such as the skills required to handle the case, the priority of the case, and the location of the employee. This ensures cases are directed to the right people from the start, reducing manual triage, shortening resolution time, and creating a more consistent employee experience.
Example: A case is opened against a “Benefits Enrollment Assistance” HR Service. ServiceNow uses a matching rule to assign it to an available HR agent in the "Benefits" assignment group who also covers the employee’s region (i.e. USA). Instead of a Tier 1 HR agent routing the case, ServiceNow takes the first step toward intelligent case assignment.
HR Case Assignment & Matching Rules Documentation
Stage 4: Advanced Work Assignment
Advanced Work Assignment (AWA) takes assignment automation a level deeper – basing it on an HR agent’s availability, capacity, and skills. Thus, cases are automatically routed to agents not just based on group membership, but also using real-time factors like agent workload, capacity, skills, on-call status, or even taking into account “last assigned” logic.
Example: An employee submits a “Remote Work Policy” case from the HR Service Catalog via the Employee Center. Advanced Work Assignment allows ServiceNow to check which HR agents with both the “HR Policy Expertise" & "Accommodations” skills are online (both of which had been previously identified as required skills to work on this specific case), compares their case loads, and routes the case to the agent with the most capacity. The process is seamless and adaptive, reducing bottlenecks.
Advanced Work Assignment (AWA) for HR Documentation
Stage 5: Predictive Intelligence (Fully Automated)
At the far end of the continuum lies Predictive Intelligence – where ServiceNow leverages machine learning to automate case assignment. With sufficient historical data, Predictive Intelligence can determine the correct assignment group or agent without relying on predefined rules.
Example: Over time, ServiceNow has learned that questions related to the “Tuition Reimbursement Support” HR Service typically belong to the “Employee Benefits Support” assignment group. A new case comes in with free-form text describing an employee’s reimbursement concern via email. Predictive Intelligence analyzes the text and automatically assigns it to both the correct HR Service and the right team without needing any pre-configured rules.
Auto-Determination of Assignment Group via Predictive Intelligence Documentation
An Iterative Journey to Smarter Case Assignment
The Case Assignment Continuum is best understood as a journey of steady progression. No organization begins with full automation – in fact, it’s impossible to start on the far-right side, since Predictive Intelligence requires at least 10,000 historical cases to train effectively. That’s why most organizations start small and evolve step by step: beginning with manual routing, introducing templates, layering in assignment and matching rules, and then advancing toward Advanced Work Assignment and Predictive Intelligence powered machine learning models.
Approaching case assignment as a journey allows HR leaders to set realistic goals, deliver incremental value, and build organizational confidence at each stage. Every step forward reduces friction, accelerates resolution times, and improves the overall employee experience – ensuring that the path toward automation is not just achievable, but transformative.
Looking ahead, AI Agents and other emerging capabilities have the potential to take case assignment to an entirely new level – where intelligent, conversational systems not only route cases but actively resolve them. However, because these solutions are still evolving, with no established out-of-the-box patterns or proven best practices, I’ve kept them separate from the current continuum. As the ecosystem matures, we may see them redefine what “fully automated” truly means in HR Service Delivery.
2 Comments
