K20 LAB1164 - Digitize Employee Workflows for a Better Employee Experience Session Q&A

[Lena_Latham]

This article is for questions and answers for LAB1164 - Digitize employee workflows for a better employee experience (Lifecycle Events.) This lab is being presented multiple times throughout the live K20 event May 5 - 7, 2020. During the live event, post your questions in the comments of this article, and one of our lab gurus will be happy to answer it.

[Krista Forget]

When you build in an approval step in the lifecycle event, it still needs to be officially approved. This is useful since the submitter might want to do a final review of the details after a step HR does, for example. In the real world, this could be multiple people approving, like Gale's manager, or both Gale and the new manager or also have HR do an approval. For the lab we just configured it a very simple way with one person.

[carlostravieso]

Is it possible to match variables of the parent case with variables of the requested item? I am referring to variables (not fields) of the specific catalog item related to the sc_req_item record. Thanks.

[Julie Leung2]

Are there pre-defined / OOTB integration spokes (such as from Integration Hub) for most HRIS systems, that makes the creation of the HR Profile from integration with an HRIS tool straight-forward?

[Lena_Latham]

Hi Carlos. To help us understand this question better, will you please give us a use case scenario?

[xianoh]

Carlos, there is no parent-child relationship between case and the catalog item.  That would need to be done manually as far as I know.  Perhaps you could create a script to insert the same variables into a catalog item from a case.  But there is no configuration to do so. 

[Micah Russell]

Yes, and more are being built.

Here is a SAP SuccessFactors example: https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/orlando-hr-service-delivery/page/product/human-resources/concept/...

[carlostravieso]

Thanks!

My use case would be initiating an IT request for a new laptop from the HR case. The catalog item "new laptop" requires some information to be collected like model, RAM, colour, etc. Would it be possible to fill those variable automatically with information coming from the HR case?

As I understand, there is not yet an OOB way to configure that mapping right?

[michaelj_sherid]

@Julie Leung In Orlando we introduced 3 new spokes for HRSD purposes, Okta, Adobe Sign and CIC Plus (for US Tax forms). In addition to this New York introduced the DocuSign spoke that is used with the HRSD application.

Regards,

Mike

[leenadudani]

Hi Carlos. when you create a task of type "Submit Catalog Item" or "Submit Order Guide", you will see the ability to map values to the catalog item variables. 

When you create a fulfiller activity of type "Catalog item" or "Order Guide", you can map to the field "Questions" and then select the variable. See the screen shot:

[carlostravieso]

Ok, but it should be defined as an HR Task right? I was looking for a way to map variable for activities with type catalog item.

[carlostravieso]

Resolved in the demo. Great job team. Thanks so much.

[Micah Russell]

and just to keep adding here is the link to HR Integrations: https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/orlando-hr-service-delivery/page/product/human-resources/concept/...

[gordon_wu]

How does 'subject person job' work? How is it different to subject person HR profile, or subject person.Position?

Thanks

[Tom O_Neill]

Subject person "position" is just a field, saves current position only. Subject person job refers to a table and you can store the history of the employee there.

[leenadudani]

Hi Gordon. Subject person job is a new field added to the HR case table which can point to one of the job records associated with the subject person's HR profile. You should use this field when the job you are referring to is different than the primary job on the HR profile. In this case the subject person is transferring to a new job. So subject person job points to the new job that the subject person is transferring to.

[Micah Russell]

A single individual may have more than on job in an organization. This enables history and dual jobs.

https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/orlando-hr-service-delivery/page/product/human-resources/concept/...

I was recently speaking with an organization that a large percentage of employees have 2 roles. Full time employees if working at locations A,B, and C but working as contract employees if at locations D-Z. Employees would then have 2 active Job records.

[carlostravieso]

Lab completed. Really nice session. Thanks a lot!

[Micah Russell]

thank you Carlos

[gordon_wu]

Is the initial Job record created automatically when a HR Profile is created?

Thanks

[leenadudani]

Thank you Carlos!

[xianoh]

Appreciate the comments Carlos.  Enjoy the rest of K20!!

[Tom O_Neill]

I just tried it out, and no, it didn't get created. Would be pretty easy to add a business rule to do so though. Though if you have a job record and you update the HR Profile job information, it does sync with the job record.

[Kevin Hall]

Thank you everybody - great lab!

[leenadudani]

Thank you Kevin!

[gordon_wu]

On the ESC page view for the manager (Gale Nolau), I can see some upcoming to-dos in the activity sets. How are these configured - will future to-dos for the user always be shown as upcoming to-dos? Is there a way to configure which upcoming tasks can be seen and perhaps show the date/ criteria when those tasks will be ready to do? Thanks.

[Lena_Latham]

We're glad you liked it, Carlos! Thanks for coming and remember, we will also be launching this LAB as a self-paced course on Now Learning. (https://nowlearning.service-now.com/lxp)

Be on the lookout for it in a few weeks.

[sayali_dongare]

Hi,

Upcoming to-dos are not configurable yet. They will show up for activity sets that are waiting to be triggered. Once the activity is triggered, they will be replaced by actual to-dos. For Gale, who is an opened for, will be able to see upcoming to-dos for himself as well as for the subject person (i.e new hire). New-hire will be able to see upcoming to-dos assigned to him only.

You can use the filter to see which tasks are assigned to opened-for/subject-person. There is also a checkbox to show/hide upcoming to-dos.

[Mary Blacharski]

When building an "audience" - is there any cross over functionality say from Knowledge - so you could build an audience and use that same "audience" for a knowledge campaign?

[Micah Russell]

That would work the other way around. First create HR Criteria then you can use that HR Criteria to create User Criteria (for for Knowledge and Catalog) AND Audience (for Lifecycle activities and portal Content). Then all you need to maintain is the HR Criteria.

HR Criteria

Audience

[Lena_Latham]

There's more info here: https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/orlando-hr-service-delivery/page/product/human-resources/concept/...

Once you save the HR Criteria record, a Related Link is displayed that lets you create an associated User Criteria.

[leenadudani]

Hi Mary, you have the option to create a user criteria and map the audience to that user criteria. In that case, the same user criteria will be driving the lifecycle event activities as well as knowledge. HR Criteria provides you the option to build conditions on any table (compared to a limited set in user criteria). If you need that flexibility, you want to start with HR criteria and then create a user criteria/audience based on it.

[Micah Russell]

Good news! We will also be launching this LAB as a self-paced course on Now Learning. (https://nowlearning.service-now.com/lxp)
Be on the lookout for it in a few weeks.

[snlisa]

This question just came up in the lab via chat - posting w the answer here for all to benefit!
Q: What SKU enables the functionality in this lab with Lifecycle Events? 

[snlisa]

The functionality of this lab is available in HRSD Enterprise. HRSD Professional also has Lifecycle Events, but does not allow for tasking outside of HR.

[Adrian Weber1]

So, in order to get Activity Sets and things related to this lab, do we need to have a specific module purchased?  This isn't part of ITSM, I'm assuming... 

[snlisa]

Correct, this is a part of HR Service Delivery, not ITSM 🙂 HRSD has different SKU's - Lifecycle Events is included in Professional and Enterprise. 

[Rich Dennis _CC]

In the first lab, the sections "Add activity of type HR Service to the Transfer Letter Activity Set" and "Add activity of type "Catalog Item" to the Plan for Transition Activity Set" show the error "Duplicate Map to field" after the record is saved. Will this affect anything?

[snlisa]

Hi Rich, Nope-- you should be able to continue the lab with no issues. 

[snlisa]

Lifecycle Events is also available standalone

[Dennis Ford]

What does the Event Type (Transitions, Onboarding, Offboarding, HR Services) under Manage Lifecycle Event control?

[Adrian Weber1]

Is there something similar to this functionality offered for other onboarding processes?  Or other processes, at all?  For example... if we want to DECOMMISSION a server (or server environment), an ACTIVITY SET and all of these onboarding type activities would be perfect for cross communication between teams and getting things done in the correct order.  The same goes for when my company ONBOARDS a new client... 

[Joanna Arenilla]

Lifecycle Event Types are used as a container for activity sets and activities. For example you might decide to have separate life cycle events for Onboarding: one for US and another for Non-US, they both will have the same event type which is Onboarding. This event type then can be used for reporting and grouping purposes.

[leenadudani]

Hi Dennis. The event type has a few different purposes:

- Helps identify the "Onboarding" lifecycle events. Cases for this event type then appear on the Onboarding mobile app

- Events of type "HR Service" are meant for journey's that start and end within HR and do not include catalog items and order guides for tasking

- Helps with reporting, so you can breakdown cases of various types

[anne_musial]

Hi Adrian, 

You might check out the flow designer to support the use case of decommissioning a server or environment. This change would be a standard change within the flow designer where you could also create subflows or spokes to make the process more modular. 

The intent for employee lifecycle events is really to focus in on employee centric journeys such as onboarding/offboarding/transfers on an employee specific basis. 

[Patricia N_]

Added the "Catalog Item" to the Plan for Transition Activity Set, and am trying to edit mapping defaulted for "requested for" to be the "subject person".  I get the error below.

[leenadudani]

Hi Patricia, please select "Subject person" in the "Map from field". This field blanked out when you changed the "Map from table".