Updating an On-Call schedule

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Updating an On-Call schedule

    ServiceNow's On-Call Scheduling feature enables shift managers and members to view and update on-call schedules efficiently. Shift managers can oversee and resolve gaps or conflicts from a centralized view, ensuring continuous support coverage. Access the scheduling interface by navigating toOn-Call Scheduling > On-Call Schedulesand selecting the relevant group card.

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    Schedules Page Tabs

    Overview Tab

    • On-Call Section: View current shifts, navigate between shifts, and access roster and escalation details. The roster provides contact details and shift assignments of active members. The escalation path outlines the defined escalation steps for the shift.
    • Profile: Displays primary on-call member's profile with options to send direct messages or calls via Notify WebRTC (if configured).
    • Contact Preferences: Shows how the primary on-call member prefers to be contacted.
    • Pending Actions: (Visible only to shift managers) Lists unresolved gaps, conflicts, and time-off requests to facilitate timely resolutions and maintain coverage.
    • Your Upcoming Shifts: (Visible to shift members and shift managers who are members) Shows personal upcoming shifts in calendar format.
    • On-Call Calendar: Displays a calendar view (default week view) of all group shifts, allowing easy management and visualization of schedules.

    Shifts Tab

    This tab lists all defined shifts for the group, allowing editing of shifts and creation of custom escalation policies to override default settings. Contact preferences can also be adjusted here to tailor communication methods.

    Settings Tab

    Shift managers can configure group-specific preferences for on-call shifts. Creating custom group settings here overrides global defaults, providing flexibility for unique group needs. Only users with rotaadmin role can view global settings.

    Why This Matters

    This feature streamlines on-call management by providing a comprehensive, role-based interface to ensure coverage, resolve conflicts, and communicate effectively with on-call members. It helps ServiceNow customers maintain operational continuity and improve responsiveness in support environments.

    Shift managers and members can use the Schedules tabs to view and update the on-call schedules of a group. Shift managers can review, manage, and resolve gaps or conflicts in your On-Call schedule from a single view.

    Opening the Schedules page

    To open and start working on a schedule, navigate to On-Call Scheduling > On-Call Schedules and then click the card for the group.

    Overview tab

    This tab gives an overview of the current shift. The following sections are available:
    • On-Call: Displays information about the current on-call shift. From here, you can:
      • Navigate to the previous and next shifts.
      • View the roster and escalation details of the current shift. When you click Roster and escalation details, a dialog box displays the following tabs:
        • Roster: Displays a list of all rosters along with its active on-call member. Information of the on-call member such as the contact number, email address, group, and the shift to which the user belongs to is also available.
        • Escalation Path: Displays the escalation path defined for the shift.
        • Profile: Displays the user profile of the primary on-call member. You can send a direct message to the on-call member by clicking Send a direct message or call the member if Notify WebRTC for on-call is set up. For more information on real-time messaging, see Connect. For information on Notify webrtc, see Forward to notify client workflow activity. For information on the Specify a valid Notify Number with voice capability property that enables the Notify WebRTC for on-call, see System properties for On-Call Scheduling.
        • Contact Preferences: The contact preferences set for the primary on-call member. On-Call Scheduling roster and escalation settings
    • Pending Actions: Displays the pending actions for the group’s on-call schedule. You can review gaps, conflicts, and time-off requests to find a replacement and ensure proper support coverage. For information on resolving the pending actions, see Resolve gaps, conflicts, and time-off requests in a shift and Resolve gaps, conflicts, and time-off requests in a shift.
      Note:
      This section is displayed only for a shift manager.
    • Your Upcoming Shifts: Displays your upcoming shifts in a calendar view.
      Note:
      This section is displayed for a shift member or a Shift Manager who is a shift member.
    • On-call calendar: This section displays the calendar view of all shifts of the group. By default, the week view is displayed. For more information on on-call calendar, see Manage shifts from the Calendar view.

    Shifts tab

    This tab displays all shifts defined for the user group. From here, you can edit a shift or create a custom escalation policy to override the default policy. For information on editing the escalation type, see Create an escalation policy.

    You can also edit contact preferences from this tab. For more information on configuring a contact preference, see Configure my availability and contact preferences

    Settings tab

    This tab displays the group preferences set for your group's on-call shift. If not already set, click Create Custom Group Settings to set the group preferences. For more information about group preferences, see Configure preferences for a user group.
    Note:
    The group preferences set here affect only this group. These settings override the global settings.
    To view on-call properties, click View Global Settings.
    Note:
    View Global Settings is only visible to rota_admin.