On-Call Scheduling in Service Operations Workspace

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of On-Call Scheduling in Service Operations Workspace

    On-Call Scheduling in Service Operations Workspace enables agents, shift managers, and on-call admins to efficiently view and manage shifts, schedules, and notifications related to incident escalations. It provides tools for handling absence requests, resolving scheduling conflicts, and setting escalation policies and notification preferences to ensure timely incident response.

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    Key Features

    • Schedules Menu: Access and manage personal and team schedules and shifts with customizable calendar views (day, week, month) and filtering by group or time zone.
    • On-Call Notification Preferences: Define how and where to receive escalation alerts by setting notification rules and delivery channels.
    • Teams Management: View teams, manage team schedules, add or edit members, and set escalation policies and shift preferences to maintain accountability and ensure critical alerts are acknowledged.
    • Escalation Triggers and Policies: Configure trigger rules and escalation policies assigned to teams to automate incident escalation processes effectively.
    • Contextual Side Panel: Access on-call schedules and escalation details directly from incidents and other records, enabling quick contact with subject matter experts and dynamic escalation tracking.
    • Shift Management: Create and manage shifts, approve or reject absence requests, and resolve gaps or conflicts to maintain continuous coverage.

    Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Improves visibility into individual and team on-call schedules, enhancing coordination and coverage.
    • Streamlines communication and incident escalation through customizable notification preferences and escalation policies.
    • Ensures accountability by clearly defining team responsibilities and shift ownership.
    • Facilitates quick incident resolution by providing immediate access to on-call experts and real-time escalation tracking within the workspace.
    • Enables efficient management of absences and shift overlaps, minimizing operational disruptions.

    Use On-Call Scheduling in Service Operations Workspace to view and manage your shifts and schedules.

    On-Call Scheduling overview

    As an agent, view your schedule and your peer's schedules, request an absence, propose coverage, and set your notification preferences.

    As a Shift Manager, view, and manage shifts, approve or reject absence requests, and resolve gaps and conflicts. You can also manage notification preferences, delivery channels, escalation trigger rules, and policies for your group.

    As an On-call Admin, view, and manage shifts, approve or reject absence requests, and resolve gaps and conflicts. You can also manage notification preferences, delivery channels, escalation trigger rules, and policies for any group.

    Schedules in Service Operations Workspace

    Use the Schedules menu on the home page to access On-Call Scheduling in Service Operations Workspace.

    On-call schedules

    On-call Schedules tab

    This tab displays all the user's schedules and shifts in a calendar or time-line view. You can customize the view as a day, week, or month view, and filter the calendar based on your groups or time zones.

    You can manage your work, shifts, and time-off requests on this tab.

    On-call notification preferences

    On this tab, you can define your preferred notification methods to receive alerts when a ticket is escalated to you.

    You can define the escalation notification rules and the delivery channels that are used to receive these notifications.

    Teams in Service Operations Workspace

    Use the Teams menu (Teams icon) in Service Operations Workspace to view all teams. Select a team card to view and manage a team's schedule, define escalation policies, and team preferences for the selected shift. This feature verifies that your team knows who is on call, is accountable, and is confident that critical alerts or incidents are acknowledged.

    Use the Schedule tab to create and manage shifts for your team. This feature verifies that the right person is available to respond to incidents and critical alerts. You can also add or edit team members, description, and the contact information of your team.

    Use the Escalation triggers and policies tab to set an escalation policy and the trigger rules to be followed if there's an incident. You assign these policies and trigger rules, along with notification preferences, to a team.

    Use the On-call Team preferences tab to edit shift preferences for a group. You can add a Shift Manager and the start day of the week, set preferences for absence requests and shift overlap, and escalation rules for shift overlap.

    Contextual side panel

    Use On-Call Scheduling from the Contextual side panel, when you open an incident. You can also configure experts on call and escalation tracking for any other record, if necessary.

    Select the Experts On-call icon (Experts on-call icon.) from the Contextual side panel to view and contact the recommended subject matter experts for help.

    To view the escalation details and dynamic tracking of an on-call escalation, select the on-call escalations icon (On-call escalations icon.) from the Contextual side panel.