HR profile and HR case security

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of HR profile and HR case security

    HR profile and case information in ServiceNow is highly sensitive and confidential. Access is strictly controlled to ensure only authorized HR personnel can view or modify sensitive data. System Administrators have limited visibility and cannot access most HR profile details or case contents without specific HR roles.

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    Access Control for HR Profiles

    • System Administrators cannot create HR profiles and have restricted read access limited to non-sensitive fields such as HR profile number, employee prefix, synchronized employment information (e.g., name, department, manager, location), and work contact details.
    • Personal HR profile information remains hidden from System Administrators.
    • Authorized HR personnel with roles like snhrcore.profilereader or snhrcore.profilewriter (e.g., snhrcore.secureinforeader) can view confidential HR profile details.
    • Related lists visible to authorized users include Employment Information, Contact Information, Beneficiaries, Who is Covered, Emergency Contacts, Direct Reports, Colleagues, and Cases.

    Access Control for HR Cases and Tasks

    • Only authorized HR users with roles such as snhrcore.casereader and snhrcore.casewriter (e.g., snhrcore.secureinforeader) can view sensitive case data including attachments, work notes, comments, descriptions, calendar entries, and configurable payloads.
    • HR Administrators (snhrcore.admin) have full access to all HR data and tasks.
    • System Administrators cannot view comments or work notes and see only limited employee info like location, department, and short description.
    • HR case creation is initiated from an HR profile via a related link.
    • Activity streams show state changes but hide sensitive comments and notes from unauthorized users.

    Impersonation and Additional Security Settings

    • To prevent unauthorized access via impersonation, enable the property "If true, ACLs check if the user is being impersonated" found under HR Administration > Properties. This ensures ACLs block HR data visibility if a user impersonates another user with HR access.
    • This setting applies to the scoped HR Service Delivery application and is not relevant for the non-scoped version.
    • Center of Excellence (COE) security policies provide configurable restrictions to control access to HR data by different COEs, enforced through ServiceNow ACLs.

    Practical Implications for ServiceNow Customers

    • Ensure HR roles are properly assigned to personnel who require access to sensitive HR profiles and cases.
    • System Administrators should be aware of their limited access to HR data to maintain confidentiality compliance.
    • Use the impersonation ACL check property to enhance security against unauthorized data exposure during user impersonation.
    • Configure COE security policies to tailor access restrictions aligned with organizational structure and compliance needs.
    • Leverage related links and role assignments to streamline HR case creation and management securely.

    Because HR profile information is sensitive and confidential, the System Administrator [admin] cannot view it. The same is true for some of the information in HR cases and HR tasks.

    HR profile information is confidential and viewed only by authorized HR personnel who are assigned a role that includes sn_hr_core.profile_reader or sn_hr_core.profile_writer, such as sn_hr_core.secure_info_reader.

    For HR cases and HR tasks, only authorized HR personnel are allowed to view attachments, work notes and comments, description, calendar, and payload (configurable). Authorized HR personnel are assigned a role with sn_hr_core.case_reader and sn_hr_core.case_writer, such as sn_hr_core.secure_info_reader.

    HR administrators [sn_hr_core.admin] will be able to perform all tasks and view all data.

    HR profile information that system administrators can access

    System Administrators cannot create an HR profile. They can see the list of HR profiles and open HR profile records, but only have access to the following information.
    • The HR profile number and prefix of an employee.
    • Employment information that is synchronized with the user record [sys_user]. This information includes name, employee number, department, manager, and location.
    • Work contact information, such as work email address and work phone number. Personal information is hidden.
    • Information that appears in the following related lists.
      • Employment Information
      • Contact Information
      • Beneficiaries
      • Who is Covered
      • Emergency Contacts
      • Direct Reports
      • Colleagues
      • Cases

    HR case and task information accessible by HR Administrators

    HR Administrators can view the employee user information, such as location and department, and the short description. Activities, such as state changes, are displayed in the activity stream, but comments and work notes are hidden. System Administrators cannot view this information.

    When the HR Administrator opens an HR case or HR task, a message describes the information that is not displayed.

    An HR case can be created from an HR profile. Click Create New Case under Related Links and Case Creation appears.

    Impersonating a user

    You can prevent a user from accessing HR information by impersonating a user that has HR access by using the If true, ACLs check if the user is being impersonated. property.
    • Navigate to HR Administration > Properties.
    • Scroll to If true, ACLs check if the user is being impersonated.
    • Check Yes (true) to enable ACLs to check when a user is impersonating another user and prevent the user from viewing HR information.

      COE security policies are a way to easily restrict access to different COEs via configuration. The underlying COE security policy implementations are ServiceNow ACLs.

    • Even if the logged in user has HR access and impersonates another HR user with the same access, HR information is not visible.
      Note:
      This property was introduced for the HR Service Delivery scoped application and not applicable to the HR Services Delivery Non-scoped application.

    See Add field security in HR.

    See Restricted caller access for HR.

    See Manage HR roles.