Workflow Activities for On-Call Scheduling

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
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    Summary of Workflow Activities for On-Call Scheduling

    This content outlines the workflow activities available in the On-Call Scheduling application within ServiceNow, specifically related to managing escalation processes. These activities enable customers to create, track, and manage escalations effectively during on-call shifts by automating escalation records, communication attempts, notifications, and responses.

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    Key Features

    • On-Call: Log Escalation Start – Creates a new escalation record tied to a specific group, task, and workflow context. The escalation sysid created is stored in the workflow scratchpad for reference in subsequent activities. Parameters include group, task table and record, workflow definition, escalation category, communication channels, and notification reminder controls.
    • On-Call: Log Escalation Level – Records details about each escalation level within an escalation, including the shift (rota), escalation level number, and escalatee details. Supports marking catch-all escalation levels.
    • On-Call: Log Escalation Attempt – Tracks each contact attempt made at a specific escalation level, including the attempt number and related escalation context.
    • On-Call: Log Escalation Communication – Logs communications sent during escalation attempts, detailing the escalatee (user or device), communication type (SMS, voice, email, Slack), contact value, status (sent or failed), and escalation context.
    • On-Call: Log Escalation End – Concludes an escalation by marking it inactive based on its sysid.
    • On-Call: Send Notification – Sends notifications to the current escalatee using voice, SMS, Slack, Microsoft Teams, or mobile push. It supports different notification types with required parameters tailored to each channel, such as phone numbers, user IDs, task IDs, and workflow context IDs.
    • On-Call: Manage Escalation Response – Manages escalation response records which track responses (accepted or rejected) from escalated users via SMS, voice, email, or Slack. This activity supports inserting, cleaning, or updating response records and is critical for workflows that handle acknowledgment-based assignment upon escalation rejection.

    Key Outcomes

    • Automated creation and management of escalation records streamline on-call escalation workflows.
    • Detailed tracking of escalation levels, attempts, and communications enhances visibility into escalation progress and response effectiveness.
    • Multi-channel notification capabilities ensure escalated personnel are contacted through their preferred or required communication methods.
    • Ability to capture and respond to escalation acknowledgments allows workflows to adapt dynamically based on user responses, improving incident resolution efficiency.

    Workflow activities in On-Call Scheduling workflows.

    Escalation workflow activities

    On-Call: Log Escalation Start

    Creates an escalation record based on group, task, and workflow details.

    Note:

    The escalation that the workflow creates the workflow.scratchpad.escalationSysId sys_id. Use the sys_id in any of the other workflow activities.

    Setting Description
    Group sys_id of the group that the escalation belongs to.
    Table Table name of the task record of the incident.
    Source sys_id of the task record on which the escalation happened.
    WorkflowDefinition sys_id of the workflow definition that is used to escalate.
    WorkflowContext sys_id of the workflow context.
    ParentEscalationLevelId sys_id of the parent escalation in the case that the escalation was triggered from another escalation.
    Category Category of the escalation. One of: [assign_by_acknowledgement, auto_assignment, notify_manual_assignmen,conferencing].
    Channels Comma-separated list of the channels used to communicate during the escalation. Any or all of: [email, sms, voice, slack]. For example, sms,email,voice
    IgnoreDefReminders If true, the workflow sends notification reminders as specified by the workflow, rather than as specified in On-Call Escalation settings. For example, in Conference On-Call escalations, the workflow might to dial the on-call members at one-minute intervals instead of the standard 15-minute intervals.
    On-Call: Log Escalation Level

    Creates an escalation level record given escalation and level details.

    Setting Description
    EscalationId sys_id of the escalation to which the level belongs.
    RotaId sys_id of the shift for which the escalation is happening.
    Level Current escalation level. For example, 2.
    Escalatee Escalatee object at current escalation level. For example, getEscalationPlan()[1].
    CatchAll True if the escalation level belongs to a catch-all.
    On-Call: Log Escalation Attempt

    Creates a Contact attempt record given an escalation, level, and attempt details.

    Setting Description
    EscalationId sys_id of the escalation to which the contact attempt belongs.
    RotaId sys_id of the shift for which the escalation is happening.
    Level Current escalation level. For example, 2.
    ContactAttempt Contact attempt number within the escalation level. For example, 1.
    On-Call: Log Escalation Communication

    Creates a communication record given escalation, level, attempt, and communication details.

    Setting Description
    EscalationId sys_id of the escalation to which the communication belongs.
    RotaId sys_id of the shift for which escalation is happening.
    Level Current escalation level. For example, 2.
    ContactAttempt Contact attempt number within the escalation level. For example, 1.
    EscalateeType Type of escalatee to whom the communication is sent. One of: [user,device]
    EscalateeId sys_id of the user or device, depending on escalatee type.
    CommType Type of communication. One of: [sms, voice, email, slack]
    CommValue Phone number or email address, depending on communication type. For example, abel.tuter@servicenow.com
    Status Status of the communication. One of: [sent, failed].
    Escalatee Escalatee object at current escalation level. For example, getEscalationPlan()[1].
    CatchAll True if the escalation level belongs to a catch-all.
    On-Call: Log Escalation End

    Completes the escalation by setting active flag to false.

    Setting Description
    EscalationId sys_id of the escalation.
    On-Call: Send Notification

    Sends notification to the current escalatee via voice, SMS, Slack, Microsoft Teams, or mobile push.

    Setting Description
    Notification type Type of notification. One of: [sms, voice, slack].
    Message Text of message to send to current escalatee if notification type is sms.
    Notification detail List of parameters that are required for a notification:
    • SMS: notify_number, users, groups, numbers
    • Voice: numberToCallFrom, numberToCall, user
    • Slack: slack user, taskId, catchAllOption, wFContextId
    • Microsoft Teams: user, taskId, catchAllOption, wFContextId
    • Mobile push: userSysId, tablename, recordSysId
    On-Call: Manage Escalation Response

    Manage an escalation response record (insert escalation record, clean escalation records, update response to an escalation). An escalation response record keeps track of a response received for an escalation through the SMS, voice, email, or Slack notification channels. An escalation response record is used to resume the On-Call: Assign by Acknowledgement workflow upon rejection of an escalation.

    Setting Description
    Workflow Context Workflow context ID.
    Escalatee Id UserID of the current escalatee.
    Table Name Table name of the task record. For example, incident.
    Current Record Id sys_id of the task record.
    Action Type Type of action. One of: [add,clean,update]
    Response Response by escalatee to an escalation. One of: [accepted,rejected]
    Example uses:
    • Insert (add) - Workflow Context, Escalatee ID, Table Name, Current Record ID
    • Clean - Workflow Context
    • Update - Escalatee ID, Table Name, Current Record ID, Response