Universal Request for HR Service Delivery

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Universal Request for HR Service Delivery

    The integration of HR Service Delivery with Universal Request applications streamlines employee service requests by providing a unified help desk experience. Employees use a single interface to submit requests, while the system handles routing and coordination across departments, hiding the complexity of inter-department transfers and multi-department workflows.

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    A universal request is created when an employee selects Request help in Employee Center. A routing agent detects HR-related issues and creates an HR case linked to that universal request. The system manages the lifecycle of these requests and cases, updating statuses automatically and notifying employees accordingly. HR agents can transfer cases back to the universal request queue or to other departments as needed, with full visibility maintained for employees.

    Key Features

    • Unified Request Handling: Universal Request acts as a common entry point for all employee service requests, simplifying the support experience.
    • Automated HR Case Creation: HR cases are automatically generated from universal requests by analyzing submitted issues.
    • State Synchronization and Notifications: Changes in HR case status update the universal request status and notify employees using the universal request number.
    • Inter-department Collaboration: HR cases and associated tickets can be transferred across departments, enabling parallel work and consolidated tracking.
    • Plugin Activation: Enabling Universal Request, Human Resources Scoped App: Core, and Employee Center plugins activates features such as UI actions for case creation, transfer buttons, and automatic universal request generation from record producers.
    • Custom Configuration: Default transfer and state mappings cover base HR states; additional configuration is recommended only for custom states.

    Practical Use and Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Employees receive a consistent and transparent experience when requesting HR services, with visibility into who is working on their case and all related communications.
    • HR agents can efficiently manage cases linked to universal requests, including transferring cases back to the universal request queue or other departments with or without resolution.
    • Organizations can extend the unified ticketing experience to HR cases created through any channel, ensuring all HR requests are centrally tracked.
    • Multi-department collaboration is enhanced by associating all related tickets to the same universal request, improving traceability and coordinated service delivery.
    • The system supports rapid restoration of service by enabling quick case creation and investigation directly from universal requests.

    With the integration of HR Service Delivery and Universal Request applications, you can provide a consistent user experience for employees while creating service requests. You can hide the complexities of inter-department request transfers and multi-department use cases by providing a common help desk for all employees.

    About Universal Request for HR Service Delivery

    A universal request gets created when an employee clicks the Request help option in Employee Center. A universal request routing agent analyses the issue (as HR department related) and creates an HR case from that universal request. After the case gets resolved by an HR agent, the state of the HR case changes to Awaiting Acceptance. Automatically, the state of the universal request changes to Awaiting response. Finally, after the employee accepts the resolution, the universal request gets closed and in turn the HR case gets closed.

    At any point in time, the HR agent can transfer the HR case back to the universal request queue with or without resolution.

    All the important details, such as, users who are working on the issue, inter-department transfers, and work notes, are recorded in the universal request ticket, providing complete visibility to the employee who has raised the request.

    Activating the necessary plugins

    After you have activated the Universal Request (com.snc.universal_request), Human Resources Scoped App: Core (com.sn_hr_core), and Employee Center (com.sn_hr_service_portal) plugins, you notice that:
    • The Universal Request form contains a UI action to create an HR case.
    • The Universal Request field appears on the HR case form when an HR case is associated with a universal request record.
    • The Transfer button appears on the HR case form to let an HR agent transfer an HR case back to Universal Request, another department, or service.
    • An HR case created from a record producer automatically creates a universal request. It happens only when the Create Universal Request check box is enabled on the record producer.

      Similarly in the Create a test case topic block, if the Create Universal Requestcheck box is enabled on the record producer, then a universal request ticket is created and shared with the employee on the Virtual Agent conversation.

    • When an HR case associated to a universal request goes through a state change, a notification is sent to the employee (requester) with the universal request number and not the HR case number.
    • On ServiceNow AI Platform, HR cases that are associated with Universal Request appear under HR Case Management > All.
    • On Employee Center, HR requests that are associated with Universal Request appear under Employee Center > Requests.