Agent Workspace for HR Case Management | Human Resources Service Delivery (HRSD)
By: Michael B.

What is Agent Workspace for HR Case Management? 

The Agent Workspace for HR Case Management is one of two workspaces available for the HR Service Delivery application and uses the Next Experience user interface, being built on a configurable UI Builder version to allow for easy configurations and extensions according to business needs. The Agent Workspace for HR Case Management is also the place that has all the tools that an HR agent will need, such as interacting with employees real-time, responding to inquiries, and resolving issues quickly, streamlining these processes. Employee HR requests can all be handled from this one place.

How do you navigate through the HR Agent Workspace? 

The HR Agent Workspace offers a variety of different areas HR agents can navigate through to achieve their tasks. Over on the left side of the HR Agent Workspace, there is the contextual side panel which contains the Home, Lists, and Inbox icons, providing different pages relevant to HR agents. The tabs present on the top of the screen provide in-depth information about an opened list or case while also allowing agents to cycle between these opened lists or cases with ease. 

• Home – The default landing page of the workspace and provides you with an overview of your work, such as the number of HR cases currently open. This is displayed using a dashboard to display this overview information in a graphical format, which can be configured using the Agent Workspace for HR Case Management Guided Setup and provides additional details on the home page when clicking into the widgets provided on the dashboard. 

• Lists – Clicking on this icon displays a variety of lists containing different records, such as HR cases, interactions, HR tasks, and more. The visibility of these lists to agents can be configured from the Guided Setup for HR Case Management by admins. 

• Inbox – Clicking on this icon contains the HR cases specifically assigned to you. Chats and interactions that involve you are also present in the agent inbox. Agents can use this area to indicate if they are available, offline, or away to give a visual indication of their status to the employees wanting to contact them. 

• Tabs – Display lists, HR case numbers and the Add icon, depending on what was opened by the user. Hovering over a tab at the top of the workspace provides a quick way to see details about a case. The information that is displayed when hovering can also be configured with the Agent Workspace for HR Case Management Guided Setup. 

• Add icon – Allows the HR agent to create a new HR case or an interaction, which documents when an employee contacts an HR agent.  

To reach the HR Agent Workspace, the agent goes to the workspaces tab from the Next Experience landing page and selects the HR Agent Workspace. 

What key features are present within HR Agent Workspace? 

Alongside being a central place for HR agents to complete their work, there have been many improvements added to increase the efficiency of agents and decrease the response time for employees regarding their HR cases within this workspace. Such features include: 

• HRSD Playbook – Provides a single pane for HR agents to work in that displays all case information to help agents prioritize the tasks within that case. The playbook is specifically used alongside lifecycle event cases to provide step-by-step instructions to HR agents on how to handle these events to ensure the process is done efficiently and effectively. The steps are featured in a card-like format for agents to follow, and admins can configure additional cards underneath the Playbook Card Configuration in HR Administration. This feature will need to be activated by admins and obtained from the ServiceNow Store after installation of the HR Agent Workspace application. Then, the Playbook tab will appear in the Related Items menu within a lifecycle event. 

• HRSD Agent Workspace integration with Universal Request – Necessary plugins will need to be activated (com.sn_hr_agent_workspace and com.snc.universal_request) to get this feature to work within the HR Agent Workspace. Once these plugins are active, employees can create a universal request when clicking the “Request help” option in the Employee Center, which then gets routed to a universal request routing agent. If the routing agent deems the issue as HR department related, an HR case is created for the HR agent and two records are linked together. If a case is resolved by an HR agent, the corresponding universal request is marked as awaiting status from the employee who sent the case in. Conversely, an HR case can also be transferred back to the universal request queue with or without a resolution code for the HR case. Regardless of the outcome from the HR agent, all the crucial details about the universal request ticket are visible to the employee who raised the universal request in the first place.

Where can the HR Agent Workspace be activated? 

Prior to activation of the HR Agent Workspace, the workspace itself needs to be installed onto the instance. The application for Agent Workspace for HR Case Management (sn_hr_agent_ws) must be purchased from the ServiceNow Store before installation can begin on your instance. Once the Agent Workspace for HR Case Management has been purchased, navigate to All > System Applications > All Available Applications > All to find the workspace application and install it. If demo data is available and you want to install it, you must select load demo data now, otherwise you will be unable to load it onto your instance later. Communication channels and routing, additional components and settings specific to HR Service Delivery, forms in the workspace, and workspace setup all need to be configured after the installation of the application. However, basic, case writer, manager, admin, workspace content manager, and workspace admin roles are provided within the application specifically for the Agent Workspace and only need to be assigned to users.

Where can the HR Agent Workspace be configured? 

After installation is complete, the HR Agent Workspace can be configured using the Agent Workspace for HR Case Management Guided Setup. To access this Guided Setup, navigate to HR Case Management using the All navigator and select the Agent Workspace for HR Case Management Guided Setup. Clicking through the various “Get Started” buttons will guide you to different categories of the workspace that can be configured to meet the needs of your human resources team, as seen in Figure 3. Each category provides information such as planning guidance, pre-setup steps, and links to useful information. These categories are further split up into activities to make configuration easy for admins.

Agent Workspace for HR Case Management Documentation: 

• https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/vancouver-employee-service-management/page/product/human-resources/concept/agent-ws-hr-case-mgmt-landing-page.html 
• https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/vancouver-employee-service-management/page/product/human-resources/concept/agent-ws-hr-case-mgmt-exploring.html 
• https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/vancouver-employee-service-management/page/product/human-resources/concept/hr-agent-ws-guided-setup.html 
• https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/vancouver-employee-service-management/page/product/human-resources/concept/setup-configurable-hr-agent-workspace.html 
• https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/vancouver-employee-service-management/page/product/human-resources/task/install-configurable-hr-agent-ws.html 
• https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/vancouver-employee-service-management/page/product/human-resources/concept/playbook-hr_1.html 
• https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/vancouver-employee-service-management/page/product/human-resources/task/playbook-hr-card-configuration_1.html 
• https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/vancouver-employee-service-management/page/product/human-resources/concept/hr-agent-workspace-ur_1.html