How ServiceNow and HCM Platforms work together

Workforce Expectations

Today, employees expect the same kind of ease in employee services that they expect from consumer services. The modern workforce wants processes to be fast, efficient, automated, userfriendly and accessible on the move.

They expect the seamless timely delivery of cross-functionally dependent services that they have grown used to with Amazon. Simple tasks like applying for time-off need to be fast and seamless. Meeting these expectations is not optional and is crucial to attract, and more importantly, retain quality talent.

In a recent survey however, it was found that as many as 8 in 10 companies, both large and small – still use unstructured manual tools such as email and spreadsheets. While the modern workforce continue to evolve, it is essential for organizations to leverage technology to accommodate for them.

However, building the technology in-house is difficult, time-confusing and expensive. Additionally, having multiple portals for different HR processes can leave employees frustrated and confused. Moreover, it has been found that complex processes usually push employees to directly contact HR. This can cause negative employee experience and difficulties for HR teams to manage routine calls and enquiries.

Engaging a modern workforce that is social, mobile and flexible requires a revolutionary leap instead of several incremental steps. This is where ServiceNow and HCM tools prove to be a great solution for your organization.

HCM Tools

Human capital management platforms like Workday, SuccessFactors and Oracle provide a robust solution for HR professionals to run their operations efficiently.

In addition to features for managing talent, benefits, compensation, recruiting, time & absence and payroll, they also include powerful analytics, workforce planning and self-service options to enable HR managers and employees to quickly access information and submit requests.

HR professionals are also your employees and form an integral part of your ‘customer’ experience upgrade. With a good HCM solution, HR work is simplified and HR professionals will have more time to focus on strategy.

ServiceNow

ServiceNow is cross-functional consolidated system of engagement with powerful knowledge and case management platforms with automated documentation. ServiceNow HR Service Delivery provides users a one-stop solution for users to access information, use self-service, make requests and interact with HR. ServiceNow’s integration with other enterprise platforms including HCM tools, enables enterprises to deliver a consistent and unified employee experience.

HCM and ServiceNow

By integrating ServiceNow with a HCM tool, HR can employ prioritized/tiered service delivery and eliminating routine calls and queries with automation.

• Dedicated HR Knowledge Base

  ServiceNow provides an elegant dedicated searchable HR knowledge base that can eliminate a majority of routine queries. This serves as a starting point for employees to search the information they need. By putting up policies and procedures on the Knowledgebase, HR can effectively enable employees to resolve a majority of routine enquiries themselves.

• Self-Service

  Both ServiceNow and major HCM tools include powerful self-service capabilities that enable employees to make changes and submit requests. Employees can navigate through the knowledgebase and get redirected to relevant self-service forms either on the HCM tool or ServiceNow to make changes or submit requests

• Automated Case Management

  ServiceNow’s automated case management system integrates with the HCM tool and simplifies interactions with HR, making them quicker and more streamlined with enhanced visibility. HR professionals use case management to manage, co-ordinate and assign HR work, which is then done in the HCM tool. Employees can track the progress of their requests at each stage resulting in reduced follow-up calls.

• Error Proof Documentation

  Any changes made to employee information either in the HCM tool or ServiceNow get synchronized automatically all across making sure that employee data is current, consistent and accurate. Enterprises can save significant HR time with automated documentation of HR processes and employee cases on ServiceNow. All cases are documented in detail and with access policy.

• Data Insights

  With increased efficiency in HR and a reduced number of cases, HR professionals are empowered with more time to spend on building effective HR strategy. Both ServiceNow and HCM tools provide dashboards with insights and analytics that tell a story. HR can use these insights to identify sources of issues, plan workforce and recruitment, and measure HR productivity.

• Legacy Tools

  While HCM enables HR to simplify their operations, HR managers might still have to continue to use other legacy tools. This poses as an obstacle to a unified service delivery for employees. ServiceNow’s integration with other legacy tools helps establish a single employee starting point.

• Beyond HR

  ServiceNow’s case management platform extends beyond HR and enables cross-functional collaboration. By integrating HCM tools with ServiceNow, HR operations that involve other departments such as IT and Facilities such as on-boarding and off-boarding can be automated.

'Why ServiceNow if we already invested in HCM?'

Investing in a HCM tool helps simplify some HR operations, but certainly not all of their operations. In an outsourced HR world, organizations will continue to depend on multiple 3rd party providers and multiple legacy tools.

ServiceNow integrates with and provides a single system of engagement across all HR providers and tools including HCM resulting in a unified interface for HR teams and employees. With an elegant portal and powerful knowledge management, ServiceNow's tiered service delivery provides employees a common starting point and routes them to the tool they need.

HCM tools are also generally limited to the operations of HR, and they cannot streamline workflows dependent on other departments. ServiceNow's cross-functional system of engagement cuts across HR and other teams including IT, Legal and Facilities and automates interdependent workflows across the enterprise making it engaging for everyone involved.

Employee life events like marriage and childbirth require departments beyond HR to assist with actions including name change, beneficiary setup, changes in work arrangements, payroll adjustments for deductibles and insurance policy updates. ServiceNow automates these workflows upon an employee life event and brings together all departments involved.

Each industry has its own dynamics that drive a modern employee and HR experience – organizations with retail or plant presence require significantly different engagement from organizations with larger corporate presence like banking and hi-tech. ServiceNow can drive employee productivity, lower operating costs, and improve HR team performance through a consistent system of engagement.