Parental leaves of absence

  • Release version: Washingtondc
  • Updated February 1, 2024
  • 7 minutes to read
    • Summarize
    Summarized using AI
    This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete.

    Summary of Parental Leaves of Absence

    The Parental Leaves of Absence (LOAs) feature in ServiceNow allows HR organizations to manage maternity, paternity, or adoption leaves effectively. Customers can utilize a prepackaged configuration or customize their own Employee Journey for parental LOAs. To implement this, specific plugins must be activated, including the Human Resources Scoped App: Parental Journey and the Lifecycle Events plugin. An HR Professional license is required for parental LOAs.

    Show full answer Show less

    Key Features

    • HR Case and Knowledge Management: Standardizes documentation and interaction related to employee inquiries and requests.
    • HR Catalog: Enables employees to request services directly from HR, including parental leave requests and benefit contributions during leave.
    • HR Templates: Automates HR case and task forms linked to parental LOAs for efficiency.
    • HR Services: Provides employees with various services related to parental LOAs, such as confirming new child's information and notifying managers.
    • Knowledge Articles: Offers a searchable database of HR policies and guides regarding parental leaves.
    • Content Publishing: Allows creation and delivery of content through the Employee Center to aid employees during each stage of the leave process.
    • Campaign Management: Targets specific employees with announcements about their leave status and related information.

    Key Outcomes

    By leveraging these features, ServiceNow customers can ensure a streamlined process for managing parental leaves, enhancing employee experience during significant life events. Key outcomes include:

    • Improved efficiency in handling parental leave requests and documentation.
    • Enhanced communication with employees regarding their leave status and responsibilities.
    • Standardized processes that ensure compliance and consistency across the organization.
    • Access to comprehensive support resources and guidance throughout the parental leave journey.

    Use a prepackaged configuration or customize your own Employee Journey for parental leaves of absence (LOAs) in your HR organization. Parental LOAs include maternity, paternity, or adoption leave.

    Parental LOAs require that you activate these plugins:
    • Human Resources Scoped App: Parental Journey [com.sn_hr_parental_journey] plugin
      Note:
      This plugin activates the sn_hr_pj.min_admin_count system property [sys_properties.list]. This property prevents you from deleting your only Parental Journey admin user by requiring a minimum number (the default is two) of active users with this role.
    • Human Resources Scoped App: Lifecycle Events [com.sn_hr_lifecycle_events] plugin

      The Lifecycle Events plugin requires:

    • Human Resources Scoped App: Core [com.sn_hr_core] plugin
    • Employee Center [sn_ex_sp]
    Note:
    Parental LOA requires the HR Professional license. To get this license, submit a plugin request through the HI Portal Service Catalog.

    HR Case Management

    You can standardize the documentation, interaction, and fulfillment of employee inquiries and requests with the HR Case and Knowledge Management application.

    For more information, see Case and Knowledge Management and HR Administration.

    With the HR Case and Knowledge Management application, you can manage and modify the features that make up parental LOAs.

    The features are:

    HR Catalog
    Provide an HR service catalog so that employees can request services directly from HR.
    See HR service catalog management.
    The catalog items for parental leave are:
    • Parental Leave of Absence Request
    • Confirm your child's birth or adoption date
    • How to pay Benefits contributions on Leave
    HR case and task templates
    Use HR templates that automatically populate some fields on an HR case or task form that is based on an HR service to automate your agent's work. HR templates also customize and automate the catalog item request form for your employees.
    See HR templates.
    The HR case and task templates that are related to parental LOAs are:
    Table 1. HR parental LOA templates
    HR templates HR templates
    Choose how to pay benefits contribution during leave [sn_hr_core_task] Confirm child's birth, adoption, or placement date [sn_hr_core_task]
    Confirm that employee has returned from leave [sn_hr_core_task] Confirm employee's return to work date [sn_hr_core_task]
    Confirm that employee's leave has started [sn_hr_core_task] Confirm that the employee returned to work from leave [sn_hr_core_case_total_rewards]
    Create transition plan for leave [sn_hr_core_task] Employee survey for leave approval [sn_hr_core_task]
    Enroll child in benefits [sn_hr_core_task] Notify the manager of the employee's leave request [sn_hr_core_case_total_rewards]
    Notify payroll of the employee's leave status [sn_hr_core_case_payroll] Order a company gift card for the new child [sn_hr_core_task]
    Parental Leave Employee Survey [sn_hr_core_task] Parental Leave of Absence Request [sn_hr_core_case_total_rewards]
    Pre-Leave pulse survey [sn_hr_core_task] Prepare a return to work plan for the employee [sn_hr_core_task]
    Prepare returning employee's work setup [sn_hr_core_task] Process benefits deductions for an employee on leave [sn_hr_core_case_payroll]
    Review request and consult with employee [sn_hr_core_task] Schedule a one-on-one with Employee returning from Leave [sn_hr_core_task]
    Upload release to return to work document [sn_hr_core_task] Upload your documents to confirm your parental leave [sn_hr_core_task]
    HR Services
    Provide HR services that are related to parental LOAs to your employees.
    See HR services.
    The HR services for parental LOAs are:
    • Confirm or update new child's info
      • Order company gift for new child
      • Update child's birth or adoption date in HR system
      • Update Benefits with new child
    • Confirm Return to work from Leave
      • Confirm Employee has returned from Leave
      • Update Leave Status to Completed
    • Notify Manager of Leave of Absence Request
      • Speak with your Manager
      • Review Manager Guide to leaves of absence
    • Notify payroll of employee's leave status
    • Parental Leave of Absence Request
    • Process Benefits deductions for an employee on leave
    Knowledge articles
    Provide employees with a searchable knowledge base of HR policies, procedures, and other articles.
    See HR Knowledge Management.
    The knowledge articles for parental LOAs are:
    • KB0010006 — Managers' Transition Plan guide for Leaves of Absence
    • KB0010004 — Manager Guide to Parental Leave
    • KB0010003 — Tips for discussing your leave of absence with your manager
    • KB0010002 — Sample Parental Leave Policy FAQ
    • KB0010001 — How to prepare for your Parental Leave of Absence
    • KB0000102 — Employee Leave of Absence
    HR fulfillment instructions
    Provide focused and targeted information so that your HR employees can complete an HR case faster and more efficiently.
    See HR fulfillment instructions.
    The HR Fulfillment Instruction for parental LOAs is:

    Parental Leave of Absence request instructions.

    HR Administration
    Provide administrative services for the Case and Knowledge Management application.
    See HR Administration.
    The following are under HR Administration and Parental LOA as part of Employee Journeys:
    • Leaves of Absence show all employees that have requested parental LOA and provides:
      • Leave type
      • Leave status
      • First day of leave
      • Estimated last day of leave
    • HR criteria filters employees for campaigns, communication, lifecycle events, knowledge articles, HR services, and content for employees requesting or on parental LOA.

    Enterprise Onboarding and Transitions

    You can use the pre-configured data for Parental Leave of Absence to make sure that your employees have a smooth transition process. The data has:
    • 1 Lifecycle Event
    • 10 Activity Sets
    • 28 Activities
    Parental LOA example

    See Lifecyle events for enterprise.

    Employee Center

    Employees can use the pre-configured Employee Center to view information, create inquiries or requests, and help them through each stage of the process.

    For more information, see Employee Center with HR Service Delivery and Employee Center.
    Content Publishing
    Content Publishing lets you create content for your employees that you can deliver through the Employee Center. You can create different types of information and target specific employees.
    See Employee Center with HR Service Delivery and Employee Center.
    Parental Leave Guide Pages
    Employees can access the Employee Center at any time to learn about the process. After the employee submits a parental leave request, the employee receives lifecycle event and campaign announcements on the Employee Center that link to pages that are based on the particular stage in the process.
    Content Delivery widgets provide examples that are available to use as is or you can modify for your own process. Employee Center — Parental LOA
    The portal content under Content Delivery contains content that your company wants to appear on your Employee Center or portal.
    The audience for this content are employees.
    The portal content for parental LOAs include content under the following:
    Getting started
    The following data, either links to content or rich text that you can customize to better reflect your processes.
    • Getting Started: URL link
    • Parental Leave Guide: URL link
    • Pre-leave information: Rich text
    Awaiting Approval
    Awaiting Approval: URL link
    Planning Leave
    Planning Leave: URL link
    On Leave
    On Leave: URL link
    Planning Return
    Planning Return: URL link
    Back at Work
    Back at Work: URL link
    Content Experiences
    Works with Content Publishing and the Employee Center to build campaigns that target specific employees for defined dates and times.
    For more information about campaigns, see Working on Campaigns.
    The Parental Journey campaign has two campaign bundles and two campaign contents. These content items add announcements on the Employee Center after a request for parental leave and when the employee returns to work.
    • Leave is requested

      Pre-leave information.

    • Leave is completed

      Post-leave information.

    Because the leave and return dates are unknown when requesting a parental LOA, the Condition trigger type is available for campaign bundles. For more information about campaigns and Content Experiences, see Create campaign bundles.
    The following business rules are available and are created on the Leave of Absence table [sn_hr_core_leave_of_absence]:
    • Campaign condition start: Triggers on the insert of a new record and adds an employee to the campaign. It triggers the start condition event.
    • Campaign condition stop: Triggers upon completion of the leave of absence. It triggers the stop condition for an employee and removes them from the campaign.

    Other related factors

    The Employee Journeys parental LOA has other areas that affect the base system and any configuration changes that you may want:
    • Leave of Absence [sn_hr_core_leave_of_absence] table
      • Table under HR Administration.
      • Contains employee name, leave type, leave status, first day of leave, and estimated last day of leave.
      • Available in HR core without activating Employee Journeys.
    • HR Total Rewards Case [sn_hr_core_case_total_rewards]

      HR case table that initiates the leave of absence HR service.

    • Campaign [sn_ca_campaign]

      Table that contains the conditions from the campaign bundle.

    • Campaign Bundle [sn_ca_campaign_bundle]

      Table that contains the campaign bundle with condition triggers that applies to a campaign user.

    • Leave Status

      New field for an HR profile that provides the status of an employee who requested a parental LOA.

    • HR Criteria
      • HR criteria that customizes who activities, content, or targets tasks to
      • Employee Birthing Parent: The Upload your release to return to work activity in the Plan Return activity set uses this HR criteria. It prompts the birthing parent to upload a doctor release form to return to work.
      • Employees enrolled in Benefits: The Choose how to pay Premium Benefits premiums activity in the Prepare for Leave activity set uses this HR criteria. It targets employees that are enrolled in company benefits and creates a case to payroll to process deductions as needed.
      • Employees on Parental Journey: The Parental Journey campaign uses this HR criteria to determine who to target for pre-LOA information and post leave information.
    • Parental LOA types are:
      • Requested
      • Approved
      • On Leave
      • Rejected
      • Completed
      • Canceled