Knowledge blocks for HR knowledge management
Summarize
Summary of Knowledge blocks for HR knowledge management
Knowledge blocks in HR Service Delivery allow ServiceNow customers to simplify the creation and consumption of HR knowledge articles. These are reusable content segments that can be inserted into knowledge articles and controlled by user criteria. This ensures that users only see content relevant to them, improving the efficiency of knowledge delivery and consumption across various employee groups.
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Key Features
- Reusable Content: Knowledge blocks can be created once and reused in multiple knowledge articles.
- User Criteria Security: Content visibility in knowledge blocks is controlled by user criteria, enabling personalized content delivery based on user attributes.
- Integration with Knowledge Bases: The feature must be enabled per knowledge base by a knowledge administrator or manager.
- Supported Content: Knowledge blocks display text and images but do not show attached files by default.
- Excludes Wiki Articles: Knowledge blocks are not supported in wiki-type articles.
- Preview Capability: Articles containing knowledge blocks can be previewed by user or date to validate targeted content delivery.
- Custom Search Integration: If a custom search or article viewer is used, integration with the appropriate APIs is necessary to support knowledge blocks.
- Activation Requirement: Activating knowledge blocks also activates Knowledge Management Advanced features such as article versioning, which can be disabled if not needed.
Practical Use Case: Location-Specific Holiday Calendars
For enterprises with multiple locations, knowledge blocks can be used to create a single holiday calendar article with location-specific sections secured by user criteria. This approach:
- Reduces HR workload: HR manages one article instead of multiple location-specific articles.
- Improves employee experience: Employees access a single article and automatically see only the holiday information relevant to their location.
Next Steps for Customers
- Enable knowledge blocks for each relevant knowledge base.
- Create knowledge blocks and insert them into knowledge articles where segmented, targeted content is beneficial.
- Define user criteria carefully to ensure the correct audience sees appropriate blocks.
- Consider integration needs if using custom search or article viewers.
- Use preview functionality to verify user-specific content visibility before publishing.
You can use knowledge blocks with HR Service Delivery to simplify knowledge authoring for writers and knowledge consumption for readers.
Knowledge blocks are reusable pieces of content secured by user criteria that you can add to knowledge articles in a knowledge base. The user criteria controls which users can read or not read the block content in an article or search, enabling users to more easily view content that is relevant to them.
How to use knowledge blocks
To use knowledge blocks, a knowledge administrator or manager must enable the knowledge blocks feature for each knowledge base in which the blocks will be used.
Enable knowledge blocks for each knowledge base
Knowledge contributors can create knowledge blocks and insert them into articles in a knowledge base:
- Create a knowledge block
- Add knowledge blocks to a knowledge article
- Preview a knowledge article with knowledge blocks by user or date
Knowledge block content can be read or not read in an article or search based on user criteria set at the knowledge base and knowledge block level. See Select user criteria for a knowledge block for more information.
Holiday calendar with location-specific knowledge block content
You are part of an enterprise HR organization that maintains a company knowledge base. You want to create a holiday calendar so that employees know which days of the year are company holidays. Since the company has multiple locations and holiday dates vary based on where the employee is located, there are several ways that you could create the knowledge article.
One way is that you could create a knowledge article for each location, with an article for Location A, Location B, and so on.
- Pros: simplified consumption. Employees have a single article to search for and read.
- Cons: more work for HR. HR has multiple articles to manage and update for each location where the company has employees.
Another way is that you could create a single knowledge article that includes sections for each location.
- Pros: simplified authoring. HR has a single article to manage and update.
- Cons: more work for employees. Employee must scroll through and disregard extraneous content to find the section in the article that pertains to them.
With knowledge blocks, you can create a single knowledge article with location-specific block content secured by user criteria. This approach helps to reduce the workload for both HR and employees. As an HR agent, you have a single article to manage and update. Employees have a single article to search for and read, with the user criteria ensuring that they only view content that is relevant to them.
If you are using a custom search or knowledge article viewer
If you are using a custom search or knowledge article viewer with your application, you should integrate it with the appropriate knowledge or knowledge blocks API. (Integration is only necessary if you are using a custom search or knowledge article viewer.)
Integrating a custom search or knowledge article viewer with knowledge blocks
Activation information
To use knowledge blocks in your application, you must activate knowledge blocks. For information on what components are installed with the feature, see Components installed with knowledge blocks.