Use the Employee Center topic pages

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Use the Employee Center topic pages

    The Employee Center topic pages in ServiceNow provide a structured and user-friendly interface for employees to access information and services. These pages include several key widgets—breadcrumbs, topic header, sub-topic, and topic content—that help users navigate through topics, find relevant content, and engage with knowledge articles, requests, and learning materials.

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    Key Features

    • Breadcrumbs widget: Displays the navigation path taken to reach the current page, allowing users to easily backtrack by clicking any page name in the breadcrumb trail.
    • Topic header widget: Shows parent topics with descriptions, banner images, and icons. Users can select topics from a mega menu to view details. This widget’s display can be customized through instance options.
    • Sub-topics widget: Lists child topics under a parent topic that have connected content. It shows up to six child topics by default, with an option to view all if there are more. This widget is also configurable through instance options.
    • Topic content widget: Displays knowledge articles and requests linked to the topic. It offers filtering (all content, articles only, or requests only), sorting (by popularity or alphabetically), and view options (card or list). By default, 12 items show, with a “Show more” option for additional content. Note that A-Z sorting is not supported for non-English content.
    • Search on topic pages: Enables users to browse content with enhanced search features such as spell check, synonym detection, and auto-suggest. Users can narrow searches using hierarchical filters for topics and sub-topics.
    • Learning content integration: Licensed employees can access learning courses connected to topics. The Unified Browse widget includes “Courses” as a filter option, allowing browsing, filtering, sorting, and favoriting of learning content.

    Practical Implications for ServiceNow Customers

    By utilizing the Employee Center topic pages, ServiceNow customers can provide employees with a coherent and intuitive experience that organizes information hierarchically and makes navigation seamless. The configurable widgets allow tailoring the interface to organizational needs, enhancing content discoverability and user engagement. The integration of learning content and advanced search capabilities further supports employee self-service and knowledge management goals.

    Next Steps

    • Configure widget instance options to customize the display of topic headers, sub-topics, and topic content according to your organizational requirements.
    • Leverage search facets to refine content discovery on topic pages.
    • Incorporate learning content as connected content types to enrich employee development resources.
    • Explore related capabilities such as integrated feedback, personalized answers, and advanced portal navigation to enhance the Employee Center experience.

    The Employee Center topic pages contain the breadcrumbs widget, topic header widget, sub-topic widget, and the topic content widget.

    Breadcrumbs widget

    The breadcrumbs widget displays information about the pages you navigated to open the current page. For example, from the home page if you click HR, and then click Benefits, and then click Health and Wellness, the breadcrumbs widget shows Home > HR > Benefits > Health and Wellness.
    Figure 1. Breadcrumbs widget
    The breadcrumbs widget shows the navigation path from the Home page to the Health and Wellness page.

    Click a page name on the breadcrumbs widget to navigate to that page. For example, to return to the home page, click Home.

    Topic header widget

    The topic header widget displays the parent topics. Select a topic from the mega menu to view its details. The topic widget displays the description of the topic and the banner and icon images for the topic, if available.
    Note:
    If you schedule Styled or Banner content to the Content Experiences widget on the emp_taxonomy_topic page, the original topic banner image does not display for the topics on the schedule.

    For more information on creating and scheduling content, see Creating employee communications with Content Publishing.

    Figure 2. Topic header widget
    Topic header widget showing the HR topic.

    You can modify the widget display by configuring the instance options. For more information, see Modify the topic header widget display.

    Sub-topics widget

    The sub-topics widget displays all the child topics of the parent topic. The sub-topic widget displays only those child topics that have connected content.
    Figure 3. Sub-topics widget
    Sub-topics widget showing the child topics of the HR parent topic.

    The sub-topics widget shows only six child topics by default. If the parent topic has more child topics, click View all to view all the child topics and click the one you want to open.

    You can modify the widget display by configuring the instance options. For more information, see Modify the sub-topics widget display.

    Topic content widget

    The topic content widget displays the knowledge articles and requests associated with the topic.
    Figure 4. Topic content widget
    Topic content widget showing connected content of the Browse HR topic, including the available options.
    The topic content widget has the following options.
    Table 1. Options in the topic content widget
    Option Description
    Filter by How you want to filter the information. The options are:
    • All: Displays both the knowledge articles and requests.
    • Article: Displays only knowledge articles.
    • Request: Displays only requests.
    Sort by How you want to sort the information. The options are:
    • Popular: Displays the most popular knowledge articles and requests.
    • A-Z: Displays the knowledge articles and requests in alphabetical order.
    Card View Displays the knowledge articles and requests in cards.
    List view Displays the knowledge articles and requests in lists.
    Show more Displays the next set of 12 content items (knowledge articles and requests), based on the settings of the Sort by and Filter by options. By default, 12 content items are displayed for a topic. This option appears only when more than 12 content items are associated to a topic.
    Note:
    The A-Z sorting is not supported for non-English.

    Search on the topic pages

    Use search on the topic pages that allows you to browse content with its spell check, synonym detection, and other auto-suggestive functionalities.

    Search by the topic facets

    Narrow your search with hierarchical filters for topics and sub-topics on the global search. Choose single or multiple topic levels or facet levels to get specific search results. For more information, see Improved search functionality.

    Learning content on the topic pages

    Use learning content as one of the connected content types, available on the topic pages, for the licensed employees. Employees can browse, filter, sort, and add to favourite the course content available on the topic pages relevant to them.

    The Unified Browse widget has Courses as an addition to the Filter by listed options.
    Figure 5. Filter by options
    The Filter by field listed options has All, Articles, Requests, and Courses.

    You can modify the widget display by configuring the widget instance options. For more information, see Modify the topic content widget display.