Combined Employee Center release notes for upgrades from Vancouver to Zurich

How to use this page

To help you prepare for your upgrade, we have combined the cross-family Employee Center release notes onto one page. Read this summary of the new features, changes, and updated information for your product from Vancouver to Zurich.

Tip:

If there were no updates for a release notes section in a certain family release, we included a short note for your reference. For example, if a product did not have any updates in Tokyo, the row says "No updates for this release."

Important information for upgrading Employee Center to Zurich

Before you upgrade to Zurich, review these pre- and post-upgrade tasks and complete the tasks as needed.


Release	Release notes
Vancouver	No updates for this release.
Washington DC	No updates for this release.
Xanadu	No updates for this release.
Yokohama	No updates for this release.
Zurich	No updates for this release.

New features

Between your current release family and Zurich, new features were introduced for Employee Center.


Release	Release notes
Vancouver	Enhanced AI Search assist for general HR inquiries Use the enhanced capability of AI Search Assist to self-solve issues with intuitive recommendations on the service request submission form. Connect content to topic pages with the topic list selector Associate Employee Center topic pages to Service Catalog items within the Catalog Builder workflow using the topic selector component. Publish content in high volume to keep employees updated on news and announcements Create News articles using content creation features from the Rich Content Editor and Content templates to auto-generate publish plans to deliver content to the portal Home page and News Center. Add predefined content layouts with the Rich Content Editor Build rich content quicker using modules, which are predefined content layouts containing headers, paragraph text, and images. Portal search results return Rich content and News articles AI Search supports the Rich content and News Articles content sources, returning results that contain the search keyword in the headings or text. Maintain content history through content versioning The system tracks changes made to Portal and Rich content types after they are published. Quick start tests for Employee Center After upgrades and deployments of new applications or integrations, run quick start tests to verify that Employee Center works as expected. If you customized Employee Center, copy the quick start tests and configure them for your customizations.
Washington DC	News articles As an employee, view news articles on your mobile devices using the Now Mobile® app. Use the News Feed widget that now appears on the Employee Center Pro home page by default and includes an option to display pagination. Content managers or admins can configure the News Feed and Featured News widgets to display news articles in a tile layout. As a content manager or admin, associate a news article with one or more categories (such as employee benefits or industry updates). Employees can view news articles by category. Add content destination Set the publication duration in the content destination, enabling content managers to select how long content is available based on the publishing location. Rich Content Editor Use the following new capabilities when creating rich content and news articles: Edit the HTML and CSS source code Clear the entire canvas of content with a single click Configure cell border color, width, and style Configure image and video horizontal alignment Video hosting integrations framework Create rich content and news articles using videos from a streaming services. Additionally, you can authorize access to secure videos and configure interface elements to help content managers, such as thumbnails of available videos or check boxes to enable looping or auto-play. Create campaign stages (bundles) using Content Experience Builder Use the following new configuration options: The Include users field enables a campaign manager to specify an audience. The Frequency field includes the Once option. Approvals in Now Mobile Use the approval experience in the Now Mobile feature to do the following: Access to all approval tasks in one place under My tasks on the Now Mobile app. View task details to approve or reject a request. Workday approvals in Now Mobile Access all your Workday approval tasks on the Now Mobile app. Approve or reject a task or navigate to the Workday portal. Integrated experience and service feedback Use the Employee experience feedback to gather quick feedback from your users on their user experiences and service experiences. Employee Center Pro Kiosk Use the Employee Center Pro Kiosk to provide the deskless workforce with the resources to enhance productivity, engagement, and overall organizational success. Quick start tests for Employee Center After upgrading and deploying new applications or integrations, run quick start tests to verify that Employee Center works as expected. If you customized Employee Center, copy the quick start tests and configure them for your customizations.
Xanadu	Accelerate news article creation with reusable articles Create news articles faster and more efficiently by leveraging prebuilt reusable articles within content templates. Reusable articles offer a predefined content layout into which content authors can input text and images. Content engagement Gather feedback on content: Employees can engage with news articles by selecting a reaction icon, leaving a comment, or sharing the article. Managers can view metrics for employee engagement with an article such as the number of views, shares, and reactions. Employee Center Pro Kiosk Empower deskless workers with simplified access to important information related to their job through a kiosk that provides self-serve opportunities such as: Access shift and time-off details. Get queries answered with the help of AI Search. Track the status of requests. Provide enhanced Employee Center Pro kiosks that can highlight targeted communication and self-service content. Leverage guided help links that make the kiosk environment accommodative and easy to navigate. Guided Self-Service in Employee Center Provide employees with an intuitive, visual, Q&A-based experience for self-serving on highly used complex topics such as time off balance through GSS. Content operations dashboard View engagement metrics for published content, manage the content publishing calendar, handle incoming content requests, and review the ownership for pages and widgets through the Content Operations dashboard. Content Analytics support for Content Publishing View data visualizations of performance metrics for content published to the portal or the Now Mobile app using a publish plan or content schedule. Access metrics such as the most-clicked content, most-clicked notifications, number of user interactions by content, and task status. Enhanced copy-paste options in Rich Content Editor Copy and paste formatted content into the Rich Content Editor while retaining the original source formatting or paste the content as plain text that matches the formatting of the destination text box. Integrated service and experience feedback in Now Mobile Access feedback functionality more easily through the Experience and Service feedback functionality in Now® Mobile. Create rich content from portal widgets Create or edit content directly from the Employee Center portal pages. Hide parameters in the Rich Content Editor Content administrators can configure content rendering parameters for hosted videos to be hidden in the Rich Content Editor so these parameters can't be modified by users. New campaign demo data for Content Experiences Access example campaigns to better understand campaign structuring, explore sample bundle trigger configurations, and discover possible use cases. Quick start tests for Employee Center After upgrades and deployments of new applications or integrations, run quick start tests to verify that Employee Center works as expected. If you customized Employee Center, copy the quick start tests and configure them for your customizations.
Yokohama	Favoriting topic pages Enable one-click access for employees to their most frequently accessed topics through topic pages added to the Favorites widget. Single-click taxonomy sync Sync taxonomy updates across Advanced Portal Navigation hierarchy levels with one click. Guided Self-Service enhancements Admins can provide more detailed answers or guidance to a Guided Self-Service response by adding rich media, including images and videos and formatted text. Employees can review and edit their previous responses. Employees can search for and discover Guided Self-Service processes using AI-powered search. Enhanced apps discovery and visibility preferences (Employee Center Pro) Employees can search for authorized work applications using the AI-powered global search bar. Appointment booking with HR representative (Employee Center Pro) Employees can schedule in-person or virtual appointments to get help through a quick link in the Mega Menu or Quick links widget. Rich Content Editor updates (Employee Center Pro) Build more visually engaging content in microsites and news through additional formatting elements including bulleted and numbered lists, table or grid layouts, and accordion lists. Portal shortcuts for content authoring (Employee Center Pro) Content authors can now easily edit or create news articles and banners using shortcuts in the Content Experiences or News widgets. The system auto-generates publishing plans, streamlining content delivery to the selected widget and reducing the effort needed for configuration. Integrated experience and service feedback (Employee Center Pro) Set a rating threshold that automatically generates a feedback task. Receive feedback tasks from negative feedback submitted through Now Mobile®. Receive automated email notifications when feedback tasks are completed. Track your feedback responses through the Feedback Analytics dashboard for portal, email, Virtual Agent, kiosks, and Now Mobile®. Live company events hosting and communications framework (Employee Center Pro) Live company events can now be hosted directly in the Employee Center Pro portal, with prebuilt configurations to streamline the pre-event communications and handle traffic surges. Content authors can easily create and share event content using the drag-and-drop Rich Content Editor, combined with mass-publishing capabilities similar to news articles. Improved topic search ranking The Topic content search widget now ranks topics based on user clicks, improving the relevance of search results and making it easier for employees to find their frequently used topics. Quick start tests for Employee Center After upgrades and deployments of new applications or integrations, run quick start tests to verify that Employee Center works as expected. If you customized Employee Center, copy the quick start tests and configure them for your customizations.
Zurich	Zurich Patch 1 Check latest company news and events Use the Company News and Events AI Agent to enable employees to check their company-related news and any upcoming events using the Now Assist in Virtual Agent. Now Assist for Employee Experience Summarization skill Enable a summary of the request, requested item, or case for approval task using Now Assist for Employee Experience. The skill provides a summary of the selected item from the available list that you want to work on. Zurich Early Availability Now Assist for Employee Experience plugin Enable employees to resolve and approve tasks easily through chat conversation using the Now Assist for Employee Experience plugin with Now Assist in Virtual Agent. Browser Extension for Employee Center View and manage content and other company resources through the Browser Extension for Employee Center. Access the extension as a pop-up window, or select the Browser Extension for Employee Center icon on the portal to open it in a new page. Enhanced Requests Experience Enhance the My Requests experience with features like easy segmentation, filtering, and keyword search. These features create a dynamic and scalable experience on the Employee Center portal for your admins, service, process, and experience owners. Portal performance optimization Control how your portal pages load, such as all at once or as needed, by using the new deferred and lazy load preferences. Lazy loading is enabled by default and displays content dynamically, reducing page load time. High-traffic experience Communicate the information about heavy usage and slower network conditions during high usage scenarios, such as live events and major announcements. Taxonomy and connected content Streamline the cleanup and syncing of outdated or invalid content, helping admins maintain a high-quality, well-performing portal with less manual effort. Mega menu load Load the Mega Menu in the background to speed up home page interactivity and enable your users to engage with visible content faster during first-time visits. Notifications for Employee Center enhancements Get Notifications for Employee Center in Content engagement that is available with Employee Center Pro. For more information, see Employee Center Pro release notes. Quick start tests for Employee Center After upgrades and deployments of new applications or integrations, run quick start tests to verify that Employee Center works as expected. If you customized Employee Center, copy the quick start tests and configure them for your customizations.

Changes

Between your current release family and Zurich, some changes were made to existing Employee Center features.


Release	Release notes
Vancouver	No updates for this release.
Washington DC	No updates for this release.
Xanadu	Content Analytics Content Analytics is now part of the Platform Analytics Experience. When you navigate to All > Content Analytics > Dashboards, the Content Analytics dashboards are displayed alongside Platform Analytics dashboards. Experience and Service Feedback Access the following enhancements within the feedback functionality: Leverage three different types of feedback - Experience, Service, and Survey feedback to gain more insight from your users. Integrate the experience feedback response with the Success Dashboard indicators. Configure service feedback to keep it anonymous after feedback is submitted. Access Experience and Service Feedback in Virtual Agent assist. SharePoint Online Search Connector Enhance your Microsoft SharePoint experience with the following upgrades: Streamline the site permissions and other granular access controls. Grant permission and provide access to specific personas.
Yokohama	No updates for this release.
Zurich	No updates for this release.

Removed

Between your current release family and Zurich, some Employee Center features or functionality were removed.


Release	Release notes
Vancouver	No updates for this release.
Washington DC	No updates for this release.
Xanadu	The Content Publishing and Content Experiences demo portals have been removed.
Yokohama	No updates for this release.
Zurich	No updates for this release.

Deprecations

Between your current release family and Zurich, some Employee Center features or functionality were deprecated.


Release	Release notes
Vancouver	No updates for this release.
Washington DC	No updates for this release.
Xanadu	No updates for this release.
Yokohama	No updates for this release.
Zurich	No updates for this release.

Activation information

Review information on how to activate Employee Center.


Release	Release notes
Vancouver	Install Employee Center by requesting it from the ServiceNow Store. Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes.
Washington DC	Install Employee Center by requesting it from the ServiceNow Store. Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes.
Xanadu	Install Employee Center plugins by requesting them from the ServiceNow Store. Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes.
Yokohama	Install the Employee Center plugin by requesting it from the ServiceNow Store. Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes.
Zurich	Install Employee Center by requesting it from the ServiceNow Store.

Additional requirements

If any additional requirements were introduced or changed for Employee Center we have noted them here.


Release	Release notes
Vancouver	No updates for this release.
Washington DC	No updates for this release.
Xanadu	No updates for this release.
Yokohama	No updates for this release.
Zurich	No updates for this release.

Browser requirements

If any specific browser requirements were introduced or changed for Employee Center we have noted them here.


Release	Release notes
Vancouver	No updates for this release.
Washington DC	No updates for this release.
Xanadu	No updates for this release.
Yokohama	No updates for this release.
Zurich	The Browser Extension for Employee Center is only available with Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge browsers.

Accessibility information

Review details on accessibility information for Employee Center, such as specific requirements or compliance levels.


Release	Release notes
Vancouver	The following updates have been made to the Rich Content Editor to improve accessibility: Color picker Users can define background, button, border, or text color by inputting the RGB, HSL, or Hex values or by using the eyedropper. Users can clear the values by tabbing to the X icon, then using the Enter key or Space bar. Insert blocks in the canvas Users can click a block element to add it to the canvas. In addition, once a block element is added to the canvas, it remains selected by default. When a user inserts a block element in the canvas, that block remains selected. When the user clicks a block element while a block is selected, the new block will be inserted inside the selected block. Keyboard commands Users can use the Tab key to move between blocks when designing rich content or between settings in the Style and Properties settings. They can click or use the Enter key to insert a block into the canvas. They can use the Enter key or Space bar execute the command associated with the button. Users can activate a drop-down menu with the space bar, use arrow keys to navigate, and the Enter key or Space bar to select an option. Voiceover improvements Voiceover now reads field labels, including composite field labels. For example, when Voiceover encounters the Margin field, which has four directional sub-fields (Top, Right, Bottom, Left), Voiceover reads "Margin Top".
Washington DC	No updates for this release.
Xanadu	No updates for this release.
Yokohama	No updates for this release.
Zurich	No updates for this release.

Localization information

If there are specific localization considerations for Employee Center we have noted them here.


Release	Release notes
Vancouver	No updates for this release.
Washington DC	No updates for this release.
Xanadu	No updates for this release.
Yokohama	No updates for this release.
Zurich	No updates for this release.

Highlight information

If there are specific highlight considerations for Employee Center we have noted them here.


Release	Release notes
Vancouver	Use enhanced ServiceNow® AI Search Assist for contextual search and recommendations while raising service requests. Directly associate Employee Center topic pages to ServiceNow® Service Catalog items using the topic selector component. See Employee Center for more information.
Washington DC	Use the Now Mobile® app to view news articles and access tasks that require your approval. Build content using videos from video hosting services. Edit the HTML and CSS source code for rich content or news articles. Use the employee experience feedback feature to get relevant feedback from your users. See Employee Center for more information.
Xanadu	Increase operational efficiency by field workers and shift workers by providing in-context information with the Employee Center Pro Kiosk. Gather quick feedback from the users on their user experiences and their service experiences with Experience and Service Feedback. Streamline the SharePoint Online Search Connector site permissions and other granular access control. Enable employees to engage with news articles through reactions, comments, or sharing the articles. Access content management tools from Content Publishing, Content Analytics, and Content Governance plugins in the Content Operations dashboard. See Employee Center for more information.
Yokohama	Resolve tasks created from submitted negative feedback with the Integrated experience and service feedback functionality. Enable employees to seek assistance through virtual or in-person appointments, or by joining walk-up queues for immediate support. Host live company events seamlessly in the employee portal with streamlined pre-event communications and a drag-and-drop editor for easy content creation. See Employee Center for more information.
Zurich	Zurich Patch 1 Enable employees to check their latest company news and upcoming events using Now Assist in Virtual Agent with the Company News & Events AI Agent in the Now Assist for Employee Experience. The AI Agent displays a list of all the latest news and planned events in the company. For more information, see Check latest company news and events. Employees can check all their to-do tasks and pending approvals using Now Assist in Virtual Agent for Microsoft Teams. Enable a summary of the request, requested item, or case for approval task using Now Assist for Employee Experience. The skill provides a summary of the selected item from the available list that you want to work on. For more information, see Now Assist for Employee Experience Summarization skill. Zurich Early Availability Use the Now Assist for Employee Experience application so that your employees can have a seamless conversational interaction with Now Assist in Virtual Agent. View and manage content and other company resources through the Browser Extension for Employee Center. Improve the My Requests experience with adoptive and scalable enhancements. See Employee Center for more information.