Adding a signature acknowledgment for HR documents

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Adding a signature acknowledgment for HR documents

    ServiceNow enables you to add a signature acknowledgment checkbox with customized text on HR documents linked to HR tasks. This feature captures the meaning behind signatures—such as review, approval, responsibility, or authorship—by displaying a checkbox alongside clarifying text. It applies to various HR task types including e-signatures, sign document tasks, and credential acknowledgments.

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    Important: Starting with the Yokohama release, the legacy HR Document Templates are being prepared for deprecation. They will no longer activate on new instances but remain supported for existing ones. Customers are encouraged to use the newer Document Templates for an improved experience and to review migration guidelines accordingly.

    How to Add Signature Acknowledgments

    • Create from an HR task: Add an acknowledgment checkbox and text once for a specific HR task within an existing HR case by selecting the HR Task Type as E-Signature and applying an e-signature template. This method does not persist the acknowledgment configuration for future tasks of the same type.
    • Create or modify an HR task template: Configure the acknowledgment checkbox and text to appear every time the HR service is requested by selecting the HR task table and task type (E-Signature or Sign Document). Attach a PDF document if required and enter acknowledgment text to display alongside the checkbox.
    • Create or modify an HR document template: Add acknowledgment text directly in the HR document template so the checkbox and text appear whenever the document is associated with an HR case. This applies to both HTML and PDF document templates.

    Additional Capabilities

    ServiceNow supports automation of signing requests through integration with DocuSign templates, simplifying the process of collecting signatures on HR documents. This enables efficient and consistent handling of signature workflows.

    You can add an acknowledgement check box with customized text on HR documents associated with an HR task.

    Important:

    Starting with the Yokohama release, HR Document Templates is being prepared for future deprecation. It will be hidden and no longer activated on new instances, but will continue to be supported.

    Use Document Templates that provides the latest experience for this functionality. For migration guidelines, see Migrating from HR Document Templates to Document Templates.

    For deprecation details, see the Deprecation Process [KB0867184] article in the Now Support knowledge base.

    Signature acknowledgements are a way to capture the meaning of the signature, such as review, approval, responsibility, or authorship.

    For the e-signatures task type, you can show a check box and clarifying text about the meaning of the signature. E-signature acknowledgment

    For the sign document task type, you can show a check box and clarifying text about the meaning of the signature.Sign document acknowledgment

    For acknowledgments, you can show a check box and clarifying text about using login credentials.Credential acknowledgment

    There are multiple ways to add the check box and text for the different task types.
    Create signature acknowledgment from an HR task
    Using this method creates the acknowledgment check box and text one time for the specific HR task. It does not save it for future HR tasks of the same type.
    • From an existing HR case, add an HR task.
    • From the HR task, select an HR Task Type of:

      E-Signature.

    • Select an E-signature template.
    Note:
    See Adding an HR task to an HR case.
    Create or modify an HR template (task)
    Using this method creates an acknowledgment check box and text every time the HR service is requested for an HR case.
    • Table: Select an HR task table.
    • HR task type: Select one:
      • E-Signature
      • Sign Document
        Note:
        The parent HR case requires a PDF document.
      • Credential
    • Acknowledgment document: Attach a document.
    • Acknowledgment text: (Add this field) Enter text to appear next to check box.
    Note:
    See Configure an HR task template.
    Create or modify an HR document template
    Using this method creates an acknowledgment check box and text every time the document is associated with an HR case.

    From the HR document template, add text in the Acknowledgment text field.

    Note:
    See Configure an HR document template (HTML) or Configure an HR PDF document template.
    Automate signing requests using templates
    For more information on using DocuSign templates and automating signing requests using templates, see How to automate signing requests using templates.