Scheduling in Workforce Optimization for ITSM

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated May 20, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Scheduling in Workforce Optimization for ITSM

    Scheduling in Workforce Optimization for ITSM enables ServiceNow customers to effectively plan and manage agent shifts to ensure optimal coverage and issue resolution. It centralizes shift planning and scheduling, allowing administrators and agents to coordinate their work schedules, breaks, and time off seamlessly. The solution supports automatic staggering of breaks to maximize team availability and includes forecasting capabilities to model demand and adjust staffing accordingly.

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    Key Features

    • Shift Planning: Administrators can create shift plans with automatically staggered breaks, ensuring continuous coverage throughout the required time periods.
    • Schedule Management: Create, view, and publish schedules for upcoming periods, providing transparency and organization for the entire team.
    • Time-Off and Shift Swapping: Agents can request time off and swap shifts directly, streamlining scheduling adjustments without needing additional approval.
    • On-Call Scheduling: Enables assigning dedicated team members to resolve issues as they arise, enhancing responsiveness.
    • Demand Forecasting: Administrators can model demand scenarios to predict workload and adjust staffing by analyzing historical data and forecast models.
    • Calendar Integration: Both administrators and agents use a calendar interface to manage and view shifts, breaks, team schedules, and events such as meetings or training.

    Roles and Capabilities

    • Shift Planning Administrator: Responsible for creating and managing shift and schedule plans, managing time-off requests, swapping shifts, forecasting demand, and publishing schedules.
    • Agent: Can view team schedules, add events, request time off, and swap shifts with peers.

    Getting Started and Practical Use

    • Activation: Scheduling must be activated within Workforce Optimization for ITSM to begin managing shifts and schedules.
    • Setup and Configuration: Administrators should configure event categories, access controls, and system properties relevant to scheduling and schedule adherence.
    • Monitoring: Schedule adherence can be tracked to evaluate agent compliance and optimize staffing levels.
    • Unified Management: Schedulers can plan and oversee shifts across multiple teams from a single interface, improving operational efficiency.

    Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    By using Scheduling in Workforce Optimization for ITSM, organizations can expect improved shift coverage, enhanced agent availability through staggered breaks, streamlined time-off and shift swapping processes, and data-driven staffing decisions via demand forecasting. This leads to better issue resolution, higher team productivity, and greater scheduling transparency.

    Learn how you can plan shifts with automatically staggered break times for your agents to manage their schedule effectively in Workforce Optimization for ITSM. Publish schedules for the next scheduling period to get a snapshot of which agent is lined up to solve issues for that time period.

    Shift planning

    Manage the scheduling for your organization from a central location. Use On-Call Scheduling with Workforce Optimization for ITSM to have dedicated team members to resolve issues as they arise.

    The image provides a high-level overview of the Scheduling application.

    Infographic showing a high-level overview of the Scheduling application. For the text description, refer to the tables that follow.
    Table 1. Actions for a shift planning admin (sn_shift_planning.admin)
    Action Description
    Plan Create shift plans that automatically stagger breaks to maximize coverage.
    Schedule Create schedule plans, view them in real time, and publish the schedule for the next time period.
    Manage Create time-off requests and swap shifts for your agents without going through an approval process.
    Forecast Model demand scenarios to analyze agent forecast and view updated demand on the calendar.
    Table 2. Actions for an agent (sn_shift_planning.agent)
    Action Description
    View team schedule Know when your peers are working and whenthey are taking time off.
    Add events Create events such as a meeting, training, or an ad hoc work shift.
    Request time off Send a request for the span of time you want to take off.
    Swap shifts Trade shifts with your peers.

    Calendar

    The image provides a high-level overview of the tasks schedulers and agents can perform on the calendar.

    Infographic showing tasks schedulers and agents can perform on the calendar. For the text description, refer to the lists that follow.

    As a shift planning administrator, you can:
    • Create shifts to make sure you have team coverage for the required span of time.
    • Add breaks to the shifts that automatically stagger agent availability for those shifts.
    • Preview the schedule and make necessary changes before publishing it to your agents.
    • Access the schedule of all of your teams from one location.
    As a shift planning agent, you can:
    • Look up your schedule and request time off when required.
    • Swap your shift with one of your peers.

    Getting started with Scheduling in Workforce Optimization for ITSM

    Easily find the tasks that you must complete in the Scheduling module.
    Table 3. Scheduling
    Benefit User Finding tasks to complete in Scheduling
    Activate Scheduling in Workforce Optimization for ITSM. admin Activate Scheduling
    Refer to the roles, system properties, and more used in Scheduling and Schedule adherence. Any scheduling role Understand components used in Scheduling in Workforce Optimization for ITSM
    Configure event categories, access for event types and more. Scheduling admin Set up Scheduling in Workforce Optimization for ITSM
    Manage your workforce efficiently by planning your teams' shifts and schedule plans. You can also plan and manage schedules and staffing needs across your teams from one location. Scheduling manager Schedule your teams' work in Workforce Optimization for ITSM
    Understand how Schedule adherence works. Any role Understand Schedule adherence in Workforce Optimization for ITSM
    Evaluate if your agents are adhering to their schedules and fine-tune your staffing requirements based on their adherence. Scheduling manager Monitor schedule adherence of your agents
    Predict resources based on historical data. Scheduling admin Demand Forecast in Workforce Optimization for ITSM