Exploring Workforce Optimization for ITSM

Use Workforce Optimization for ITSM to optimize your workforce and manage your teams efficiently. Coach your teams so that they gain the skills that let you address the demands from your customers. Efficiently schedule your teams work to provide better coverage with integrated channel management.

Workforce Optimization for ITSM overview

Important: Starting with the Brazil release, Workforce Optimization for ITSM is being prepared for future deprecation. It will be hidden and no longer installed on new instances but will continue to be supported. For details, see the Deprecation Process [KB0867184] article in the Now Support Knowledge Base.

As a manager, you can monitor the demand for agents and skills in your organization to resolve issues. Assess agent skills, identify areas where they need improvement and provide training to enhance their skills set. Track your teams performance, and manage the schedule of all agents in your assignment group—all from a unified location.

As an agent, you can manage your own schedule, access the schedules of your peers and request time off or shift swaps.

To plan for your Workforce Optimization for ITSM implementation, see Getting started with Workforce Optimization for ITSM.

Workforce Optimization for ITSM workflow

The image displays the manager workflow between the different modules in Workforce Optimization for ITSM. Each of these modules can be used independently or together in the application.

[Omitted image "manager-wfo-itsm.png"] Alt text: Infographic that shows the Workforce Optimization for ITSM Manager workflow. See the text description for the infographic in the next section.

Channel Management

Monitor your team in real time and jump in to help when there’s a need.

Using this application, you can also:

Route work to specific groups based on agent skills
Review real-time performance as the team is actively working on tasks across channels
Monitor pending work items in a queue

Scheduling

Access the calendar of your teams to know which agents are scheduled for coverage and which agents have taken time off.

Using the application, you can also:

Assign agents to shifts
Define break time
Preview and publish team schedule
Approve agent time-off or shift-swap requests

Work scheduler

Plan your teams' work and assign work items based on their skills, availability, capacity, and time zone.

Using the application, you can also:

View your teams' shifts, events, and work assignments
Assign or reassign work items from a central location
Use matching rules to rank team members
Add criteria for matching rules to assign work items based on the rules

Teams

Monitor performance trends for your teams using KPI groups. Create a set of KPIs and apply them to all groups within a team and assess team performance from one location.

Using the application, you can also:

Identify all the teams that you manage as well as the ones you have visibility into
Analyze KPIs that are crucial for your team
Drill into agents within each team and monitor their performance
Access the profile of each agent to view details such as their manager, peers, and assignment groups
Drill down into the skills for each agent or recommend them for coaching

Coaching and Skills Assessment

Enhance the quality of work done by your agents using Coaching. Use Predictive Intelligence to recommend skills based on issues the agents have resolved. Create coaching opportunities based on the recommendation and train the agents to acquire those skills.

Using this application, you can also:

Automate the scoring, grading, and assessment of agent skills
Use coaching opportunities to create assessments
Track training assigned to agents based on their assessments
Analyze the skill gap and recommend training

Getting started with Workforce Optimization for ITSM

Easily find tasks that you must complete in a module in Workforce Optimization for ITSM.

Workforce Optimization for ITSM modules	Benefit	Finding tasks to complete in the module
Channels	Automatically route work to assigned groups	Getting started with Channels in Workforce Optimization for ITSM
Schedule	Schedule your teams' work using Schedule	Getting started with Scheduling in Workforce Optimization for ITSM
Work Scheduler	Assign work using Work scheduler	Getting started with Work scheduler in Workforce Optimization for ITSM
Teams	Analyze team performance using Teams	Getting started with Teams in Workforce Optimization for ITSM
Coaching	Train your teams with Coaching with Learning	Getting started with Coaching in Workforce Optimization for ITSM

title	Exploring Workforce Optimization for ITSM
description	Use Workforce Optimization for ITSM to optimize your workforce and manage your teams efficiently. Coach your teams so that they gain the skills that let you address the demands from your customers. Efficiently schedule your teams work to provide better coverage with integrated channel management.
locale	en-US
canonical_url	https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/it-service-management/workforce-optimization-for-it-service-management/exploring-workforce-optimization-wfo-itsm.html
release	brazil
product	Workforce Optimization for IT Service Management
classification	workforce-optimization-for-it-service-management
topic_type	concept
last_updated	2026-09-10
reading_time_minutes	5
breadcrumb	Workforce Optimization for ITSMIT Service Management