Skip to content
Universal Task › Employee Service Management
Release: Australia · Updated: 2026-03-12 · Official documentation · View source

Exploring Universal Task

With the ServiceNow Universal Task application, agents can create tasks for your employees. The agent can ask for additional information or request an action to resolve the parent ticket or request.

Universal Task offers pre-defined tasks for the agent to use. With Universal Task, you can:

  • Create employee tasks from any ticket type that extends the task table.
  • Enable departments to configure the tasks that solve their domain-specific use cases.
  • Enable departments to create templates for commonly used task forms.
  • Notify employees about the tasks that need their attention.
  • Enable employees to complete tasks by using standard Universal Task portal widgets and the Now Mobile app.

Requester experience

Universal Task enables employees to view the tasks that are assigned to them within the same request that must be completed. Employees can also communicate with the agents within the task that was created. For example, an employee creates a universal request for a laptop. The agent that is assigned for this request can task the employee to submit a catalog request to order the laptop. Employees can view the task in the To-Do tab of the Employee Service Center. Employees can also view the task under the Tasks tab, under individual Requests in the Requests page of the Employee Service Center and Service Portal, if the respective service configures the tab as shown in Add a Task tab on the Standard Ticket page.

Agent Experience

Agents get an insight on the employees' actions and can task the employees as needed. Agents can create multiple tasks for a single request and view all universal tasks that were created for a ticket in the Related Lists section.

For more information on the types of task available, see Universal Task types.

  • Universal Task types
    The task types in the Universal Task application enable your agent to assign pre-defined tasks to an employee. With these pre-defined tasks, your agent can task employees quicker and more efficiently. You decide which task types that you want to make available to the agents in your organization.
  • Universal Task data model
    The Universal Task is a tasking framework that you can append to the ticketing system of any department in your organization. The Universal Task data model explains the tasking framework and its customizations.
  • Universal Task in Now Mobile
    You can complete universal tasks that are assigned to you in real time from your own mobile device by using the Now Mobile application.

Parent Topic:Universal Task