How United Airlines is Unlocking the Power of Docusign and ServiceNow

Like many airlines, United has stepped up hiring to meet recent increased demand for air travel. But getting people ready to work in a timely manner was always a challenge—especially for positions requiring regular background checks. Slow and error-prone pen-on-paperwork remained a major, weeks-long roadblock until recently.

Stefan Josephson, senior manager of IT application development at United Airlines, joined us to talk about how his team implemented Docusign eSignature for ServiceNow to digitize and automate complex HR processes, including authorizations for criminal history report checks.  

Here’s a snapshot of the benefits the airline has seen so far. Catch our full chat with Stefan (plus a demo!) by watching the session on demand.

Accelerated onboarding

ServiceNow’s digital workflow platform empowers organizations to do their best work while creating seamless experiences for their employees and customers. The global digital transformation leader serves nearly 80% of the Fortune 500. Through this new out-of-the-box integration, ServiceNow users can extend any workflow with eSignature.

Using ServiceNow’s Docusign connector, United was able to create a streamlined process that begins and ends in its ServiceNow-powered employee portal. According to Stefan, one of the best things about the revamped process is the seamless transition from ServiceNow to Docusign. “From the employee’s perspective, it looks and feels like everything is happening in our Help Hub portal,” he said.

Another advantage: Docusign enables users to easily capture consent and obtain e-signatures from independent contractors that aren’t on the ServiceNow platform.

Better experience for employees

Today, nearly everything about the airline business is digital: the ticketing, meal planning and navigation systems. United wanted to bring the same speed and convenience to the employee experience. Docusign for ServiceNow allows employees to cut out manual tasks by auto-filling template forms and auto-tagging departments. Now, instead of physically shuttling paper forms to HR, employees can effortlessly complete any lifecycle documents in their Help Hub portal—and they’re automatically sent to the right people for review.

Improved visibility and streamlined reporting

When HR processes documents or forms the traditional way, it’s often difficult to understand exactly where things are in the process or get a headcount of employees who have signed key forms. By extending ServiceNow workflows with Docusign eSignature, United can see where each document is and send automated task reminders to employees in the Help Hub portal. Throughout it all, HR has real-time visibility into valuable operational data in ServiceNow—including averaging processing time and the number of queued-up and incomplete submissions by division or location.

100% accuracy and compliance

United needed to find a way to accurately get background check authorization forms signed, returned to the team that processes them, and securely stored for auditing purposes. Docusign tackled all three while ensuring accuracy and compliance with airline and federal requirements.  Completed Docusign documents flow directly into the Employee Document Management module in ServiceNow, where security and retention policies are automatically applied. “Instead of needing to find sheets of paper that match up to each employee being audited, we can just do a quick search and print documents on demand,” Stefan said.

Learn more about delivering a seamless employee experience with Docusign + ServiceNow.