Why ServiceNow Articles Fail Employees

ServiceNow is known as a case management tool, but more companies are also using it for HR and IT knowledge articles. Some also use it as their intranet.

This evolution has changed how employees view ServiceNow’s responsibility. When a platform becomes a primary destination for employee answers - not just case resolution - it inherits expectations of clarity, trust, and usability.

This means ServiceNow content failures have a larger impact, including increased HR and IT cases. Knowledge articles rarely fail because they’re inaccurate, but because they’re designed like documentation, not answers.

This reality is understandable. We’ve seen companies with knowledge articles that are 2-3 sentences long.

But this presents a clear problem, which isn’t content effort or intent, but experience design.

Employees Come to Knowledge for resolution

Most ServiceNow knowledge articles are written as if the goal is to explain something.

This makes sense. However, the name of the game is solutions, not explanations.

Employees read knowledge articles because something isn’t working, something changed, or something applies to them. They want speed to results because they’re busy and don’t have time to sift through multiple search results.

Many knowledge articles open with context, policy language, or process detail before answering the employee’s actual question. By the time the answer appears - if it appears at all - trust has eroded.

From an employee’s perspective, the article didn’t help. So they may end up submitting a case, which means self-service has failed.

Knowledge Is Often Designed for Publishing, Not Finding

Another common failure point is findability.

We’ve seen strong content buried under titles and metadata that make sense to the author but not to employees. Articles are labeled by program names, internal acronyms, or ownership models rather than language employees actually use.

Search does exactly what it’s supposed to do - detail a long list of “related” articles that all sound similar, forcing employees to guess which one applies.

When knowledge requires guesswork, employees opt out.

Too Much Knowledge Signals Low Confidence

Yes, you knowledge base can have too much knowledge. Remember the aforementioned 2-3 line “article”?

Many organizations respond to information uncertainty by adding more knowledge articles. Over time, the knowledge base becomes so bloated with near-duplicates that articles only slightly differ.

Your AI search doesn’t know the difference, so it shows all of it.

In our experience, employees are surprisingly good at detecting uncertainty in content systems. When knowledge feels fragmented or overgrown, they compensate by asking a person or submitting a case instead of trusting the platform.

Think of the investment it took to build and maintain your ServiceNow platform, just for employees to not trust it.

Ownership and Maintenance Matter More Than Volume

Knowledge articles often don’t fail at publish. They fail over time.

Policies change, programs evolve, and edge cases emerge In large HR environments. For example, did you retire the 2025 knowledge article about benefits changes before publishing the 2026 version?

Without clear ownership and maintenance models, knowledge quietly decays. Articles stay published but are practically outdated.

AI can surface answers faster, but it can’t tell employees which answers are still reliable if ownership and review signals are missing - or if the old and new answers are right above each other and look similar in search results.

Here’s what works

ServiceNow knowledge bases that actually serve employees tend to share a few traits:

• Articles are written like answers, not documentation

• Titles reflect how employees search, not how teams organize

• Content prioritizes clarity over completeness

• Duplication is actively reduced, not tolerated

• Ownership and review cycles are visible and enforced

Most importantly, knowledge is treated as part of a content experience, not a standalone repository.

In these environments, employees try self-service first. Case volumes decrease for known issues. Search becomes an ally instead of a liability.

Knowledge Fails When Experience Is an Afterthought

ServiceNow knowledge articles doesn’t fail because employees don’t read.

They fail when the experience asks too much of them.

When articles are hard to find, slow to answer, or risky to trust, employees adapt by bypassing the system entirely.

Knowledge articles work when they’re designed with the employee experience in mind - clear, intentional, and trustworthy over time.

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If our perspective resonates with you, The Employee Content Experience Playbook goes deeper into how employees actually experience content and why most organizations misdiagnose the problem.

It’s designed to reframe thinking, not prescribe solutions.