Whereas taking an extended highway journey throughout the U.S. years in the past, Sanish Mondkar realized that there have been stark, problematic disconnects between employers and the workers they make use of.
To critics of late-stage capitalism, that may sound like an apparent remark. However Mondkar, who has a grasp’s in pc science from Cornell, says that seeing the problems up shut made all of the distinction.
“Touring from city to city, I couldn’t assist however discover the perpetual ‘for rent’ indicators plastering the home windows of numerous labor-intensive companies equivalent to retailers and eating places,” he stated. “Concurrently, I noticed staff often altering jobs, but struggling to make a residing wage. This disparity between employers’ wants and staff’ realities struck a chord with me.”
Impressed by this expertise, in addition to stints at Ariba as EVP and chief product officer at SAP, Mondkar got down to construct a startup that helps corporations handle their workforces — notably contract and gig workforces. His enterprise, Legion, at the moment introduced it raised $50 million in funding led by Riverwood Capital with participation from Norwest, Stripes, Webb Funding Community and XYZ.
“My goal was to rebuild the enterprise class of workforce administration to be able to maximize labor effectivity for the companies and ship worth to the employees concurrently,” Mondkar stated. “I wished to distinguish the corporate itself with a give attention to clever automation of WFM and the worker worth proposition.”
Legion is designed to assist prospects — employers like Cinemark, Greenback Basic, 5 Beneath and Panda Specific — in managing their hourly workers by automating sure choices, like how a lot labor to deploy the place and when to schedule staff. Considering demand forecasting, labor optimization and the preferences of staff, Legion’s platform generates work schedules.
Workers whose corporations are on Legion can use its cell app to request how they wish to work and set their most popular hours. Legion’s algorithm then tries to match the preferences of staff with the wants of the enterprise.
Legion additionally incorporates efficiency administration instruments and a rewards program of kinds.
“We use algorithms educated on a mix of buyer knowledge and third-party knowledge, which Legion aggregates from its companions,” Mondkar stated. “This integration permits for forecasts for planning and useful resource allocation.”
Along with the bottom scheduling options, Legion — very on pattern — is leaning into generative AI with a software known as Copilot (to not be confused with Microsoft Copilot). Copilot solutions questions on work knowledgeable by a company’s worker handbook, labor requirements and coaching content material. Within the coming months, Copilot will achieve the flexibility to summarize work schedules and fulfill requests so as to add or delete shifts or change staffer assignments.
“With a view to entice and retain workers, corporations using hourly labor should emulate gig-like flexibility,” Mondkar stated. “Legion gives this with the clever automation of scheduling. Managers can match workers to projected demand, closing the hole between the wants of staff and the wants of the enterprise.”
That’s all properly and nice, however two regarding issues stand out to me about Legion: its privateness coverage and earned wage entry (EWA) program.
Legion says it shops buyer knowledge for seven years by default — a very long time by any measure. Extra concerningly, the information contains personally identifiable data like staff’ first and final names, electronic mail and residential addresses, ages, images and work preferences. Large yikes.
Legion says the information is critical to “facilitate scheduling in compliance with labor laws,” and that customers can request that their knowledge be deleted at any time. However I query the convenience of the deletion course of — and simply how clear Legion is about its knowledge retention insurance policies to prospects.
My different gripe with Legion is InstantPay, Legion’s EWA program, which lets staff entry a portion of their earned wages forward of their scheduled paydays. Legion expenses staff $2.99 for immediate earned wage transfers, whereas next-day transfers are free — that may not sound like very a lot, however it will probably add up for a low-income employee. Legion pitches this as a profit for hourly staff that provides them “higher flexibility” and “management” over their funds, in addition to a enterprise retention software. However EWA applications are beneath scrutiny from policymakers, shopper rights advocates and employers. Legion’s cell app.
Some shopper teams argue that EWA applications must be categorised as loans beneath the U.S. Fact in Lending Act, which gives protections equivalent to requiring lenders to present advance discover earlier than growing sure expenses. These teams say EWA applications can power customers into overdraft whereas successfully levying curiosity via charges.
As well as, it’s not clear whether or not EWA applications are a internet win for employers. Walmart not too long ago tried to fight attrition by giving hourly workers entry to wages early. As an alternative, it discovered that staff utilizing EWA tended to give up quicker.
