Legion’s founder aims to close the gap between what employers and workers need

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 employees they make use of.

To critics of late-stage capitalism, which 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 comparable to retailers and eating places,” he stated. “Concurrently, I noticed staff steadily altering jobs, but struggling to make a residing wage. This disparity between employers’ wants and employees’ 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 — significantly contract and gig workforces. His enterprise, Legion, at present 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 with a view 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 deal with clever automation of WFM and the worker worth proposition.”

Legion is designed to assist clients — employers like Cinemark, Greenback Normal, 5 Beneath and Panda Categorical — in managing their hourly employees by automating sure selections, like how a lot labor to deploy the place and when to schedule employees. Taking into consideration 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 need to work and set their most popular hours. Legion’s algorithm then tries to match the preferences of employees with the wants of the enterprise.

“We use algorithms educated on a mix of buyer information and third-party information, 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 device 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 acquire the power to summarize work schedules and fulfill requests so as to add or delete shifts or change staffer assignments.

“With a purpose to appeal to and retain employees, corporations using hourly labor should emulate gig-like flexibility,” Mondkar stated. “Legion supplies this with the clever automation of scheduling. Managers can match employees to projected demand, closing the hole between the wants of staff and the wants of the enterprise.”

That’s all effectively and tremendous, however two regarding issues stand out to me about Legion: its privateness coverage and earned wage entry (EWA) program.

Legion says it shops buyer information for seven years by default — a very long time by any measure. Extra concerningly, the info contains personally identifiable data like employees’ first and final names, e mail and residential addresses, ages, pictures and work preferences. Huge yikes.

Legion says the info is important to “facilitate scheduling in compliance with labor rules,” and that customers can request that their information be deleted at any time. However I query the convenience of the deletion course of — and simply how clear Legion is about its information retention insurance policies to clients.

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 employees $2.99 for immediate earned wage transfers, whereas next-day transfers are free — which may not sound like very a lot, however it may well add up for a low-income employee. Legion pitches this as a profit for hourly employees that provides them “better flexibility” and “management” over their funds, in addition to a enterprise retention device. However EWA packages are beneath scrutiny from policymakers, client rights advocates and employers. Legion’s cell app.

Some client teams argue that EWA packages needs to be categorized as loans beneath the U.S. Fact in Lending Act, which supplies protections comparable to requiring lenders to offer advance discover earlier than rising sure expenses. These teams say EWA packages can pressure customers into overdraft whereas successfully levying curiosity via charges.

As well as, it’s not clear whether or not EWA packages are a internet win for employers. Walmart just lately tried to fight attrition by giving hourly employees entry to wages early. As an alternative, it discovered that staff utilizing EWA tended to give up sooner.