Founder of Legion Aims to Bridge the Gap Between Employer and Worker Needs

Legion's founder strives to reconcile employer and worker requirements, fostering mutual understanding and collaboration. The initiative seeks to optimize workplace dynamics, enhancing productivity and satisfaction for both parties involved, ultimately creating a more harmonious and efficient work environment.

During a cross-country journey across the United States, Sanish Mondkar recognized significant discrepancies between employers and their employees. While this observation may seem obvious to critics of late-stage capitalism, Mondkar, a computer science master's graduate from Cornell, emphasizes that firsthand experience highlighted the issue's severity. Traveling from town to town, he noticed numerous labor-intensive businesses, like retailers and restaurants, displaying constant "for hire" signs, juxtaposed with employees frequently changing jobs but struggling to earn a living wage. This disparity deeply resonated with him.

Drawing from his experiences and roles at Ariba and SAP as EVP and chief product officer, Mondkar embarked on creating a startup aimed at aiding companies in managing their workforces, particularly those in contract and gig roles. His venture, Legion, recently secured $50 million in funding led by Riverwood Capital, with contributions from Norwest, Stripes, Webb Investment Network, and XYZ. Mondkar expressed his goal to revolutionize the enterprise workforce management category, emphasizing labor efficiency for businesses while enhancing value for workers. He sought to distinguish the company through intelligent automation of workforce management and prioritizing the employee value proposition.

Legion is tailored to assist clients, including employers such as Cinemark, Dollar General, Five Below, and Panda Express, in efficiently managing their hourly workforce. By automating decisions regarding labor deployment and worker scheduling based on demand forecasting, labor optimization, and employee preferences, Legion's platform generates work schedules. Employees can utilize Legion's mobile app to communicate their work preferences and set preferred hours, with the algorithm striving to align worker preferences with business needs.

‍Mondkar explained that Legion employs algorithms trained on a combination of customer and third-party data, facilitating forecasting and resource allocation. Alongside its core scheduling functions, Legion embraces generative AI with a tool named Copilot. Copilot, distinct from Microsoft's, addresses work-related queries utilizing organization-specific data such as employee handbooks and training materials. Future enhancements include summarizing schedules and fulfilling shift change requests. Mondkar emphasizes the importance of offering gig-like flexibility to attract and retain hourly staff, a goal Legion achieves through intelligent scheduling automation, aligning employee needs with business demands.

‍Two significant concerns about Legion arise: its privacy policy and its Earned Wage Access (EWA) program. Legion's default storage of customer data for seven years is notably lengthy, compounded by the inclusion of personally identifiable information such as workers' names, email and home addresses, ages, photos, and work preferences. While Legion claims this data is crucial for scheduling compliance with labor regulations and offers data deletion upon request, the ease and transparency of this process remain questionable, prompting valid concerns about privacy and data retention policies.

‍Another concern with Legion is its InstantPay feature, part of its Earned Wage Access (EWA) program, allowing employees to access a portion of their earned wages before their scheduled paydays. Legion charges workers $2.99 for instant transfers, while next-day transfers are free, potentially burdening low-income workers with accumulated fees. While Legion frames this as a benefit, offering flexibility and financial control to hourly workers while enhancing business retention, EWA programs face scrutiny from policymakers, consumer rights advocates, and employers. Some argue that EWA programs should be classified as loans under the U.S. Truth in Lending Act, necessitating protections like advance notice before fee increases. Critics caution that EWA programs may lead users into overdraft and effectively impose interest through fees.

‍Furthermore, the efficacy of EWA programs for employers remains uncertain. Walmart's attempt to reduce attrition by offering early wage access resulted in accelerated employee turnover among EWA users. Despite my reservations about Legion, the company demonstrates robust growth amidst competition from entities like Ceridian's Dayforce, Quinyx, and UKG. Notably, Legion's revenue and bookings surged by 55% and 125% respectively in the past year. This achievement is particularly noteworthy considering the broader decline in funding for HR tech startups, which fell to a three-year low of $3.3 billion last year, following a period of heightened VC interest.

‍Legion, which generates revenue through subscriptions based on the number of hourly workers per company, intends to utilize its recent funding to expand its 200-strong workforce. The focus will be on bolstering research and development, enhancing customer-facing teams, and launching operations in Europe. With a total of $145 million raised to date, Legion aims to drive innovation in workforce management, particularly in labor-intensive sectors. Mondkar emphasizes the company's resilience amid broader tech slowdowns, attributing it to their strategic alignment with labor-intensive industries, positioning them well to navigate potential economic challenges.

Source: techcrunch