What HR Leaders Need to Know from HR Tech + Workday Rising 2022

September 22, 2022

by Casey Castellanos

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Coming out of Workday Rising and HR Tech last week, a few common themes stood out. Companies with large populations of hourly employees across many industries, especially retail, have a renewed focus on employee experience and how to create a people-first business. Businesses are investing in many options, including evaluating new technologies to streamline and automate processes, adopting new tools to improve communication across their teams, and increasing benefits packages that offer employees early access to earned wages.

HR Tech

Attendees were excited to connect in person and share information, as you can see in the photo below of our session led by Traci Chernoff, Director of Employee Engagement at Legion, “HR’s New Superpower: AI-Powered Workforce Management.” There were several takeaways from this event:

  • The hourly workforce expects more control over their schedules, including flexibility for time off, better communication, and a stronger connection to the company’s purpose.
  • When you think about ways you can attract and retain talent, it has to go beyond pay. If scheduling is a pain point for you, technology can help.
  • Legion WFM enables employers to empower employees while optimizing labor efficiency. Let us show you how.

Legion HR Tech 2022 Traci Chernoff Speaking

Traci Chernoff speaks at HR Tech about, “HR’s New Superpower: AI-Powered Workforce Management.”

After Traci’s speaking session, many visitors at the Legion booth asked about the personalization of the hourly workforce. Think about the person behind the Starbucks counter taking your order, for example. They’re creating your favorite drink and doing a great job. But consider what’s happening for them in their daily life– they may need schedule flexibility for school, medical appointments, or a second job. Using technology to match employee preferences with business needs is one way we see employers improve employee engagement and the overall culture across their hourly workforce. Learn more about Legion Automated Scheduling and Legion Frontline Communications.

Additionally, we heard a lot about businesses offering Earned Wage Access (EWA) to gain a competitive advantage in recruiting. Gartner reported that many early adopters are deploying flexible earned wage access to improve the employee experience and increase engagement and retention. Providing capabilities to support the financial well-being of your employees can increase their commitment to your business and productivity. In a recent study commissioned by Legion, more than 80% of Gen Z workers said it would be important or very important to get paid early if they needed the money, and 30% said the biggest motivator to pick up extra shifts would be getting paid automatically. Supporting financial well-being through effective and responsible access to earned wages is proven to increase employee retention and accelerate recruiting, particularly for Gen Z workers.

If you’re planning to roll out earned wage access, you’ll need to consider how fast you can pay employees, what the costs are, and how to integrate with your existing systems. With Legion InstantPay, all those challenges and options are managed for you. You get a fast, cost-effective, integrated solution that meets your business needs and satisfies your employees. Learn more about Legion InstantPay.

Another fun fact: Stacey Harris, Chief Research Officer and Managing Partner at Sapient Insights Group, led the September 15th keynote. Her talk focused on optimizing your HR tech strategy, and she gave a shout-out to Legion as a company to look out for and how it’s disrupting the workforce management industry. Legion was recently ranked No. 653 on Inc. Magazine’s prestigious Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing, privately-owned companies in America, placing Legion as the 81st fastest growing company in software and the 104th fastest growing company in California.

Workday Rising

During his talk at Workday Rising, our Chief Customer Officer, Michael Spataro, showcased how Legion WFM extends the power of the Workday HCM platform with AI-driven automation that simultaneously optimizes labor efficiency and employee engagement.

Workday Rising 2022 Michael Spataro Speaking

Michael Spataro speaks at Workday Rising on the topic, “Workday HCM and Legion WFM: Optimize, Automate and Empower in Uncertain Times.”

Legion provides a Workday Approved Integration, so there’s no extra IT effort or implementation risk. With Legion WFM, you can speed the time to value with a fast, templatized implementation that will have you up and running within weeks. Watch this quick video to learn how HR leaders at Claire’s, Cinemark, Mattress Firm, Kum & Go, Madison Reed, and more are using Legion WFM and Workday HCM to solve critical issues across their hourly workforce. You can also download our datasheet.

Automation was another hot topic at Workday Rising. Kohl’s Senior Manager of HRIS and Senior HRIS Analyst presented, “Winning with Automation at Kohl’s.” In today’s economic uncertainty, where resources are tight, there’s a renewed focus on automating administrative tasks, so managers can focus on higher-value activities. Legion WFM is powered by AI and machine learning to automate more than 55 routine tasks, including:

  • Predict demand across all customer touchpoints and locations. Synthesize thousands of data points, including historical data, ongoing operations, and future events like weather and local activities, to automatically create optimal labor plans.
  • Automatically predict the number of employees and the skill sets needed every 15, 30, and 60 minutes daily – so you can improve customer service and compliance while reducing labor costs.
  • Create and manage optimized schedules in a single click. Generate optimal schedules that match business needs with employee preferences, factoring in labor compliance rules and policies while ensuring fair work allocation – automatically.
  • Automate the management of schedules, timesheets, and tips. Legion Time and Attendance saves time and money, improves compliance, and frees managers to focus on serving customers and supporting employees.

And those are just a few examples. Request a demo to learn more about Legion WFM and how we’re helping HR and Operations leaders maximize labor efficiency and employee engagement simultaneously.