How a Global Convenience Store Retailer Uses Legion WFM to Improve Employees’ Lives and Drive Customer Satisfaction

About This Leading Convenience Retailer

Founded over 60 years ago, this brand has become one of the world's most recognized convenience store brands. With over 14,000 stores, the company employs more than 125,000 workers globally. The company’s IT leadership sought a transformative workforce management solution to simplify operations, empower employees, and enhance the customer experience, thereby fueling company growth.

“Legion provided a workforce management solution that takes them [employees] out of an analog world and into a digital world. Plus, it gives managers and employees the flexibility they need.”

IT Director, Convenience Retailer

The Challenge

Like many retailers, this brand faced significant challenges during the pandemic and sought to future-proof its operations to prevent similar issues in the future. It became clear that making employees feel valued was key to success. The IT department identified that, beyond compensation and benefits, employees needed greater control and flexibility in their schedules. Historically, store managers relied on pen and paper or spreadsheets to build schedules, consuming valuable floor time and creating inconsistencies. They needed a modern workforce management solution that could:

• Simplify scheduling and reduce administrative burden
• Provide frontline employees greater control over their schedules
• Ensure compliance across a vast global footprint
• Improve employee experience and boost labor efficiency

The Solution

The retailer reviewed multiple vendors before deciding Legion WFM was the right choice for their needs.

“By far, Legion won hands down. You were building something from the ground up, looking to the future, and that’s the kind of product I was interested in buying.”

IT Director, Convenience Retailer

Demand Forecasting

• Demand forecasts are created for each location using machine learning models. These models improve as actual results are fed back into the system, ensuring ongoing accuracy and reliability.
• Peak times, such as the morning rush or late-night top-ups, are recognized and subsequently built into forecasts to ensure appropriate staffing for 24/7 operations and controlled substance sales.
• Built-in compliance features automatically flag potential violations during the scheduling process.

Labor Optimization

• Granular, task-based labor modeling aligns staffing with demand forecasts.
• Ensures every hour worked is compliant, efficient, and maximized for business impact.

Automated Scheduling

• Employees can submit shift preferences, availability, time-off requests, and shift swaps.
• Routine scheduling tasks are automated, enabling managers to devote more time to leading their teams.

The Results

Managers and employees have adopted Legion WFM to automate scheduling, increase flexibility, and improve operations.

• Employee Empowerment: Teams gained more control over their schedules, boosting engagement and satisfaction, with an employee NPS of 46.3% through the Legion app.
• Operational Efficiency: Automating scheduling reduced managers’ administrative workload, freeing up time for leadership and customer focus.
• Increased Compliance: Schedules are published two weeks in advance, ensuring compliance with local laws and giving employees greater transparency over their upcoming work week.
• Improved Customer Experience: Happier employees deliver better service, positively impacting customer satisfaction.

“My job is to make my employees’ lives easier. And if their lives are easier, they can give customers better service with a happier attitude.”

IT Director, Convenience Retailer

 

• Improved Labor Budgeting: 98% of schedules are within budgeted hours, with <0.01% overtime scheduled, preventing overspending.
• Scalable Rollout: The rollout process, driven by change management best practices and launched at 1,000 stores before expanding, has become a model for future technology implementations at the brand.

“After each one of the training exercises, we’d get feedback from the field. Legion WFM has been one of the most exciting projects they’ve been a part of.”

IT Director, Convenience Retailer

 

Conclusion

Moving to an AI-powered workforce management solution enabled this convenience store chain to empower its employees and managers, resulting in increased employee satisfaction, reduced administrative burden on managers, and improved labor budgeting and compliance.

By gradually rolling out Legion across stores, they ensured maximum adoption and laid a winning groundwork for future technology rollouts. Having a workforce management solution in place will enable this brand to meet its goals of continued growth and deliver enhanced customer service.