Frontline Retention Is Now a WFM Outcome: TEI Study Finds Legion Delivered 1,340% ROI, Fueled by Measurable Turnover Reduction

Employee EngagementArtificial IntelligenceNews

By Business Wire On Aug 4, 2026

Independent study ties schedule flexibility and on-demand pay to measurable retention gains—alongside forecasting accuracy, manager productivity, and compliance improvements—with payback in under six months

Legion Technologies, provider of AI-native workforce management software for hourly workforces, announced findings from a Forrester Consulting study commissioned by Legion Technologies. The Total Economic Impact™ of Legion Workforce Management, July 2026, found that organizations deploying Legion realize a three-year ROI of 1,340%, a net present value of $47.3 million, and payback in under six months, based on a composite organization modeled on a North America-based specialty retailer with 15,000 employees across 700 locations.

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“When employees have a voice in their schedule and access to their pay, they stay. A 1,340% ROI isn’t the result of incremental automation—it’s the result of putting employees, not just schedules, at the center of the platform.”

The study, based on interviews with four Legion customer decision-makers across retail and hospitality, highlights a clear relationship: when hourly employees gain a voice in their schedules and control over their pay, they stay. Before Legion, the composite organization’s frontline turnover ran 85% annually. After deployment, 90% of schedule changes became employee-initiated, open-shift claim rates climbed from 34% to 58%, and employees enrolled in Legion InstantPay, Legion’s earned wage access solution, showed a 10% lift in schedule adherence. Those behavior shifts drove a 10% reduction in voluntary turnover, attributable to Legion, worth $11.0 million in savings over three years, plus a 19% year-over-year drop in absenteeism.

“Forecasting accuracy jumped from 87% to 96%, managers got seven hours a week back, and compliance exposure dropped sharply, but the number I keep coming back to is retention,” said Sanish Mondkar, CEO of Legion Technologies. “When employees have a voice in their schedule and access to their pay, they stay. A 1,340% ROI isn’t the result of incremental automation—it’s the result of putting employees, not just schedules, at the center of the platform.”

Key Financial Findings

The composite organization realized $50.8 million in total benefits over three years against $3.5 million in costs, for a net present value of $47.3 million, across six benefit areas:

Scheduling optimization: $21.1M. Forecasting accuracy improved from 87% to 96%, tightening labor-to-demand alignment and cutting manager time on schedule adjustments.
Reduced employee turnover: $11.0M. A 10% reduction in voluntary turnover, driven by schedule transparency, shift swapping, and earned wage access.
Manager productivity: $9.1M. Automated scheduling and payroll freed roughly seven hours per manager per week—a 70% cut in administrative time.
Avoided compliance penalties: $7.8M. Automated attestation and real-time monitoring drove a 70% reduction in compliance-related payouts; one customer reported zero unfavorable time and attendance lawsuits since go-live.
Reduced overtime: $1.6M. Real-time visibility and schedule scoring cut overtime hours by 20% compared to pre-adoption trends.
Payroll and administration savings: $220K. Budget uploads dropped from 4 hours per week to under 5 minutes, resulting in a 44% reduction in payroll support tickets.

“We experienced a 21% year-over-year reduction in turnover, which is huge. At least 10% of that reduction would belong to Legion. Having the ability to have your voice heard on your schedule preferences with Legion has really made associates happy.”
– DVP of Retail Innovation and Operations, Luxury Retail Organization (The Total Economic Impact™ Of Legion Workforce Management, p. 14)

“The application allows us to be nimble and dynamic. We have 21,000 stores, and we can generate those schedules in about 2 hours. We can change things quickly in the app and then regenerate that. Previously, it was a 24-hour process. We have the ultimate flexibility with Legion, and it’s given us a huge time savings.”
– Senior Data Analyst, Major Retail Organization (The Total Economic Impact™ Of Legion Workforce Management, p. 6)

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