The share of managers spending three or more hours per week building schedules fell from 58.5% to 51% as workforce management technology took hold — early evidence that AI-driven shift scheduling can serve both efficiency and worker flexibility at once, according to Legion Technologies' "2026 State of the North American Hourly Workforce" report.

The California-based workforce management platform vendor surveyed 1,044 hourly employees and 846 managers across 11 industries, including retail, fashion, grocery, warehousing and distribution, and transportation. The findings land at a moment when warehouse and distribution operators face persistent staffing shortages and turnover, with employees chasing more hours than they currently get.

The numbers behind the flexibility push

Pay remains the top priority for hourly workers, but 53% of employees say control over their schedule ranks immediately behind it. Another 38% cite early access to wages as a top incentive. On the scheduling side, 82% of employees say technology helps their manager accommodate schedule preferences.

Managers see flexibility as an operational lever rather than a perk: 53% say the inability to offer it drives retention problems. Staffing shortages and turnover rank as the biggest workforce challenges for 51% of managers.

The connection between hours and attrition is stark. Some 35% of employees want more hours than they currently receive, and workers who don't get enough hours are twice as likely to consider leaving their job within six months compared with those who do.

Where AI fits

Legion's data suggests AI-powered scheduling can connect available, qualified employees with the hours they want, match workers to the right shifts, and keep shifts properly staffed — directly attacking the shortage-turnover nexus that warehouse operators know well. Better matching also cuts the manual work managers must do to build schedules that satisfy both the workforce and the business.

One caveat stands out: 72% of employees want reassurance that AI will not replace their jobs or reduce their hours. Any deployment in warehousing and distribution will need to frame the technology as a matching engine, not a headcount tool, if adoption is to stick.

Managers reclaim time

The administrative dividend is already visible. Time spent tracking attendance declined from 52% to 45% of managers, echoing the drop in scheduling hours. With fewer hours lost to paperwork, 39% of managers say they would redirect the time to coaching and developing their teams — a shift that matters in distribution centers where supervisor attention often determines throughput and safety outcomes.

A major manual bottleneck remains. Nearly half of managers — 49% — still fill open shifts by calling or texting employees individually. That gap between AI-assisted schedule creation and last-minute shift filling marks the next automation opportunity for operators evaluating workforce platforms.

Commercial consequences

For shippers and 3PLs running hourly-heavy distribution networks, the survey points to a tangible case: technology that raises schedule fit can simultaneously cut manager workload, reduce turnover risk among hours-constrained workers, and improve fill rates on open shifts. For software vendors, the differentiator is shifting from basic scheduling to AI-driven matching that respects employee preferences while guaranteeing coverage.

The forward path Legion sketches is continued automation of routine workforce tasks — with the open-shift fill process and AI-assisted matching the most immediate targets — as operators seek to convert flexibility into retention gains.