Enlighten Your Work Force

IN 2014, HOME DECOR retailer Garden Ridge spent more than $20 million to rebrand itself—a new logo, new store layouts, and a new name, At Home. But giving the 35-year-old Plano, Texas–based chain’s staff a reboot was a challenge. “We had fairly jaded workers who’d been with the old regime,” says Valerie Davisson, chief people officer of At Home, which was turning over the entire sales floor four times a year.

Then she introduced her 2,000 employees to Axonify, an adaptive microlearning platform. Corny videos and employee-shadowing programs were replaced with Axonify’s personalized game-based training. Now the staff can spend 10 minutes every shift on their phones,