Consider this: your frontline employees, the unsung heroes of your business, are the driving force behind sales growth and business excellence. They form the backbone of the customer experience, infusing life into every interaction. But despite their critical role, ensuring they are highly motivated and properly trained to consistently perform at their best remains a daunting task.

High turnover rates, repetitive tasks, and limited growth opportunities can lead to disengagement, impacting overall team morale and customer satisfaction (Gallup, 2023). 

Acknowledging the vital role employee engagement plays in business success, we delve into a case study highlighting the implementation of an innovative program called “Nudges to Engage” by Noriel, a prominent toy retailer in Eastern Europe.

Discover how Noriel leveraged the power of the Nudges micro-interventions to increase employee engagement and pave the way for empowering frontline teams to nurture their careers within the company.

The Why and How of Noriel’s Journey to Increasing Employee Engagement

The company was struggling with some of the daunting tasks that retailers everywhere face:

• Limited visibility into employee sentiment
• Limited capabilities to provide employees with the tools and know-how to effectively overcome daily challenges on the job
• Employee turnover, due to sometimes unclear career advancement pathways

With a dispersed workforce of over 600 employees and a rapid expansion of retail units, the company sought a solution to increase engagement and understand each employee’s unique needs. They needed a scalable approach that could continuously support their frontline teams with limited resources, ensuring business success in the long term.

Noriel embraced the power of Moonstar’s newly launched Nudges to Engage program, leveraging its unique features to upscale their employee engagement efforts. Here’s how Nudges made a significant impact.

1. Exploring the Areas That Increase Employee Engagement

The Nudges to Engage program starts with a comprehensive employee survey, based on Moonstar’s Employee Engagement Model for frontline teams. This survey allowed Noriel to benchmark the key drivers of employee engagement, thus gaining valuable insights into the overall job satisfaction and commitment levels of their workforce.

Data analysis revealed that the “Growth Opportunities” driver had the highest correlation with engagement levels. This driver measures whether employees feel they have access to opportunities to grow and advance within the company.

By understanding the areas that lead to disengagement, as well as teams’ current engagement levels, Noriel was able to target interventions and initiatives to address very specific challenges. This, in turn, paves the way to a more strategic approach to employee retention.

2. Giving Workers the Tools They Need

The Nudges provided a personalized approach to engagement by delivering tailored interventions to each employee and their respective managers.

Over a two-month period, we launched Nudge-based interventions to address the Growth driver. Employees were empowered to take charge of their career growth, while managers received guidance on supporting their team members.

Through these Nudges, Noriel addressed individual pain points, helping employees overcome obstacles in their career advancement and increase their level of engagement.

3. Learning in the Flow of Work

The Nudges were designed as short, non-intrusive micro-interventions that seamlessly integrated into the flow of work.

These brief interventions were easily digestible, ensuring that employees could absorb and apply the tactics and ideas presented without disrupting their daily routines.

We called this project “Hands Free Employee Engagement”. Why?

The results speak for themselves:

• 9 out of 10 employees found the Nudges highly relevant and useful in addressing their day-to-day challenges. This personalized approach ensured that employees received guidance tailored to their specific needs.
• 8 out of 10 employees reported applying what they learned through the Nudges to their job. By implementing actionable steps suggested by the Nudges, employees felt more confident in tackling their daily tasks.

Noriel’s engagement journey with Nudges demonstrates the  impact these micro-interventions (Nudges) can have on frontline workforces’ levels of employee engagement and job satisfaction.

“We saw the biggest impact of the Nudges intervention in how Retail teams changed their perspective on their own learning process. The Nudge Center provides easy access to relevant information anytime, anywhere, considering their time constraints. The Nudges draw their curiosity, thus making the learning process feel more natural and personalized to their daily activities”

Camelia, Training Manager

By integrating personalized guidance into the flow of work, Noriel empowered their frontline teams to take charge of their own advancement journey within the company, fostered a culture of continuous learning and development and increased the overall employee engagement and satisfaction.

For companies operating with frontline workforces, the power of Nudges unlocks new opportunities for business growth, build knowledge company-wide, and increase employees’ overall engagement and satisfaction at work. 

FAQs

1. What are nudges in employee engagement?
Nudges are short, targeted prompts that guide employees toward positive actions—like learning a new skill, improving communication, or setting goals—without disrupting daily work.

2. How do micro-trainings boost employee engagement?
Micro-trainings deliver learning in small, focused bursts that fit naturally into an employee’s workflow, helping them apply new knowledge immediately and sustain engagement over time.

3. Why are nudges effective for frontline retail teams?
Frontline employees are often busy and dispersed; nudges cut through that noise with timely, personalized reminders that reinforce growth, performance, and motivation.

4. How does Moonstar use data to personalize nudges?
Moonstar’s analytics identify what drives engagement in each team and deliver nudges tailored to individual needs, learning preferences, and performance patterns.

5. What impact can nudges have on business performance?
By turning insights into daily actions, nudges improve productivity, learning retention, and employee satisfaction—ultimately driving stronger business results and lower turnover.

6. How do micro-learnings support managers?
Micro-learnings give managers actionable insights and bite-sized content they can use to coach, recognize, and develop their teams more effectively.

7. Why is “learning in the flow of work” important?
Learning in the flow of work helps employees grow without stepping away from their tasks, ensuring training is relevant, practical, and immediately applied.

8. Can nudges help reduce turnover?
Yes. When employees feel supported, recognized, and given opportunities to grow through small, consistent nudges, retention and job satisfaction naturally increase.

9. How does Moonstar measure engagement improvement?
Moonstar tracks engagement drivers through continuous feedback loops, combining survey data with behavioural analytics to show measurable progress in real time.

10. What makes Moonstar different from traditional training platforms?
Unlike one-off training tools, Moonstar integrates learning and engagement into everyday routines through AI-powered nudges—making growth habitual, scalable, and data-driven.

Wait, what’s Moonstar again?

Moonstar.ai helps companies grow their business by building a more engaged, productive and happier Moonstar helps companies grow their business by building a high performance and engaged workforce. We bring together in Moonstar’s mobile app the main tools companies need to help them grow: company communication, gamified competitions, onboarding and development, pulse checks and Nudges. Moonstar is backed as one of the most innovative Employee Performance Tech companies by Innovate UK and Harvard’s Innovation Labs.