Case Study: Hilton Foods

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Hilton Foods is a national company that provides meat products ready for the shelf for a major supermarket chain. They believe their greatest asset is their people. With three sites across Australia; Melbourne, Brisbane, and Bunbury.  They are committed to creating development opportunities that build skills, boost engagement, and deliver real business results.  At the Melbourne site, Hilton employs about 400 production staff across two shifts. Each production employee is offered various development opportunities that ensure they have the skills required to complete their role.  Additional to these base skills, all factory employees are invited to undertake Certificate III level training in meat processing. Additional training in leadership and quality is also offered to support career pathways.

Production teams work in a fast-paced, two-shift environment, so traditional classroom training isn’t practical. Instead, learning is brought to the workplace. Every production employee can complete a Certificate III in Meat Processing, delivered on-site during paid time and at no cost to them.

They don’t stop there. Other development includes:

• Leadership Pathways: Emerging Leaders and Exploring Leaders programs preparing future leaders.
• Buddy & Assessor: Experienced team members educated in how to train and assess new team members/new starters.
• Site Coaches: A recognised Coach offering dedicated support at every location.
• English Language Classes: Helping ESL employees build confidence and succeed.
• Digital SOPs: Video-based instructions for faster, consistent training ensuring standardised practices.
• Specific development: That builds on improved outcomes for the individual and the business e.g. LEAN Manufacturing

Over the past four years, Hilton Foods Has partnered with a private Registered Training Organisation that specialises in the food and meat processing sector, to develop and deliver suitable training programs. The approach is to embed its trainers in each workplace it partners with. This enables them to train workers at their own workplace, using their own equipment. The training occurs during times and in a format that suit the workers’ needs and meet the company’s requirements.  Even though training subsidies are realised, this funding is reinvested into its people development.

Many of the workers who participate in training at Hilton Foods come from diverse backgrounds and English may not be their first language. The opportunity to engage in face to face training in their own workplace at suitable times means they can develop a rapport with their trainers and make good progress through their training.

This investment pays off in measurable ways:

• Higher Retention: Employees who complete training are more likely to stay and progress into skilled or leadership roles.
• Improved Productivity: On-site, contextualised training reduces downtime and errors.
• Better Quality & Safety: English classes and digitized SOPs strengthen compliance, safe work practices (clear reduction in LTI’s/TRIFR rates) and food safety standards.
• Career Growth: Graduates move into roles like Team Leaders, Quality Coordinators, and Technical Specialists.

For Hilton Foods, development isn’t just about skills it’s about building a future ready workforce. When employees grow, the business grows. Better decision-making, stronger engagement, higher levels of safety, standardisation of approach and improved operational performance are the results we see every day.

 

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