From HR Management Trainee to HR Business Partner

For our Management Trainees, cooking up a career with RCL FOODS is much more than just getting a job – it’s about tasting the combinations of skills and knowledge, ingredients and spices that will, together, craft their recipe for career success!

At RCL FOODS, we give graduates in South Africa the opportunity to develop their unique recipe for success in their professional journey. Our Management Trainee Programme offers exceptional development opportunities to self-motivated, talented individuals who are full of flavour, enabling them to achieve a successful future.

Meet Varuna! She joined the Management Trainee Programme in 2015. Over the past few years, she’s worked her way up to a management position as an HR Business Partner and is currently based in the Baking Business Unit under the Speciality Operation. We sat down with her to chat about her experience as a Management Trainee and hear her advice for aspiring graduates who would like to join the Management Trainee program.

Although our program is fun and engaging, it’s also challenging and hard work. When Varuna first joined the program, she didn’t think it would challenge her as much as it did, and she was taken out of her comfort zone from the get-go. Although it wasn’t easy, she believes that this allowed her to grow immensely and prepared her extremely well for her current management position.

When asked for her own recipe for success, she believes that curiosity is the main ingredient. As a Management Trainee, she was always looking for opportunities to learn more and grow her knowledge of the business, which she believes helped her succeed. “You will face many challenges and obstacles in your daily tasks. But if you stay curious and keep asking questions, you will always find solutions”, she says.

During her time at RCL FOODS, Varuna has experienced many highlights, some of which include starting a development farm in the Agriculture business, aimed at developing internal talent into Farm Manager roles, as well as opening an onsite clinic at the Pies facility, aiding in reducing absenteeism. She’s also engaged in many remuneration-based projects with the reward team in order to improve reward processes. She is currently working on a project to ensure more effective and efficient practices by putting the company’s people at the forefront.

Varuna’s advice for aspiring graduates who want to join RCL FOODS is to focus on building key relationships with your stakeholders, and to put all of yourself into the opportunity so you can show what you have to offer. She also advises aspiring graduates to never be afraid to stand up for what they believe in.

The last crucial ingredient to success, she believes, is to be MORE BRAVE. Being brave and tackling anything that comes your way will always lead to your growth.”

We are delighted to have Varuna as a valuable member of RCL FOODS, and are excited to see how she will continue to build on her exceptional performance and inspire our people by staying curious and doing MORE.