Training Without Borders: How JBS USA Scaled Learning to 92,000 Frontline Workers in 14 Languages

The challenge: 54 languages. 14 systems. No easy answers.

When Courtney Walter took responsibility for training across JBS USA's 92,000-person workforce, she inherited something that most L&D leaders would find daunting: extraordinary complexity at extraordinary scale.

JBS's production employees don't sit at desks. They arrive at work, put on their PPE, and head directly to their stations on the processing floor. Many are members of refugee communities. Some don't read or write fluently in their native language. And the workforce collectively speaks more than 54 languages — from Spanish and Haitian Creole to Marshallese, Somali, and Karen. As Courtney explains: "Pulling someone off of the floor to train in a production environment without stopping or slowing the line is kind of like solving a puzzle." 

Against this backdrop, JBS's learning infrastructure had grown into a tangle of disconnected systems. An internal audit revealed 14 separate learning management systems in operation across the business. On average, each team member needed to navigate between five and six different platforms just to access their required training.

The primary LMS carried significant limitations around file types, file sizes, and reporting — and critically, almost none of the content was available in the languages that team members actually spoke and understood.

The result was a workaround that stretched everyone thin. When a classroom trainer needed to deliver training to a group of workers speaking four different languages, they would pull bilingual colleagues off the floor — not certified translators, but anyone who happened to speak English and one other language — to interpret on the spot.

"Imagine that scene: The supervisor of a production line of 30–40 people rearranges her line to send five people to annual training — one speaks English, one speaks Haitian Creole, another speaks Marshallese and the other three speak Spanish. Half of the training has an option available in Spanish, but all of it is available in English. So now, we have to pull someone additional off of the floor to translate."

When Courtney asked training leaders across the business whether it was time for a change, the answer was unanimous.

The solution: one platform, every language, every learner

JBS's requirements for a new learning platform were non-negotiable: it had to reach production employees on the floor using tablets, support 14 target languages natively, and scale to 92,000 users without friction. 360Learning met every one of them — and the partnership went significantly further.

A single platform that works for everyone

At the heart of the transformation is consolidating and migrating 14 separate LMSs into one. JBS's production employees — approximately 75,000 workers across meat processing facilities — now access 360Learning via Android tablets provided during on-site, instructor-led training sessions. For the roughly 15,000 salaried and corporate employees, the full web platform is available via single sign-on through Microsoft Entra. 

The custom JBS-branded mobile application ensures the experience is consistent, accessible, and built for the realities of the production floor rather than the corporate office.

Seamless integration with SAP

A workforce at this scale demands seamless people data management. JBS's 360Learning platform is integrated directly with SAP, the company's Human Capital Management (HCM) system. 

A daily automated synchronization between SAP and 360Learning handles user creation, updates, and deactivation — including a purpose-built workflow for job applicants who complete onboarding training before receiving an employee ID. When an applicant is hired, their profile transitions automatically as SAP is updated.

The Globalization feature: A game-changer for language access

Of all the capabilities 360Learning offers, one AI-driven feature stood above the rest in making JBS's decision straightforward. As Courtney puts it: "360Learning’s AI-driven translation capabilities that we use to translate the content we build in the system is the single biggest reason we chose this platform and it has been a game-changer. We can translate almost instantly into those languages and validate those translations in the system with internal translators. It's wonderful."

The platform now supports content and navigation in 14 languages — including Spanish, Haitian Creole, French, Arabic, Burmese, Vietnamese, Amharic, Somali, Swahili, Kinyarwanda, Tigrinya, Karen, Marshallese, and French Creole.

A content ecosystem built for frontline training

JBS migrated more than 1,300 courses from its legacy systems into 360Learning, bringing SCORM files and MP4s scattered across multiple platforms into a single organized catalog. 

A critical pillar of that content ecosystem is OpenSesame, JBS's off-the-shelf content provider. OpenSesame supplies more than half of the courses in JBS's core learning plan, and its library of complementary content extends the platform's depth significantly. Because JBS uploads OpenSesame SCORM files directly to 360Learning, any updates made by OpenSesame — including translations across multiple languages — automatically reflect across the platform without additional effort from the JBS team.

Change management at the speed of trust

Launching a new platform to 92,000 people is one challenge. Getting those people to embrace it is another. Courtney's approach was rooted in inclusion from the very start. "I didn't just involve them at the beginning when we asked 'is it time for a change?' I involved them in every step — setting the requirements, identifying LMS systems and content providers in the marketplace, choosing the LMS and the content provider, configuring the system, setting the change management strategy, choosing the content… every single step. People don't like change they aren't a part of driving and I needed them to drive it."

The rollout included mini-orientation videos, weekly communications to HR, safety, maintenance, and training leaders, platform training delivered through 360Learning's Engagement Academy, and townhalls with trainers and end users across the business. 

Following a successful pilot with 7,000+ users, the full platform launched to 92,000 employees the following month.

The results: early signals, strong direction

The most significant business outcomes of the launch will take time to measure. The early signals, however, are clear.

Feedback from frontline trainers has been emphatic: translation capability alone represents a step-change from where JBS was before. "We are in the best space we've ever been with regard to translations. The fact that we don’t have to pull people off the floor to translate has likely saved the business hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Just as significant is a change in the quality and integrity of learning itself. Under the legacy system, a motivated but distracted employee could click through a 52-page slide deck in two minutes and be marked as trained. 360Learning's course structure makes that impossible — a meaningful improvement for an organization where people safety and food safety compliance are operational imperatives. 

"The other huge improvement from the legacy system is that people can't cheat — they can't breeze through a 52-page deck in 2 minutes and call themselves trained. The format just doesn't allow for it and this has been a significant improvement for us." 

Courtney is now tracking the metrics that matter most to the business — people safety, food safety, compliance rates, onboarding satisfaction, and new hire retention — with confidence that the platform investment will translate into measurable outcomes in the months ahead.

Looking ahead: learning as a competitive advantage

The next phase of JBS's learning strategy leans into one of 360Learning's core principles: that the people closest to the work are often its best teachers. Courtney's roadmap includes capturing frontline worker expertise directly into the platform — turning production-floor know-how into hyper-relevant, peer-created training content.

For Courtney, that ambition is part of a larger vision: establishing learning as a permanent strategic asset at JBS — one that earns its seat at the table by connecting directly to business outcomes.

"Learning and Development — if done right — can be a major competitive advantage in the marketplace. Building a learning culture means earning your seat at the table, being a good partner, and engaging the business to use learning as a tool to solve real business problems."