Celebrating Chloe Nicholls, Swiftclean’s Head of Operations on International Women’s Day

To celebrate International Women’s Day 2024, we take a look back over Chloe Nicholls, Head of Operations, 12-year history at Swiftclean.

Chloe started in 2012 at Swiftclean as a Key Account Administrator for a railway and airport client, working solely on one client account, Chloe recalls, “it was a new client, there was a lot of time spent getting to grips with the logistics, airside and landside passes so it was such a busy time but also a fantastic learning opportunity for me.”

“The main thing I remember finding out was the sheer amount of maintenance work that goes on behind the scenes at travel locations, and how important the fire safety element of compliance is to the units and our client,” explained Chloe.

Following a successful onboarding period for the new client, Chloe then became the Senior Key Account Manager, in 2015; she remembers “Not only was this a big step up as it was the first time I managed people, a team of four, I was looking after our largest account, but I also got the freedom to start running the account how I wanted to which helped create some good efficiencies.”

Life outside of work, Chloe lives with her boyfriend Joe and their two dogs Milo and Nala, Chloe spends a lot of time with her horse Jack whom she has owned since she was 13, and he has taught her a lot in terms of responsibility which has translated into work.

“if I’m honest, I didn’t particularly enjoy school,” admits Chloe, “having Jack and the responsibility and commitment that comes with owning and caring for a horse changed me as a person, and being at Swiftclean even more so.” During her years at Swiftclean not only has Chloe developed in her role she has been through countless courses and qualifications including the Grease Hygiene Technician course, and Apprenticeship in Business Administration, Confined Space Training and IOSH Working Safely.

In February 2018, Chloe had a change of role, still within the Service Delivery department, to become the Surveying Services Manager, looking after a larger team and changing her speciality to legionella compliance.

“I find that the types of compliance areas within Legionella compliance is vast,” said Chloe, “there are so many services and tests we offer, not forgetting that you’re also dealing with things you can’t see – such as bacteria growth in water – whereas in kitchen and air compliance, you can physically see the grease or dust levels within the duct”.

In March 2021 Chloe then progressed in her career to become Operations Manager which meant being involved with the running of the internal and external operations, across all services.

“In this role, I got the opportunity to work more closely with Martin (Swiftclean’s Commercial Director) and learnt a lot from him being my line manager; for example one of the biggest things I learnt from him was a better understanding of commercial awareness and being able to consider the balance between sales and service, particularly finding that middle ground.”