Mitie’s Cleaning Centre of Excellence thrives at Heathrow

Overview of the challenge

Heathrow is the largest airport in the UK, and one of the top 10 busiest airports in the world. In 2023, nearly 80m passengers passed through its terminals, so keeping its spaces safe and clean is a priority. Besides supporting good hygiene and safety for visitors, a clean environment creates a more welcoming and enjoyable passenger experience.

After first being awarded the cleaning contract at Heathrow in 2018, Mitie has proudly delivered cleaning services to all the airport’s terminals since 2022. Our relationship with the client is built on providing service excellence, so we need to make sure the highest standards of cleanliness and efficiency are consistently upheld. Our challenge was making sure we could maintain these high standards with our existing cleaning operatives as well as new joiners to the team.

Our approach

To showcase our commitment to innovation and providing the best possible levels of service, we created a Cleaning Centre of Excellence at Heathrow. This was for two main reasons:

• To make sure we’re maintaining the highest cleaning standards at the site
• To upskill our colleagues, both new and experienced, with comprehensive training and support

The state-of-the-art facility isn’t just about cleanliness. It means that everyone, whether they’re a long-standing colleague or new to the business, receives the very best tools and support to perform their role. The centre provides a hands-on, immersive learning environment, which showcases cutting-edge equipment, such as autonomous cleaning robots. Realistic training scenarios are used to help teams hone their skills.

We successfully developed a comprehensive 12-skills BICSc training programme, accessible to all Mitie colleagues. Our aim is that by March 2025, 950 colleagues will have been trained on this programme.

Being accredited by BICSc – which is the industry gold standard – means we can make sure our training is consistent and high quality, producing even better results for our client.

“Partners in cleaning is defined as both the company and the client working in complete harmony towards the exact same goals. At Heathrow, this is what we find in Mitie. Heathrow just had a record-breaking summer of passenger numbers following an already busy start to the year. Working in partnership, Mitie have been able to deliver record-breaking service levels and innovations, which will further advance the cleaning landscape at the airport into a more efficient and service-led operation.”

The results

We’re delighted with the results since the centre opened in January 2024. Already 380 cleaning colleagues have been upskilled.

We’ve had positive feedback from colleagues on how useful they’ve found the training and we’re seeing a positive impact on retention levels.

The collaborative efforts of Mitie and Heathrow don’t just elevate the standards of cleanliness and safety at the airport, but also set a benchmark for the industry. We’re confident in our ability to meet the cleaning standards our client expects and will continue to work collaboratively to make the centre a success.

Why choose Mitie?

Combining cutting-edge technologies with our industry expertise, Mitie provides a full range of end-to-end services to keep your environments clean, safe, operational and efficient.