Vivian Heilmann - People Story

With 471,056 employees, ISS is the size of a city.

And like a city, our organisation is a global community that’s bonded by a shared purpose and values. One of our key strengths is that our services are delivered by our own people. We empower them to create great service moments.

That’s why we want to offer everyone at ISS the opportunities to unlock their potential. Vivian, a member of our Danish Building and Property Agency team, tells us how joining ISS set her on the path to achieving her big ambitions.

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“I never dreamed I’d be doing what I’m doing now. But in ISS there’s space for everybody to grow.”
Vivian Heilmann, District Manager at ISS Denmark

Space and support to grow

“I started as a meeting centre host at one of ISS’s customers, Nets, before it outsourced its service management to ISS,” she explains.

“I was leading a very small in-house team at Nets. And to be honest, the first thing I thought was, Big ISS? No, thanks. But I took a deep breath and a long walk and thought about what was good about continuing my journey with ISS. I decided to give them a chance. I would give it a few months and then decide if I would stay.

“And I was positively surprised. There was both strong focus on creating great experiences for customers and for investing in people. Even after a few weeks, I could see that ISS offered a lot of opportunities for me to develop myself. Once I joined the ISS team I was able to really develop my skills. Within three months I’d taken a leadership course and I was quickly promoted.

“I also went through the new training as a site manager, which was the logical next step in my career. And then I saw a district manager vacancy on the ISS job boards and thought I’d go for it. I applied, and within one week I got the job.”

“I started my career as a butcher. I never dreamed I’d be doing what I’m doing now. But in ISS there’s space for everybody to grow. And we’ve got great support – everyone wants to help each other be better.”

Looking to the future

Vivian’s story exemplifies what makes ISS special: Our people – people who go the extra mile and care about the people they support. That’s why we develop and empower our people to make decisions for themselves. Our employees know that we trust them to find the right solutions for their customers. And when our workforce feels motivated and valued, our customers feel the benefit too.

In the past 5 years, around 450 of the roughly 6,000 frontline service professionals have risen to leadership positions in ISS Denmark.

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