The job
without the risk
Safety Days: How do you raise awareness of machinery–pedestrian risk among 30,000 employees?
VINCI Construction filmed its real construction sites, with its real frontline workers to recreate the reality of the field for its Safety Days.
Nicolas Wolff, Health and Safety Prevention Director, looks back on this major nationwide success.
A risk that habit makes invisible
The problem isn’t a lack of rules, it’s habit. When you work alongside machines day after day, you stop seeing the danger. And you can’t take machines out of service to train 30,000 people: the jobsite had to be brought to the teams.
Bringing the jobsite to the teams: 19 site situations
With Uptale, Vinci Construction filmed real jobsite situations, written by its HSE teams and played by its own staff.
- 19 modules in 360°, spread across 3 workshops
- A workshop lasts 20 to 30 minutes
- 8 to 10 people, one facilitator, one screen
The group watches the same scene from the machine operator’s position, then the pedestrian’s, and discusses it, based on deliberately gray-area situations.
Working around a machine
Exclusion zones and the “stop” reflex.
Organizing the jobsite
From preparation to the pre-start meeting.
Guiding and unloading trucks
A very common situation on jobsites.
Uptale did a fantastic job: it was fully scripted, we were very well supported, and we had really great step-by-step guidance.
[…] And then, as I said, co-creating with the people who speak to the reality of the jobsite.
Nicolas WolffHealth and Safety Prevention Director, Vinci Construction
And we get great value for money with Uptale. […] Reaching 60,000 people on those days, with events of this kind, can cost a lot more. We’ve experienced that firsthand.
Nicolas WolffHealth and Safety Prevention Director, Vinci Construction
Why immersive training changes behaviors faster
VINCI Construction’s results are in line with independent research on immersive learning. Learners who practice in a realistic situation feel more confident applying what they have learned, stay more focused and
What changed in the field
A nationwide program, rolled out independently by 250 BUs trained beforehand.
- Spontaneous debates between machine operators and pedestrians. Behaviors change through peer-to-peer discussion, with no top-down messages from managers.
- A “humanizing” effect. The tool equips the facilitator without replacing the trainer: the heart of every session is the conversation, not the screen.
- Strong identification. Teams recognized their own sites, their colleagues and their way of speaking, which made the scenarios credible from the very first minute.
- Everything is tracked. More than 9,000 sessions monitored: which workshop, led by whom, and for how long. Data that HSE teams never had with toolbox talks.
- Widespread satisfaction. Managers and field staff praised the pragmatism of the situations and agreed on what needed to evolve.
Questions - Réponses
Do we need VR headsets?
How long does it take to create the modules?
How do you mobilize 1,600 facilitators?
How much does it cost?
Key moments of the video
Video outline: what does the replay cover?
Click a timestamp to jump straight to that part of the replay.
- 00:00Introduction, Uptale presentation and poll
- 04:06The context: 30,000 employees, a priority risk
- 09:00The 3 workshops and 19 immersive modules
- 12:53Method: co-creation and filming without actors
- 15:06Rollout: 1,600 facilitators, 6,384 workshops in 3 weeks
- 17:00Results, advice and next steps for the project
- 25:34Q&A: cost, facilitator mobilization, VR headsets, traceability