Social Joint Ventures: Five years of inclusion through work with VINCI Construction
Building sustainable pathways towards employment for those furthest from the job market while delivering quality services: this is the promise of social joint ventures. Behind that name lies a straightforward concept: a joint structure created between VINCI subsidiaries and social-oriented entities. VINCI is now involved in five social joint ventures, three of which were established by VINCI Construction five years ago to address specific needs of the construction sector. These innovative structures are named Liva, Tridev and Baseo.
Our professions are social integrators, and we are proud to welcome people from all backgrounds, regardless of their origin or training, as long as they are ready to commit to our projects. Social joint ventures are innovative initiatives that enable the integration of individuals furthest from the labor market. By doing this, we play a social role while training the future employees of our companies – those we actually need so much.
Pierre ANJOLRAS, Chief Operating officer of VINCI
A hybrid joint venture model combining economic performance and social commitment
Back in 2018, VINCI Construction co-founded a social joint venture called Liva in partnership with Ares, a group of non-profit companies and NGOs specializing in employability. Liva provides logistics services to construction sites, such as cleaning, waste management and sorting, as well as delivery coordination. Each year, the social joint venture supports nearly 200 individuals on their integration journey, with an annual turnaround of € 9.6 million.
VINCI Construction partnered with GROUPE ID’EES to create Baseo. Baseo is a social joint venture dedicated to the management and maintenance of construction sites living facilities. Baseo manages, for instance, plumbing, electricity or locksmith tasks in such facilities. In 2024 alone, Baseo supported 77 individuals on their integration journey and achieved a turnover of €2.2 million.
Tridev, at last, is the third social joint ventures created by VINCI Construction. It was also created thanks to a partnership with the GROUP ID’EES. Tridev is specialized in deconstruction and demolition tasks. Thanks to that joint social venture, 22 individuals have been accompanied towards employment in 2024, for a turnover of € 400 000.
More specifically, those structures address specific needs on construction sites while enabling individuals to reenter the job market permanently. Those individuals benefit from working on a regular basis on construction projects and receiving specific training(s). On the underground construction project for the RER E station at La Défense – a flagship engineering project that has been inaugurated in Spring 2024 – VINCI Construction worked with two social joint ventures. ‘I subcontracted Baseo and Liva for the cleaning and maintenance of the construction site facilities on the one hand, and for logistics on the other hand. Those are two crucial functions on a construction site as big as this one. Two tasks which were handled successfully by social joint ventures, allowing us to focus on our core expertise – that is civil engineering and structural work. It is a system that actually works pretty well’, explains Guillaume Le Réveillé, Deputy Director for Functional Buildings for Île-de-France within the Building France division of VINCI Construction.
Springboards to skilled, permanent employment
The social joint ventures are not only useful tools to get individuals closer to the job market. They also offer a fully functioning economic model. ‘Economic success goes hand in hand with social success. It is not only about charitable endeavors, but a real business’, emphasizes Pierre Anjolras, Chief Operating Officer of VINCI, during a conference dedicated to the social joint ventures on the 26th of September, 2024. In addition, those structures create a pool of labor for the construction sector. A sector that is struggling to recruit in certain trades. Workers in transition, who start by filling in positions that do not require training, can evolve towards more upscale positions thanks to the training they receive. They can thus secure a position within the construction industry or in another field. That is, in fact, the very purpose of these structures: to serve as springboard for skilled and sustainable employment.
It has been the case with Moussa Traoré for instance. Having arrived in France from Côte d’Ivoire in 2015 with his family, he joined Liva after being referred by his social worker. At Liva, he was trained to become a pipe layer. ‘I wanted a job. I wanted to do something, to become a professional. I used to work before, but without any training’, say Moussa Traoré on the 26th of September 2024, during the same conference dedicated to social joint ventures. After two weeks of integration internships, pipe layer training, and a fixed-term contract in the form of a “bridge contract”, Moussa Traoré is now on a permanent contract with Sogea Environnement, a company of VINCI Construction specialized in hydraulic works.
In the current context, with public procurement contracts weighting significantly insertion clauses to push companies to give a chance to those who are the furthest from the job market, social joint ventures offer an operational and innovative model. They also help VINCI Construction supporting people away from employment into the job market, all while training new talents for an industry that has many opportunities to offer to everyone.
In the current context, with public procurement contracts weighting significantly insertion clauses to push companies to give a chance to those who are the furthest from the job market, social joint ventures offer an operational and innovative model. They also help VINCI Construction supporting people away from employment into the job market, all while training new talents for an industry that has many opportunities to offer to everyone.
