Since 2008, VINCI Facilities Entreprise Adaptée has been providing personalised support to help employees with disabilities build their professional careers.
Some realities are stubbornly persistent. Despite 20 years of successive reforms, people with disabilities are still heavily penalised in the professional world. The figures say it all: an employment rate of 39% (compared with 68% of working-age people as a whole) and an unemployment rate of 12% (compared with 7%), according to Agefiph, the French employment support association for people with disabilities. They face a double penalty in their greater exposure to long-term unemployment and their reduced access to education and qualifications.
Given the enduring nature of these obstacles, the response must be multifaceted and involve public policy makers, non-profit organisations and businesses. Since 2008, VINCI Facilities Entreprise Adaptée (VFEA) has been working to facilitate access to employment for people with disabilities and keep them in work in suitable conditions, through the provision of building maintenance and end-user services.
Like all adapted businesses, this VINCI Energies Group entity employs people with RQTH (official disabled worker status in France). Its mission is to support them in setting and achieving their career goals and to develop their skills with other employers with the aim, where possible, of helping them into “mainstream” employment.
Adapted management
VFEA employs 150 people, 85% of whom have disabled worker status, recruited on the basis of two criteria: exclusion from employment (older people, people without qualifications, those ineligible for unemployment benefits, etc.) with the help of bodies such as France Travail, Cap Emploi and local organisations. Christelle Bullio, Business Unit Manager at VFEA, explains: “We train them in our businesses in three types of provision: Level 1 and 2 building maintenance (electrical engineering, plumbing, HVAC, metalwork and joinery); end-user services (reception, mail handling, hospitality, administrative assistance); and global archive management (auditing, digitisation, document destruction).”
“In the past two years, we have trained and helped 24 people into mainstream employment.”
To fulfil its mission, which is defined in a multi-year targets and methods contract agreed with DRIEETS (Regional and Interdepartmental Directorate for the Economy, Employment, Labour and Solidarity), VFEA has developed a management approach tailored to the specific needs of each individual.
One manager to 25 employees is not excessive when there is training to organise, regular interviews to hold, work placements to arrange, and skills assessments to schedule. “We have to adapt to each set of social and medical circumstances,” says Christelle Bullio. “We work with people who live with incapacitating illnesses, and people with physical, psychological and mental disabilities. They can’t all be given the same assignments. The support period also varies greatly. Some employees have been with us for 10 years; others are ready for mainstream employment after two years. And some people have to change career when their condition worsens.”
This professional support is accompanied by social assistance: with finding accommodation, handling formalities (retirement, social security), requesting household debt support, obtaining a driving licence, etc. Christelle Bullio mentions Emma, who was recruited four years ago, and had having been living a solitary existence in substandard housing. “We paid for three months’ accommodation while we found her a place in new-build social housing. She really reconnected with life and absolutely thrived at work.”
Growing beyond Ile-de-France
The business is mostly focused on growth in the Ile‑de‑France area, with hopes of expanding into other regions, where the teams operate across more than 110 sites through joint-contracting and subcontracting agreements, framework contracts, and staffing or fixed-rate support contracts. VFEA’s customers include major groups in the industrial, services and building sectors.
“Each time, we create an adaptability report to identify the unique features of the building and access to workstations, taking account of each employee’s medical needs,” explains Christelle Bullio. “Our customers are generally extremely caring and involved, giving us the time we need to develop our employees, who may one day be their employees. In the past two years, we have trained and helped 24 people into mainstream employment.”
VFEA may be an adapted business, but it is also an incorporated company whose primary objectives are to win customers, conduct business, and grow. It has grown continuously since its formation in 2008, and now generates annual revenue of €8 million. Other regional accreditations are in the pipeline and will enable VFEA to expand its activities beyond the Paris area.
07/15/2025
