Our teams in France, Poland, Germany and Spain organized a full schedule of immersive activities for employees to learn about safety best practices and test their own skills.

Since safety is as important as it is to us at CEMEX, we constantly look for creative and fun ways to get the message out. In some of our operations in Europe, our health and safety teams have found practical and effective ways to train employees and family members in safety, through shared experiential activities and simulations that allow us to understand a variety of situations, moving beyond pamphlets or lectures to teach lessons not easily forgotten.

Driving is a large part of many jobs at CEMEX, whether it’s driving to deliver concrete or just driving to commute to work. This makes safety behind the wheel important, and to drive home that message, special crash and roll-over simulators were brought in for the Employee Safety Days in Germany and Poland to demonstrate the effectiveness of seat belts. Employees themselves got to personally experience a vehicle rollover in the simulator, allowing them to learn about something very dangerous under controlled and safe conditions. The simulations at just 8 km per hour (about 5 miles/hour) allow participants to experience the forces that act on a driver during an actual crash. Our health & safety team in Germany also organized a demonstration by a professional movie stunt crew! The experts from Babelsberg Film Studio showed off their skills by simulating a motorcycle accident and a van collision.

These simulations had a very vital takeaway for employees as well as management. "It is extremely important that we support drivers together,” according to Rüdiger Kuhn, Head of CEMEX in Germany. “Drivers can quickly find themselves in a situation where they are exposed to pressures and excessive demands from all sides. We must always perceive them as human beings, respect their limits and realize how demanding their job is."

In Germany and Spain, experts from the local fire department were also brought on site to provide special training. Volunteers from the German fire department and from Johanniter Accident Assistance participated in a demonstration where employees were able to try special goggles that let you experience how visibility, response time and spatial perception change with alcohol consumption. Similarly, in various operations throughout Spain our employees enjoyed a full day of activities including a paintball battle and a simulated rescue with the support of the local fire department, which also offered a workshop in extinguishing fires.

But it’s not just employees that get to benefit from CEMEX safety training. In Poland, the simulation activity was part of the annual family picnics that are organized to promote health and safety in the local community, not just at work. Hands-on first aid training was provided along with healthy nutrition workshops, with entire families preparing dishes under a dietitian´s recommendations. This year also launched the first family days in Spain where families of employees take part in hands-on teaching moments at our plants as well as health and safety activities like road safety circuits for children, activities for disability understanding, driving simulators for all types of vehicles as well as talks on the use of personal protective equipment.

Our teams in France held their sixth Employee Safety Day this year, dedicated to the prevention of risks related to traffic accidents. With the support of 200 managers, training was provided in the form of educational workshops using 4 themes this year: Traffic and travel on site, telephone traffic, setting the driving position and the recall of the traffic and the street. And in a separate event, a little healthy competition was used as a tool during a health and safety rally to test the local operations on their preparedness. Teams competed against each other for points to test their skills under pressure and try to gauge how they would react in real-world safety situations. Among other activities, the teams were run through trials to identify dangers and assess potential risks while another activity found teams simulating the rescue of an unconscious victim.

“I really appreciated the rally and its format, which is very useful as it allows numerous safety essentials to be highlighted in a fun, participation-based way,” said Jean Bergouignan, CEMEX VP of Aggregates in France, who presented the winning team with their trophy. “Many of the participants realized that they did not necessarily have a full grasp of various procedures applicable in this situation-based exercise. Very well done to the teams for putting on this brilliant event.”

Throughout our operations we will continue to emphasize safety as our top priority and strive every day to reach our goal of zero accidents.

CEMEX is a global building materials company that provides high quality products and reliable service to customers and communities in more than 50 countries. Celebrating its 110th anniversary, CEMEX has a rich history of improving the well-being of those it serves through innovative building solutions, efficiency advancements, and efforts to promote a sustainable future.