The start-up Emeraude Escape creates tailor-made escape games to talk about health prevention in companies, in France and internationally.
Addictions, psychosocial or chemical risks, fire… Many rather heavy themes can be approached through the game, to convey messages and knowledge while cultivating the spirit of collaboration.
20 Minutes
was able to meet the team behind this fashionable hobby which takes up serious subjects and tested an escape game on safety and health in the workplace.
François, your colleague, has disappeared.
Bad luck, it is he who has the only key to the office where you are locked up with some comrades.
Your mission is to piece together his day and find out if he died electrocuted, ingested a chemical, had a car accident, or just went home (forgetting about you).
This is neither an episode of Fort Boyard, nor a video game, but a prevention escape game on occupational safety.
Because health in business is starting to focus on this original and fun method.
Thanks to these immersive games, and more recently digital, the start-up Emeraude Escape, created two years ago, has adapted this fashionable hobby to extremely serious subjects: disability, addictions, psychosocial risks in business ...
“The door is open, congratulations!
"
Return to François' office (or rather to the sets).
With a colleague, Damien, and a colleague, Olivia, we test in a small room (where it is 48 ° C) the escape game dedicated to safety at work.
We search Francois' wallet, computer, files.
"The poor man, he divorces, he works overtime, he is transferred, therefore sadness of his life", summarizes Thomas, one of the "game designers" of the company which serves as our guide.
Through a leaflet on the right posture to have in front of a screen, we can guess a code that allows us to see what risks of musculoskeletal disorders threaten this employee who is decidedly spoiled by life.
“It raises awareness of tendonitis problems,” continues Thomas.
While teleworking, I stood so badly that I broke my back!
"
While we work with Olivia to figure out why the coffee cup is full of blood and the button on the cappuccino maker is flashing, Damien checks the storage room to see what chemicals are being stored.
“The door is open, congratulations!
», Rejoices after 20 minutes a pre-recorded female voice.
The game ends with a debriefing to see what the participants have understood and remembered.
And recall some clear prevention messages.
First aid, inclusion ...
But the start-up does not stop at this theme.
In the offices - a small space in the 15th arrondissement where game creators phosphorate - a mannequin is lying on the floor, colored patches on the chest and a defibrillator on the side.
"It's the famous first aid training course transformed into a game", explains Virgile Loisance, founder of Emeraude Escape.
On a desk, you can discover prototypes.
Like those robots that raise awareness of inclusion, with a sign “find normal collaborators”.
When you open it, you can read: “the norm is that each individual is different”.
"More efficient than a Power Point"
"Forcing colleagues to think together is more effective than a Power Point," assures Virgile Loisance. I have nothing against lectures, but when you have your five senses on the alert, when you practice, you are much more attentive and you remember better. »Assures him that this kind of collective game, in immersion, is a game-changer. He takes as proof the statistics of the number of participants: between + 400% and + 800% when the company offers its employees an escape game to do prevention rather than classic awareness.
“Our game designers work with prevention experts and addictologists,” continues Virgile Loisance.
Companies contacted us explaining that it was complicated to broach a touchy subject such as addictions.
So we designed an escape game that takes place in the Wild West, with a saloon, where you can slip allusions to alcohol, gambling… This helps to remove taboos.
"
Directly in the company
The other challenge is to create mobile escape games.
Because it is directly in the premises of the companies that they are moved and assembled.
Knowing that 90% of customers are large companies (the prices, between 1,800 euros per half-day and 2,400 euros per day, leave SMEs on the sidelines).
The demand for prevention is such that Emeraude Escape has created a branch dedicated to these themes, called “Prev up”.
With fifteen proposals in the catalog.
And already two innovation prizes from Preventica, a trade fair dedicated to the quality of life at work.
Safety at work and addictions
What are the most requested themes?
"Health and safety at work, from industry to luxury goods," says the founder of the start-up.
But since the Covid-19 crisis, we feel that the subject of addictions is of great concern.
“Precisely, the health crisis and teleworking have reshuffled the cards.
So we had to go digital.
With an express adaptation and platforms created specifically for certain companies, the start-up is not experiencing the crisis ...
It has indeed established itself in 45 countries, offering its services in 10 languages. With the obligation to adapt to the country's standards… “Many prevention players offer online games that boil down to quizzes,” criticizes the founder of the start-up. We go further with puzzles, video games, team building. »The participants are connected by video, to be able to exchange directly. Too bad, all the same, not to share a moment in real life which unites a team, and not to be able to look in a room for clues. To see if, at the start of the school year, companies will bet more on real escape games ...
But do the messages of prevention remain, once the hour of relaxation has passed?
"It's early to find out, admits Virgile Loisance.
Each online game has tracking, which allows you to see how many people have clicked on the wrong extinguisher, for example.
But this data is anonymized and it is up to the box to decide whether it wants to implement retrospective actions.
“In addition, monitoring knowledge promises to be complicated, since employees never play the same game twice… Too easy.
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