UK construction industry site health and safety management: An examination of promotional web material as an indicator of current direction

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine and evaluate current directions in construction site health and safety management by examination of large UK industry contractors' web sites, revealing the motivators that are potentially informing and driving these directions. Design/methodology/approach – A desk study approach examined 20 large UK contractor web sites. Subsequent hermeneutic content analysis established current industry direction, enabled comparison to comparable government and academic directions, and also revealed potential motivators and influences behind recent innovations. Findings – Large UK contractors have readily adopted corporate social responsibility and placed health and safety under this remit. Industry direction correlates with current government approaches, however academia appears to influence industry through government, rather than direct conduits. Bespoke safety management programmes have been a key innovation, but the influence of marketing was clear and may have led to focus on easily promotable goals, rather than the processes and methods needed to achieve them. Practical implications – Marketing may overtake practicality in the direction of health and safety management on construction sites; industry innovation focused on the promotable rather than the practical, could stagnate. The lack of direct influence of academia on industry direction indicates a requirement for relationships to be better established in order to inspire continuous improvement. Originality/value – A holistic review of large industry contractor approaches to site health and safety management has not previously been undertaken. Neither has the use of promotional webbased data been examined; thereby providing a unique insight into the direction of current efforts within industry.