How to get started with stakeholder engagement

What is stakeholder engagement?

Stakeholder engagement refers to building and maintaining relationships with individuals, groups or communities interested in your organization's activities, decisions, and outcomes. These include local communities, businesses, landowners, Indigenous communities, governments, NGOs, etc. 

Why is effective stakeholder engagement essential?

Effective stakeholder engagement is fundamental to the success of any organization or project.  Actively engaging stakeholders not only helps to anticipate and address concerns through valuable insights but also provides the following benefits to your project:

• Risk management: Engaging with stakeholders helps you identify potential risks, allowing you to take proactive steps to mitigate them. 
  
• Improved decision-making: By considering diverse perspectives, you can make more informed decisions that are better aligned with your stakeholders' needs and interests. 
  
• Enhanced reputation: Stakeholder engagement demonstrates your commitment to transparency, accountability, and social responsibility, which can improve your organization's reputation and credibility. 
  
• Increased trust and strong relationships: Open communication and stakeholder collaboration can build trust and foster a sense of community, leading to stronger relationships and greater loyalty. 
  

How to do stakeholder engagement?

To help you, we've developed a 6-step starter kit for getting started with stakeholder engagement.

Step 1: Identify your key stakeholders 

Begin by creating a comprehensive list of stakeholders involved in or affected by your project or initiative. This is called stakeholder mapping.

Having trouble identifying your stakeholders? Our blog 9 Questions to Help Identify Your Stakeholders might help →

You now want to rank stakeholders based on their influence, interest, and importance to the project's success. Then, segment stakeholders based on their needs, concerns, and required levels of engagement. This is called stakeholder analysis.

Understanding the unique needs of each stakeholder group allows you to tailor your stakeholder engagement plan to better target specific groups with relevant information. Not all stakeholders need to be engaged in the same way.

An essential part of the stakeholder analysis process is choosing each stakeholder group's engagement level. The Spectrum of Public Participation, developed by the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2), identifies five different levels of participation:

1. Inform
2. Consult
3. Involve 
4. Collaborate, and
5. Empower

This tool is valuable for guiding your stakeholder engagement and determining the engagement levels you'll assign to each group.

Step 2: Understand your stakeholders ' interests 

Once you've identified your stakeholders, research their interests and concerns and what will drive their behaviours and attitudes. Look at media articles and social media comments. By assessing your stakeholders, you can tailor your engagement approach (step 3) to address their needs and expectations. 

To assess stakeholder interests, ask yourself: 

• What are their needs and expectations? 
• What do they hope to achieve from engaging with your organization? 
• What are their goals, objectives, or priorities? 
• How might they be impacted by our decisions or actions? 
• Are there potential benefits or risks associated with your project or initiative? 
• How will stakeholders be affected by the outcome of your decision-making process? 
• Are there any potential conflicts of interest? 
• Do stakeholders have competing interests or loyalties that could impact their engagement with your organization? 

Step 3: Develop a stakeholder engagement plan 

A stakeholder engagement plan outlines how you and your team will engage with your stakeholders to achieve positive project outcomes. 

Your stakeholder engagement plan should include: 

1. Goal(s): Your desired outcomes  
2. Record keeping: How you'll record your data (for consistency and ease of collaboration) 
3. Key messaging: What's important for your stakeholders to know 
4. Communication channels: The tactics for connecting with your stakeholders (e.g., information sheets, town halls, emails, social media, etc.)
5. Timelines: Projected engagement touchpoints and a schedule for the frequency of communication with stakeholders or decision-makers 
6. Feedback tools: How you plan to collect data and responses 
7. Reporting: How you'll report back internally and to stakeholders  

Our free eBook, The Beginner's Guide to Stakeholder Engagement, explains what a good stakeholder engagement plan should include in more detail →

Step 4: Start engaging your stakeholders 

If positive relationships are essential to your project's success, you need to start engaging with stakeholders as soon as possible. It's never too early to start building relationships with stakeholders and communities.  

If stakeholders feel left out of the process, they may develop a bad taste in their mouths, leaving you with some unhappy and disengaged stakeholders. The goal is for stakeholders to hear about your project from you, not online or from the dreaded rumour mill. 

Stakeholder relationships are not "one and done." You could reencounter the same stakeholders on another project, so focus on building good relationships with all stakeholders from the beginning. 

When you begin engaging, focus on helping stakeholders better understand your project, be open and truthful and aim to educate. You want stakeholders to feel included in the process, not just that they are being told what is happening with no options.  

There are some key things you need to be prepared for when engaging with your stakeholders: 

1. Communicating key messages consistently 
2. Answering questions and addressing feedback 
3. Dealing with current or potential issues or concerns 
   
4. Making commitments or promises that you need to remember to fulfill 

Step 5: Track your stakeholder engagement  

Tracking your interactions with stakeholders is essential to ensuring the effectiveness of your engagement efforts. Specialized stakeholder engagement data management tools, such as Stakeholder Relationship Management software (SRM), are made to help you keep track of your stakeholder relationships and communications quickly and collaboratively. 

Want more information on engagement tracking? Read our eight steps to effective stakeholder engagement tracking blog →

By tracking your stakeholder engagement, you can: 

1. Understand common themes and topics that are important to your stakeholders 
   
2. Identify risks ahead of time so you can proactively work to resolve them 
   
3. Ensure all data and knowledge are retained and not lost when people leave the team or organization  
   
4. Have the means to demonstrate accountability and transparency to stakeholders 
   
5. Inform future engagement strategies and planning 

When you engage consistently, respectfully and transparently, you can work towards building stakeholder trust and lasting relationships. 

Step 6: Monitor and evaluate your stakeholder engagement efforts 

Monitor and assess your efforts regularly to ensure they are effective and meet their intended goals. Consider things like: 

1. Feedback and response rates 
2. Changes in stakeholder perceptions or attitudes
   
3. Progress towards the objective(s) you defined in your stakeholder engagement plan 

Stakeholder engagement can be complicated, and things can change quickly. As the plan is executed, unexpected things will inevitably pop up, and the plan will require changes to keep everything moving forward and ensure you meet the goal you set at the beginning. 

Be flexible enough with your timelines to accommodate changes, such as feedback deadlines or engagement tactics. Ensure you have allowed for some flexibility in the timelines you've set. Don't be afraid to revise your plan to ensure you can meet the goal.

What are some tips for stakeholder engagement success?

• Gain buy-in internally - if your senior team doesn't understand the plan, that can also put your project at risk.
• Ensure information security - collaborate seamlessly across devices from wherever you may be - whether you're in the office, on the go, or making last-minute changes before your next meeting.
• Make engagement inclusive - plan for inclusive engagement to minimize barriers to engagement.
• Be authentic - always be genuine and transparent in your stakeholder interactions.

Remember, stakeholder engagement is an ongoing process that requires commitment, effort, and resources. But the rewards are well worth it - stronger relationships, increased social capital, improved outcomes, and a more sustainable future.