Stakeholder engagement report: 10 key items to building auditable docs

Demonstrating the integrity and completeness of your stakeholder engagement report, whether for internal review, regulatory audit, or organizational evaluation, is critical for transparency, trust, compliance, and informed decision-making. Achieving this requires consistent record-keeping, thorough quality assurance, transparent processes, and ongoing monitoring to ensure your engagement practices support successful and accountable project outcomes. This practical checklist, crafted with insights from Corinne Chisholm, an IAP2-certified Stakeholder Engagement Customer Success Specialist, covers all essential elements for creating audit-friendly stakeholder engagement reports. Follow these steps to enhance data accuracy, improve reporting, and foster strong stakeholder relationships.

Stakeholder engagement report checklist

This checklist ensures your stakeholder engagement report is a comprehensive, structured record of all interactions, feedback, and outcomes. By following each of the listed items, you can demonstrate transparency, build trust, and verify that your engagement activities align with project goals:

1. Stakeholder identification: know your audience

• Ensure a systematic process for identifying all relevant stakeholders, including internal and external parties, government departments or agencies, committees, partners, regulatory bodies, and those requiring protection or affected by your project.
• Maintain a stakeholder register or tracking document, regularly updated as new stakeholders are identified or existing ones change roles.
• Confirm that stakeholder identification considers the broader context, including stakeholders with indirect but significant interests or influence.
• Clearly document the rationale for including or excluding specific stakeholders.
• Keep evidence showing how stakeholder groups were determined and the criteria used to identify them.

Learn how to identify your stakeholders with our thorough guide→

2. Reflect stakeholder diversity

• Review your stakeholder engagement plan to ensure it actively seeks input from a diverse spectrum of stakeholders, avoiding reliance on only the most vocal or familiar participants.
• Track and document demographic, organizational, and professional diversity among engaged stakeholders.
• Implement strategies to encourage less-represented voices to participate, ensuring balanced input.
• Assess periodically whether engagement outcomes reflect diverse viewpoints and take corrective action if certain perspectives are underrepresented.
• Retain evidence of efforts to support inclusivity and diversity in stakeholder engagement (targeted outreach, multiple engagement formats, etc.).

Learn how to reach a diverse group of stakeholders with different consultation methods →

3. Ensure comprehensive consultation documentation

• Record the complete information and schedule of consultation activities, specifying dates, formats (meetings, interviews, surveys), and attendance.
• Maintain accurate notes, minutes, sign-in sheets, or recordings for each consultation, as appropriate.
• Identify the purpose and objectives of each consultation, and link each engagement activity to a specific stage or decision within the project.
• Ensure both formal and informal consultations are recorded, including one-on-one sessions or ad hoc discussions.
• Ensure that consultation records are consistently recorded, securely stored, and well-organized. This guarantees they are readily available for review and reporting when needed. This is an essential aspect of maintaining audit readiness.

Need guidance to carry out public consultation? Check our toolkit from planning to reporting →

4. Capture and incorporate stakeholder feedback

• All stakeholder feedback received should be saved in a central location (like a feedback register), whether delivered in writing, digitally, or verbally.
• Regularly review feedback and assign clear responsibilities for addressing concerns, suggestions, or questions. Track all actions taken to ensure you can easily demonstrate follow-up, follow-through and accountability during an audit.
• Be prepared to show how feedback was analyzed, the decisions made regarding its incorporation, and any resulting changes to processes or documents that came from the input. This thorough documentation supports transparency and audit readiness.
• Whenever possible, inform stakeholders about how their input has been utilized through appropriate channels. This helps build trust and demonstrates that their feedback is valued and acted upon.

See how our stakeholder engagement software helps you save all stakeholder feedback in a central location →

5. Record decisions and rationale

• Document all major decisions with supporting background, rationale, related evidence, and decision-makers' names or roles.
• Keep records of decision meetings, including who was present and the information presented.
• Archive all draft and final versions of decision documents, showing change history and reasons for revisions.
• Ensure the rationale for critical choices (e.g., use of specific sign-off processes, selection of minimum thresholds) is explicit and substantiated.
• Store these records in an organized way, cross-referenced or linked to corresponding consultation and feedback documentation.

6. Complete engagement materials and briefings

• Maintain copies of all materials distributed to stakeholders, including briefing or information packages, slideshows or presentation decks, guidance sheets, and process documents.
• Check that documents are up to date, accurate, and tailored to their respective audiences.
• Review whether all required documentation was supplied on time and log the distribution dates.
• Collect and file stakeholder acknowledgements of receipt of engagement materials.
• Regularly audit material completeness and accuracy to prepare for external or internal review.

7. Provide stakeholder review opportunities

• Communicate clear timelines to all stakeholders, outlining review, feedback, and sign-off periods for key deliverables.
• Track invitations or notifications sent, including requests for confirmation of receipt by stakeholders.
• Record any requests for deadline extensions or accommodations and the project team's response.
• Maintain logs that specify who was given the chance to provide review or feedback, and by when.
• Demonstrate that stakeholders were given sufficient time to participate in reviews meaningfully.

8. Document escalation procedures

• Ensure that an escalation procedure is developed that details the escalation stages or levels, process steps, actions to be taken, the specified timing for each stage, and clear points of contact for each escalation stage.
• Confirm that the escalation procedure has received necessary approvals (for example, via project governance or steering committee).
• Verify that the escalation process is clearly communicated to all stakeholders, including in emails.
• Document when and how the escalation procedure was implemented (if it's ever implemented).
• Keep a record of any updates to the escalation process and how those updates have been communicated or applied throughout the project.

9. Demonstrate two-way engagement

• Keep records of both outgoing communications (e.g., information shared with stakeholders) and incoming feedback or questions.
• Document interactive aspects of consultations, such as Q&A sessions, workshops, or discussion forums, and their outcomes.
• Provide evidence that stakeholder views were listened to, respected, and, in appropriate cases, acted upon.
• Track follow-up communications or actions prompted by stakeholder responses to show responsiveness and ongoing dialogue.
• Maintain summaries of engagement effectiveness reviews or lessons learned, emphasizing continuous improvement.

10. Follow professional record-keeping standards

• Comply with all relevant auditing standards.
• Regularly check that engagement records are complete, accurate, and easy to access.
• Keep clear histories of document changes and approvals for essential materials.
• Store and retain records securely in accordance with your established policies to support future audits.
• Document regular reviews of your record-keeping system and promptly act on any issues or recommendations.

Expert insights: Using Jambo for building a stakeholder engagement report

We asked Corinne Chisholm, our IAP2-certified Stakeholder Engagement Customer Success Specialist, to share how Jambo can help ensure your stakeholder engagement reports are audit-ready. Here are the key methods she outlined:

• Integrate with Outlook: Stay organized and keep your data up to date with the free Outlook add-in or your unique project email address. This allows you to seamlessly add emails and create communication records in Jambo in real time as you compose or respond to messages.

• Voice-to-text and AI Summaries: Use the voice-to-text feature to capture detailed meeting notes, and then use the AI summarization tool to generate an accurate summary of the engagement.

• Daily audits: Conduct a review at the end of each day to identify and fill any gaps in communication records or contacts, ensuring your data remains complete and up to date. Additionally, enable auto AI sentiment analysis to reduce gaps and enhance the accuracy of sentiment tracking.

• Apply tags to categorize work types, making it easier to track and include them in your reporting requirements.

• Data integrity: Ensure records are entered accurately from the outset, because reliable data starts with precise input.

• Cross-functional teams: Work as a team by establishing clear definitions and ensuring everyone shares a consistent commitment to data integrity, fostering a common understanding of terms and processes across the project.

• Assign a super user: Depending on the team, designate a super user who takes ownership of data entry, is CC'd on all relevant correspondence, and oversees both data management and reporting to maintain consistency and accuracy.

• Analytics and dashboards: If you have access to Jambo Insights, create analytics for key data points and add them to a custom dashboard. This enables real-time monitoring of data entries, enabling the team to spot and proactively address any gaps quickly.

Ready to transform your stakeholder engagement reports?