Stakeholders, whoever they might be, are vital in the success of your business or charity.

They should also play an important role in your social responsibility decision making. When time and resources are limited decisions need to be achievable and effective, to do this it's important to know what changes to make that will have the right impact with our stakeholders.

You can use this simple four step process for identifying and engaging stakeholders:

Who are our stakeholders?

What are their values and expectations?

Engaging stakeholders

Communicating with stakeholders

Step one - WHO are our stakeholders?

Some of the definitions of Stakeholders are:

Anyone that has an interest in what you doAny individual or group that is directly affected by your businessGroups who impact and/or who are impacted by your business and its activitiesIndividuals and groups that have expectations of your businessAnyone that might influence the management/decisions/running the business

I have a downloadable list of stakeholder groups, get in touch if you'd like me to send it to you.

Once you have identified your stakeholders, identify three or four PRIMARY stakeholders, these will be the individuals or groups most likely to impact, or be impacted by, your business.
Don't forget to include yourself and your family in this.

Step two - WHAT are their values and expectations

Depending on the stakeholders/stakeholder groups, their values and expectations could include any or all of:Legal - what we MUST do, for example:

Health and SafetyFinancial reportingInsurance

Ethical/ Social - responsibility to go beyond legal requirements for the benefit of people, for example:

Human rightsCharity partnershipsCommunity involvement

Environmental - awareness of issues such as:

Single use plasticWaste managementSourcing/ supply chainEmissions

Step three: Engaging Stakeholders

Once we’ve identified who our stakeholders are we need to know the best way to engage them.Some of the reasons why it's important to engage stakeholders:

It helps inform decision makingto identify opinions and trendsto recognise legal and voluntary obligationsfor transparency and credibilityaccess to resourcesto identify opportunitiesto identify issues and oppositionto identify how they are influenced and who byto focus your time and resources effectivelyto achieve Competitive Advantage

We can best do this by understanding:

What is important to themWhat their expectations are of you and your business (see above)How we can partner/collaborate with them

Step four: Levels of communication:

Once you have identified your primary stakeholders you will be able to consider the level of communication they expect and plan this into your communication strategy:

INFORM - Some stakeholders will just want to know what you’re up to! These are the ones that are interested in your business but don’t have a high level of influence

COMMUNICATE - Some stakeholders will expect targeted messages and communicationto keep them updated

CONSULT - Others will expect to be consulted and have an input into decision making

COLLABORATE - Stakeholders that are current or potential partners will heavily influence values and decision making

I'm putting together a workshop/webinar on this subject. if you'd like to be kept updated on this please let me know.

Sources:
Mindtools -
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_07.htm

The Sustainable MBA by Giselle WeybrechtCorporate Social Responsibility by Michale Blowfield and Alan Murray