How to Connect With Stakeholders to Boost Sustainability
"Stakeholders" and “stakeholder engagement” are prominent sustainability buzzwords. Stakeholders usually get associated with large companies tromping about in remote areas, or companies that are on a mea culpa tour for doing something bad. But stakeholder engagement can be crucial in building a smaller business. Businesses can use stakeholder relationships to boost their sustainability practices, or just to strengthen their business.
Originally developed by Richard Freeman in the 1980s, he defined stakeholders as “any group or individual who is affected by or can affect the achievement of an organization’s objectives.”
Stories sprang up in the 1980s when companies treated communities poorly. Vale, a Brazilian mining company got into trouble when a dam it had built burst and killed 247 people. The Bhopal plant disaster in India that killed thousands of people is another example of stakeholder issues and negotiation after the fact. Both companies suffered reputational damage because of a lack of stakeholder engagement.
There's an old networking adage that says make a connection before you need someone. This is sort of like saying "network while you have a job." Creating and maintaining stakeholder relationships before you need them, or rushing to play catch up, will seem more genuine and ultimately get you further than one of the mea culpa situations described above.
“Creating and maintaining stakeholder relationships before you need them, or rushing to play catch up, will seem more genuine and ultimately get you further than one of the mea culpa situations described above. ”
While your company may not be dealing with minerals or chemicals, you still are responsible to stakeholders. It’s still valuable to put people that impact and are impacted by your business on your radar. Read on to learn how to figure out who your stakeholders are, how to connect with each group and how to use stakeholders to boost your sustainability strategy.
What’s Your Sustainability Strategy?
Now that we know what stakeholders are, the other piece of the puzzle before we dive in is to know what your sustainability strategy is. What are you working on, what are your goals and what are your current sustainability initiatives? Now we will combine these later but it's good to know what your strategy is first and put it in a drawer until we're ready. In many cases, you won't be able to build a strategy without stakeholders.
Please note and remember that stakeholder engagement is important even if you don't have a sustainability strategy. Reaching out to stakeholders is sustainability. As discussed above, it's better to have relationships before you need them than to come back later to catch up.
Who Are Your Stakeholders?
Based on the definition of stakeholder, you might have existing stakeholders in your head. Think about the full spectrum of the work "effected by or effects," this could mean purchasing, spreading information, decision-making, word of mouth, recognizes the product in the store, has a cousin that works for you. In short, your company touches a lot of people and groups.
If you’re having trouble, go through this checklist:
Who within the company affects business operations?
Who outside the company affects business operations?
What people are crucial to getting my product or service into my customers' hands?
What or who caused the last four major changes to my company?
Are there groups, governments or outside organizations that impact my business?
Let’s put some examples in, shall we?
Who within my company affects the business operations? Employees, board of directors, future employees
Who outside my company affects the business operations? Shareholders, customers, supply chain, competitors, future customers, industry groups
What people are crucial to getting my product or service into my customers' hands? Supply chain, past customers, employees, retail stores
What or who caused the last four major changes to my company? Landlord, office building, competitor, complementary products or services
What groups, governments or outside organizations impact my business? The federal government, city council, chamber of commerce, neighborhood board
Some might squabble with "future employees" or "future customers," but if you're not thinking about these people, you're already behind.
How To Organize Stakeholders
Once you’ve gotten each stakeholder down, put them into categories with placement and level of influence. Placement means internal or external and level of influence is how much they influence your business. You can set this up as a number scale or just “high and low” to make it easier. Consider a chart to start categorizing.
Place stakeholders where they fit in the chart. Internal and external first and then consider high or low influence. Customers are external and high influence (usually). Neighborhood groups or industry groups could be external, low influence. Having a visual representation can sometimes help. And it can be easy to share with others on the team, or see quickly who is high influence.
Every business and industry will categorize each stakeholder differently! Unless you’re heavily involved in lobbying the city council to change something for you, they might not be a high influence stakeholder. It’s also ok to have a “medium” category if that works for your business.
Then, create a system of organization for each stakeholder. Create a similar spreadsheet or table and fill in the necessary information for each stakeholder.
Here’s a Sample Stakeholder Engagement Template
Use the columns write out more details on each stakeholder, including name and size, when you’ve interacted with them, their level of influence, any notes or descriptors. See below for an example of how this could work for a city council.
Which Stakeholder to Connect With First?
Determining how to connect with each stakeholder can be time-consuming. Many businesses have at least 20 different stakeholders. Some stakeholders, like customers and employees, already have substantial engagement policies.
When figuring who to connect with, look at two things. There was probably a stakeholder who you thought "Oh my, I better get in contact with them." And second, high influence stakeholders. Do these people or groups first. This could be a non-profit or a city council member. Go down your "high influence" list and have a plan of attack for each.
Don’t neglect “low influence” stakeholders. Set up a system or schedule to check in on one over a shared connection, or even just to follow and engage with on social media.
How To Connect With Stakeholders
It’s best not to reach out to someone “just to connect,” or to say “hey.” If you want to start a relationship, think about regular relationships! Find a common interest or see if they can answer a question for you. If you can’t think of any way to connect, table it for a month and come back to it.
Ideas for connection:
Have they been featured in any news outlets? Reach out and say you read it
Do you share a common interest or group?
Did they just start in this position? Did you meet their predecessor?
Do you have a question for them?
Can you include them in a survey?
Are you hosting any events they might be interested in?
Are they hosting any events you can attend?
Use your best judgment and intuition. How would you like a stakeholder to approach you?
Lots of companies have "Community and Brand Partnership" divisions or teams. Allocate this stakeholder work to them! They already have the knowledge, people skills and some of the strategies to make this system effective.
Once you've connected with someone, set up a system to stay in touch. Whether a quarterly reminder or set event connection. Maybe you get lunch every quarter or both attend the same bi-annual conference. Write this down and keep reminders and notes to check-in.
Connect With Stakeholders Over Sustainability
Ok, this is where the sustainability strategy comes in. If you have a sustainability strategy, use that to connect with stakeholders! Let community members know what you're doing, tell the city councilor who is working on recycling about your new waste initiative.
If you don’t have a sustainability strategy, have a tactic or reason in mind for reaching out to stakeholders. If you’re thinking of starting a sustainability strategy, stakeholders can be a great place to start. You can still reach out to the city councilor about recycling but coming in as a knowledge request instead of a share.
“If you don’t have a sustainability strategy, have a tactic or reason in mind for reaching out to stakeholders. If you’re thinking of starting a sustainability strategy, stakeholders can be a great place to start. ”
What is your end goal or hope for the stakeholder? Is it so they can recommend your business to someone else? To keep them as a supplier? To have as a press or editorial contact? It's also worthwhile to think about what you can offer them in return. Relationships are a two-way street.
Keep It Going
Set up a regular system to monitor and check in on these stakeholders. Set up an annual time to review and make sure your stakeholders are still your stakeholders and if there are any new ones added.
Stakeholders can strengthen your business by spreading the word about your products or services, helping you with a problem, or being an ally for a new challenge. Don't underestimate their value and don't neglect to begin forming these relationships. Remember, start before you need them.
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