Companies will obtain great benefits if they promote a commitment with stakeholders, since these, in addition to being customers, employees, suppliers, etc., also have attitudes, values, commitments, particular and common interests.
Having them identified, making value propositions to them, building their trust and credibility, and striving for their support is important for the company’s success. This process is known as Stakeholder Engagement (relationships and interactions necessary for the development of its own activity).
In today’s fast-changing world, stakeholders are evolving and transforming, as most customers, employees, shareholders or suppliers are connected to the digital world.
How to approach the process?
It is essential to know why you want to engage in dialogue with these stakeholders, for example, by researching available information:
- What is known about these individuals and groups that make up the stakeholders?
- What are the channels and spaces for dialogue?
- What would it take to improve relationships and evolve to a more interactive format?
This analysis should result in a management system to establish active listening and real dialogue processes, as well as objectives with each of the groups and monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, such as KPIs to measure the performance and dynamics of engagement. This analysis should also be used to identify the difficulties and limitations encountered with each of the stakeholders with whom a dialogue channel is established.
Respect 24/7
Companies may not always agree with their stakeholders, but as long as engagement is respectful, mutual benefit is guaranteed. In addition, it is important to overcome the win-win to delve deeper into stakeholder motivations and put some of their needs first, as well as explore new formats to drive dialogue.
Solutions
Tools such as Enablon Stakeholder Management allow organizations to efficiently manage stakeholders, achieving a greater commitment from them, and in turn allows stakeholders to access the organization’s platform at all times and maintain an agile dialogue channel in real time.
