BSR’s Five-Step Approach to Stakeholder Engagement

Authors

• BSR Staff

  

In a series BSR is launching today, we outline our approach for companies to initiate and sustain constructive and cost-effective stakeholder relationships over time. By engaging early and often, companies can create value for stakeholders as well as use the engagement process to inform business strategy and operations. Each brief provides practical guidance and tools on implementing the five steps:

1. Develop a strategy: Review past engagements, determine the company's motivation for the engagement, and define objectives. Download this paper.
2. Map stakeholders: Define criteria for identifying and prioritizing stakeholders and reflect on the best engagement mechanism such as a single meeting, open forum, social media, or an ongoing stakeholder panel. Download this paper.
3. Prepare for the engagement: Define short- and long-term goals, and set tactics and rules for the engagement.
4. Engage stakeholders: Conduct the engagement itself by focusing the conversations, making the most of engagement sessions, and mitigating tension when it arises. Download the paper for steps three and four.
5. Establish action plans: Use stakeholder feedback to improve business strategy and operations, build trust with stakeholders, and identify opportunities and plan for future engagements. Download this paper.