10 Positive Steps to Improve Stakeholder Engagement

The ten steps to improving stakeholder engagement are: be inclusive, categorise by interest and influence, publicise your engagements, acknowledge and respect people, make engagement simple, share information in a local context, highlight key issues, set clear timescales, demonstrate how feedback shaped the project, and keep engaging after decisions are made.

Putting all ten into practice is where most organisations find the real challenge. This article explains how to apply each step in practice across projects of any scale.

Be inclusive

Research your stakeholders correctly. Make sure local organisations, resident groups and faith communities alike have all been identified and considered when creating your engagement plan.

Categorise by interest and influence

Analyse and categorise all your stakeholders using a mapping chart to manage how, where and when you should communicate with them.

Publicise your engagements

Bring your engagement to your stakeholders' attention using multiple channels, especially with hard-to-reach groups. Letter drops, resident groups, social media and interactive websites are most commonly used.

Acknowledge and respect people

Most people are resistant to change. Make your stakeholders aware that you are the 'go-to person' within the community should anyone have any questions.

Share simple and digestible facts about your project, outline timescales, how the consultation will be conducted and when and where engagement will be captured.

Make engagement simple

Not everyone has the facilities or IT skills to access online websites or the capabilities to offer feedback through forums and surveys.

Diversify your engagement, set up focus group meetings, carry out door-to-door surveys and always make yourself available!

Share information in a local context

Understand the local area and what will be the positive effects your project will have on the community. Demonstrate how the positive effects will benefit your stakeholders in the future.

Highlight key issues

Try to understand and outline key issues and concerns that are likely to be at the forefront of your stakeholders' minds.

Furthermore, engage with all your stakeholders making them aware that you understand their concerns.

Set clear timescales for engagement

Make sure clear timescales are set and communicated to all your stakeholders. In addition, provide plenty of options on how they can take part (online, by post, by telephone or at scheduled events) and provide feedback.

Demonstrate how feedback helped shape the project

A large proportion of stakeholders will accept a project if they feel they have contributed to your plans.

Demonstrate wherever possible how your stakeholder feedback has been taken into consideration and used during your consultation.

Keep engaging with stakeholders

Make sure you inform your stakeholders before and after an application has been submitted.

Be transparent and update them throughout the process. If your application is approved, ensure you keep your stakeholder informed on the next steps.

Deliver improved stakeholder engagement

The Tractivity stakeholder engagement system has been designed with stakeholders at its core, saving you and your team time and effort.

It provides you with a myriad of management and communications tools to help you build meaningful relationships with your stakeholders, analyse and report on the outcomes of your engagement activities and much more.

Discover how we can help you improve your stakeholder engagement and support your success, contact us today for a free demo.

Frequently asked questions

What are the ten steps to improving stakeholder engagement? The ten steps are: be inclusive, categorise stakeholders by interest and influence, publicise your engagements across multiple channels, acknowledge and respect people, make engagement simple and accessible, share information in a local context, highlight key issues and concerns, set clear timescales, demonstrate how feedback has shaped the project, and keep engaging stakeholders after decisions have been made.

Why is inclusivity important in stakeholder engagement? Inclusive engagement ensures that no stakeholder group is inadvertently overlooked, including local organisations, resident groups, faith communities, and hard-to-reach populations. Missing key groups can undermine the validity of a consultation, create legal and regulatory risk, and damage trust that is difficult to rebuild once lost.

Why should you demonstrate how feedback shaped a project? A significant proportion of stakeholders will accept, and even support, a project if they feel their input has genuinely contributed to it. Closing the feedback loop by showing how responses influenced decisions builds trust, increases future engagement rates, and reduces the risk of late-stage opposition.

What does making engagement simple involve in practice? Making engagement simple means offering multiple participation options online, by post, by telephone, and at in-person events to accommodate stakeholders with different levels of digital access and ability. It also means providing clear, jargon-free information and making it easy for stakeholders to ask questions or raise concerns at any point.

How does Tractivity help organisations follow these ten steps? Tractivity provides the tools to implement each step systematically, from stakeholder identification and categorisation through to multi-channel communication, feedback tracking, sentiment analysis, and reporting. By centralising all engagement activity in one system, it removes the manual overhead that prevents many organisations from following a consistent engagement process.