AA1000 Stakeholder Engagement Standard
Revision Process
The world's first standard for stakeholder engagement

4.1.1 Map stakeholders

The organisation shall establish a methodology to identify and map its stakeholders. Stakeholders shall be mapped for each engagement.

Stakeholder mapping is related to the purpose of the engagement. Stakeholder maps for specific engagements may draw on organisation wide stakeholder mapping but will typically also include stakeholders whose interest and expertise is more directly related to the purpose of the specific engagement.

However, all stakeholder mapping should follow a common process and should inform the overarching strategy for managing stakeholder relationships. The identification of stakeholders may be guided by the criteria such as the following:

• Responsibility - stakeholders to whom the organisation has, or in the future may have, legal, financial and operational responsibilities in the form of regulations, contracts, policies or codes of practice (e.g. employees, local authorities).
• Influence - stakeholders with influence or decision-making power (e.g. local authorities, shareholders, pressure groups).
• Proximity - stakeholders that the organisation interacts with most, including internal stakeholders (e.g. management of outsourced employees, local communities), those with longstanding relationships (e.g. business partners) and those the organisation depends on in its day-to-day operations (e.g. local authorities, local suppliers, local infrastructure providers).
• Dependency - stakeholders who are directly or indirectly dependent on an organisation’s activities and operations in economic or financial terms (e.g. only employer in locality or sole purchaser of goods) or in terms of regional or local infrastructure (e.g. schools, hospitals). This also includes stakeholders who are dependent on basic needs the organisation is directly or indirectly responsible for the delivery of (e.g. medicine, water, electricity).
• Representation - stakeholders who through regulation, custom, or culture can legitimately claim to represent a constituency (e.g. NGOs, special interest groups including those representing the ‘voiceless’ - people or things unable to represent themselves, like the environment or future generations – trade union representatives, councillors and local community leaders).
• Policy and strategic intent - stakeholders the organisation directly or indirectly addresses through its policies and value statements (e.g. consumers, local communities, management of outsourced employees, franchisees), including those who can give early warning on emerging issues and risks (e.g. activists, civil society organisations, academia). The process for identifying and mapping stakeholders may include:
• Convening a cross-functional group of people (e.g. legal, risk management, external communications, procurement, HR, and investor relations) with knowledge of the organisation, project, department or specific issue that you want to identify the stakeholders for.
• Categorising identified stakeholders according to the criteria under which they have been identified, to what extent and why.
• Grouping stakeholders into categories and then subcategories likely to share similar perspectives (e.g non-governmental organisations might include humanitarian organisations, human rights organisations, animal welfare groups and environmental groups). Further, the organisation should establish systematic processes to
• enable stakeholders not currently identified to voice their concerns or to identify opportunities (e.g. through open access mechanisms such as hotlines, local representatives, focus groups or surveys that reach beyond the engagement’s envisioned scope);
• where appropriate, provide for voices to be heard without fear of consequences, by making the process independent of its influence and control (e.g. whistle blowing policies or appointment of an ombudsman); and
• include mechanisms for representation of the voiceless (e.g. future generations, the environment). While the initial stakeholder identification and mapping may take place without the systematic involvement of stakeholders, as engagement takes place and practice matures, they should be involved in this process.

4.1.2 Profile and prioritise stakeholders

Profiling stakeholders
The organisation shall systematically profile its stakeholders. Each profile shall establish:

• Expectations
• Knowledge of the issue(s)
• Knowledge of the organisation
• Legitimacy of stakeholder representative
• Willingness to engage
• Possible impacts (negative or positive) of the representative
• Cultural context
• Geographical scale at which they operate
• Stakeholders’ engagement capacity
• Relationships of stakeholders with each other

The organisation shall systematically prioritise profiled stakeholders and determine which ones it is most important to engage and develop relationships with.

In order to design stakeholder engagement processes that work, you need a clear understanding of who your stakeholders are and how and why they may want to engage with you. You need to understand not only the stakeholder group but also the individual stakeholder representatives.

Organisations should profile stakeholder groups as well as individual stakeholder representatives. The following should be taken into consideration:

• Expectations - Try and be as clear as possible about both, the stakeholders’ general view on the issue, and their expectations towards you. Some stakeholders only expect you to have an open and honest conversation with them, others may expect you to make specific operational changes or adhere to a certain set of performance standards. Stakeholders will have their own specific view regarding an issue, about potential problems, their causes and solutions. Furthermore, stakeholders investing time in engaging with you will expect a ‘return on investment’ in terms of action and response. Compare the expectations to what you think you can and want to actually do about an issue, given your resources and strategic objectives (these ‘margins of movement’ are further considered in the next step.)
• Knowledge of the issue(s) - Be clear about the representative’s knowledge of the issue. Some stakeholders know as much or even more about an issue than you. In such cases, you may wish to learn from them. Others know far less, and you may want to inform or educate them. This may be particularly important if their actions can have a strong direct or indirect impact on you, for example when they influence public policy regarding the issue.
• Knowledge of the organisation – Engagement works best when the stakeholders have a comprehensive and balanced knowledge of the organisation. This may not always be the case at the beginning of the engagement. When it is not, part of the engagement plan should be to build understanding of the organisation.
• Legitimacy of stakeholder representative - When engaging with an individual or an organisation you are often seeking for them to stand as representative of a larger group of stakeholders. Be clear about any assumptions or claims about who a representative speaks for. Are they an elected or recognised representative? Do they have legitimacy in terms of broad support or acknowledged expertise? Or are you seeking a representative sample opinion from individuals who reflect the broader make-up of the community?
• Willingness to engage - Successful engagement requires willingness on both sides. If there is unwillingness, it is advisable to investigate the reasons for this. Sometimes, this may be due to circumstances which you can control and change. In other times, it is important to acknowledge the stakeholders’ right not to engage.
• Possible impacts (negative or positive) of the representative - Be clear about the specific possible impacts of the stakeholder on your business. How can s/he contribute to your objectives? How can s/he stop you from achieving them? When doing this, you also need to consider her/his indirect impacts on you via other stakeholders. Some representatives’ potential impacts on you or on the stakeholder engagement process may be so significant that there is a definite necessity to engage them. Consider the specific cultural circumstances of the engagement, e.g. language, customs regarding social interaction, gender issues. This may be very relevant to the methods you choose for engagement, as well as to the resource implications. The consideration of cultural issues should ideally be undertaken together with someone familiar with that culture, whether from within or outside the organisation.
• Cultural context - Consider the specific cultural circumstances of the engagement, e.g. language, customs regarding social interaction, gender issues. This may be very relevant to the methods you choose for engagement, as well as to the resource implications. The consideration of cultural issues should ideally be undertaken together with someone familiar with that culture, whether from within or outside the organisation.
• Geographical scale at which they operate – What is the geographical scales at which the stakeholder operate. For example, organisations representing stakeholders’ viewpoints who are themselves large global organisations may not always have the necessary insights into the expectations of local level stakeholders. The geographical scale at which the representative operates, or is willing to operate, should match your engagement plans and objectives. Do you need someone who can engage on a global issue? This would require that the representative organisation possesses a significant degree of credibility, legitimacy and oversight for this. An issue like the environmental considerations in the building of a new plant, however, is more competently addressed with the local administration and/or community.
• Stakeholders’ engagement capacity - Stakeholders must be treated as a scarce resource, which includes the respectful treatment of their attention and time. Smaller organisations may have very limited financial means and staffing capacity.
• Relationships of stakeholders with each other - If you are intending to engage with different stakeholders at the same time, or maybe even involve them in the same activity or locality, it is important to understand their views of and relationships with each other. Tension between your stakeholders can, especially if they are not considered, have very negative influences on the outcomes of your engagements with them. Even when stakeholders are available and willing to engage with others, the outcome may result in conflict between competing stakeholder needs. Whilst conflict resolution is not always possible, the standard should address the importance of setting up official grievance and conflict management processes. A particular representative could be appointed on the basis that they are trusted, independent parties with no conflicting and/or vested interests.

Having profiled stakeholders, organisation should prioritise them, that is, determine which one it is most important to engage with and develop relationships with. To do this the organisation should identify the criteria it wishes to use to prioritise stakeholders. These may include criteria such as:  influence of the stakeholder, willingness to engage, significance of organisational impact on stakeholder. The organisation may need to consider more specific criteria for specific engagements. Stakeholder should be ranked using these criteria.

By setting clear criteria for prioritisation the organisation is better able to steer the engagement away from being driven by un-strategic considerations such as the ‘noisiest’ stakeholders, the short-term focus of the media, or the comfort-zone of managers.

4.1.3 Select engagement method(s)

The organisation shall select the methods of engaging with its stakeholders that are best suited to the purpose and aims of engagement.

There are a wide range of methods and tools available, each with advantages and limitations. Getting it right depends on picking the right combination of approaches and techniques for your particular situation and stakeholders. There is no single formula for making this selection; in each case it will depend on a number of factors. In making this selection the organisation should consider:

• Your engagement purpose, scope, aims and level;
• The profiles and prioritisation of stakeholders
• Your current approach to and level of engagement;
• Expectations regarding the outcomes of the engagement;
• Available resources to undertake engagements
• Time-frame for different methods
• Governance implications
• Sign-off and associated implications
• Conflicts of interest
• Capacity implications
• What others are doing in relation to similar issues and/or stakeholder groups
• Where there are existing initiatives or associations addressing similar issues.

Stakeholder engagement does also not have to be developed from scratch. In many cases issues cannot be addressed by an individual organisation. Sector-wide or multi-sector action may be the best option. Increasingly engagement is facilitated though networks and partnerships.

It is also essential to find out how you are currently engaging with your stakeholders. When selecting methods an organisation first needs to know how it is currently engaging and how it needs to improve its engagement to achieve its purpose.

The tools and methods of stakeholder engagement include processes already familiar to business such as market research surveys and focus groups, opinion leader research, conferences and workshops. Other, less familiar participation processes and facilitation techniques may also be useful; tools and techniques developed by practitioners in international development, public planning, democratic participation and online communities and social media can be especially helpful in consensus building and problem solving with diverse groups of stakeholders.

In many cases, combinations or sequences of different approaches may be necessary for achieving your purpose.

The table below looks at different methods of engagement in relation to different levels of engagement.

In general, low level engagements such as monitoring or informing may be considered as adequate for solving or addressing minor challenges to stakeholder and corporate behaviour and strategy, while engaging at a higher level has the potential to enable bigger changes and transformation, and the solving of more systematic and deep-rooted challenges in managing corporate impacts or sustainability issues.

However, this does not mean that, for example, providing information to your stakeholders can not lead to significant changes in your relationship with them and in their behaviour. In fact, effective engagements are usually a combination of approaches from different levels, and informing is an essential part of most higher-level engagements like consultation or collaboration.

A key difference between the low levels and the high levels of engagement is the degree to which you pool resources (knowledge, human resources, operation capacities, finances or influence on others) in order to achieve a shared objective. In general, the more fundamental the transformation is that you and your stakeholders want to make happen, the more important it is that you work together closely and make the best use of each others resources.

For example, if you simply want to address your stakeholders’ concerns resulting from their lack of knowledge about the health implications of one of your products, informing them may be sufficient. However, if you want to develop a company policy that successfully serves as a guideline to developing all products in a way that addresses stakeholders’ health concerns, then you may have to consult more thoroughly with a number of stakeholders in order to make sure that the policy meets the different expectations. Finally, if you want to encourage your whole industry to address consumer health issues in its products and marketing then you will have to collaborate with an even broader number of stakeholders (e.g. industry and consumer associations, governments, industry peers) – and often on a higher level – in order to make this happen. The methods of engagement that you and your stakeholders choose therefore depend on your purpose, aims and objectives.  The organisation should also assess and build on existing engagement mechanisms (e.g. customer hotlines or investor relations meetings).

4.1.4 Determine boundaries of transparency

The organisation shall establish the boundaries for transparency in relation to what it will share with its stakeholders and what its stakeholders will share with others. It shall clearly communicate these boundaries to its stakeholders.

Effective engagement depends upon a shared understanding of the issues. This requires that all participants have access to the same information. If an organisation, for what ever reason, is not willing to share the information needed for successful engagement on an issue it should not initiate that engagement. To initiate an engagement is to generate expectations about transparency, involvement and response. If these expectations are not met the image and reputation of the organisation will suffer. Trust will be undermined.

There may be legitimate reasons for not sharing information. The information may be non-material, commercially sensitive or misleading. The organisation may choose to go forward with the engagement and share the information they wish to keep confidential under the protection of a confidentiality agreement. This will allow those engaged full access to the information. But it will not allow them to share it outside of the engagement.

Organisations should also decide to what extent participants may share information on the engagement itself. There are a range of options:

• Full transparency including attribution;
• Full transparency without attribution (Chatham House rule);
• Limited transparency agreed by the participants; and
• Limited transparency controlled by the organisation.

4.1.5 Establish implementation plan and schedule

The organisation shall establish a stakeholder engagement plan and schedule and make these available to its stakeholders.

The engagement plan should allow the organisation to achieve its purpose and demonstrate how the Commitment to ‘inclusivity’ will be met.

As engagement takes place and as stakeholder engagement practice matures, the organisation should involve stakeholders in the design and implementation of its engagement plans.

The engagement plan and schedule should include:

• roles and responsibility of both organisation staff and stakeholders
• the engagement purpose, scope, aims and objectives
• engagement methods
• expected outputs and outcomes
• activities
• timelines

When developing engagement plans it is also important to consider factors that can impede the ability of stakeholders to engage and to address these in the plan. Such factors may include:

• the accessibility of the location
• capacity to travel
• availability of technology (ICT)
• timing (e.g. avoiding monsoon season)
• the need for anonymity
• social hierarchies (e.g. caste, gender, wealth)
• local conflicts
• lack of shared understanding of expectations, customs, conventions
• religion
• culture-specific communication styles
• family and other responsibilities (e.g. harvest times, childcare)

4.2 Prepare

4.2.1 Identify and mobilise resources

The organisation shall identify and gain approval for the resources required for successful engagement.

Resources are required for the engagement process itself, but also to make the necessary changes in response to the outputs of stakeholder engagement. Engagement outputs may have significant consequences for an organisation’s operations and strategy. Therefore, it is important to consider the resource requirements of these.

The engagement plan and schedule should provide the basis for identifying resource requirements. The resources required for the engagement process will include the financial, human (including capacity building) and technological resources required for those working for the organisation as well as for the stakeholders invited to participate. Stakeholders may wish or need to be compensated for their time as well as for expenses incurred in order to participate in the engagement. Financial support should be designed in such a way that it does not represent a potential for conflict of interest.
The engagement should not proceed if the necessary resources are not committed by the organisation.

4.2.3 Build Capacity

The organisation shall identify where internal and external capacity needs to be built. The organisation shall commit to responding to these needs in order to enable effective engagement.

Engagement processes are likely to involve a variety of people with different levels of expertise and experience. It is important to appreciate that some individuals and groups may find it difficult to take up your invitation to engage, or that circumstances may hinder them in fully contributing to the engagement processes. This could, for example, be due to language, literacy or cultural barriers, problems of distance or lack of time or gaps in their knowledge about a specific issue. Therefore, you may need to address capacity gaps of stakeholders to avoid their exclusion or to prevent them from disengaging.

Areas where capacity building may be relevant and beneficial include:

• understanding and awareness of the issues, the organisation, the engagement process, local culture,
• access to information,
• language,
• facilitation, and
access (adjusting the process to make participation possible, assisting with resources).

The following skills will contribute to the ability to engage successfully.

• A knowledge of relevant approaches to stakeholder engagement.
• Expertise and experience in the specific issues that are subject of the engagement as well as an understanding of the industry and political context.
• A good understanding of the communities involved.
• The ability to examine and interpret the outputs of stakeholder engagement in a way that captures the key facts and figures, as well as messages and insights.
• Individual personality traits such as integrity, ability to focus on solutions, motivation, and creativity.

Organisations should consider the following when building capacity:

• when providing financial support to stakeholders, do so on the basis of clear eligibility criteria and in a transparent manner;
• never assume common levels of knowledge and similar understandings of concepts – be sure everybody involved understands the issues at stake;
• provide enough time: stakeholders require time to understand new information and form opinions; good engagement also requires trust, which takes time to evolve.

The organisation should consider involving external parties where this would benefit the engagement.

4.2.3 Identify and prepare for engagement risks

The organisation shall identify and prepare for engagement risks.

Engagement risks may include:

• Conflict between participating stakeholders
• Unwillingness to engage
• Stakeholder fatigue
• Balancing weak and strong stakeholders
• Disruptive stakeholders

The organisation should make contingency plans to deal with the most likely or damaging risks.

The organisation should understand the potential for conflict as fully as possible and should have detailed profiles available for facilitators. If conflict resolution is not possible because of entrenched positions the method of engagement may have to be changed or adjusted. Bilateral engagement may be more productive than a forum discussion. Where there is the potential for conflict in an open forum, special care should be taken to selecting a facilitator who is neutral and credible to both parties.

It is not always possible to engage with key stakeholders because of their unwillingness to engage. This may require an adjustment of the aims of the engagement. Full consultation may not be possible but it may still be possible to keep the stakeholder fully and transparently informed. In multi-party it will be important to ensure the views of key stakeholder unwilling to engage are included in the discussion and debate.

The organisation should be aware that stakeholders are a valuable resource they should not take advantage of. Resource and capacity building support should be provided. The organisation should only engage with stakeholders when there is clear purpose and value in doing so. Stakeholders want to see a return on their investment in engaging.

Weak or marginalised stakeholders may have very valuable input to offer. The facilitator must ensure that balance of input is encouraged and maintained.

The organisation should establish clear ground rules for the engagement. These ground rules should be agreed by all participants. If a stakeholder disrupts an engagement in a way that clearly contravenes the ground rules the facilitator must intervene and re-establish the ground rules.

4.3 Engage

4.3.1 Invite stakeholders to engage

The organisation shall develop a communications strategy to invite necessary stakeholders to participate.

The organisation should invite stakeholders to participate well in advance and should provide the following information:

• purpose, scope, aims and objectives of the engagement,
• the engagement process and timelines,
• the expectations of the engagement,
• the expectations of the stakeholder invited to participate,
• the name of an individual and not just an organisation, including contact information,
• how to respond,
• additional information that will be provided, and
• next steps.

The organisation should keep a contact database of invitees and their responses. The organisation should be aware of cultural differences and customs when inviting people.

The organisation should consider using a range of means to invite participation, including: social networks, relevant media, mailing lists or personal visits.

The organisation may need to organise the engagement around the availability of key participants.

4.3.2 Brief Stakeholders

The organisation shall develop and provide the participants with the briefing materials needed to ensure the success of the engagement. Briefing materials shall be made available to participants in good time and shall take into account any relevant language, disability and literacy issues. The briefing materials shall cover all relevant substantive issues and practical information.

Briefing materials provide the practical basis for building more robust and responsive stakeholder engagement processes.

Be careful not to underestimate the time that people require to read and digest information. You may also need to prepare participants with pre-meetings, more informal conversations or even training.

The organisation should address the following issues in the briefing materials;

• the nature of the issues, why they are considered material and the risks and opportunities associated with them;
• how the issues are currently managed within the organisation;
• what policies and systems are already in place;
• what the organisation can and wants to do about the issues.

Briefing materials should be presented in a format that is accessible and that clearly highlights the key issues. Summaries should be provided where this would prove useful.

The organisation should also consider involving stakeholders in the development and identification of briefing materials.
4.3.3 Engage

At the beginning of the engagement, the organisation or its selected facilitator shall establish procedural and behavioural ground rules and terms of reference for the participants in the engagement. The ground rules shall be agreed by all participants.

The engagement shall follow the engagement plan and the guidance for the method(s) used.

During the engagement the organisation, or the facilitator working for the organisation, shall be watchful for and immediately identify and address the root cause of any of the following attributes:

• distrust,
• intimidation,
• rivalries between individuals and organisations,
• poorly defined issues or problems,
• emotionally upsetting situation,
• unhelpful complexity,
• unhelpful digression,
• unbalanced participation,
• poor time utilisation.

Some general ground rules for engagement could be:

• Avoid assigning intentions, beliefs, or motives to others. (Ask others questions instead of stating untested assumptions about them.)
• Honour each party’s right to “pass” if he or she is not ready or willing to speak.
• Allow others to express their opinions completely.
• Make sure that the opportunities for input are evenly distributed.
• Respect all confidentiality or anonymity requests that the group has agreed to honour.
• Adopt a solutions-oriented approach.
• Stay focused on the issue that is the subject of the agreement.
With the agreement of the participants the organisation may make audio, video or photographic records.

4.3.4 Document the engagement and its outputs

The organisation shall document the engagement and its outputs.

The documentation should capture:

• the purpose and aims of the engagement;
• the methods used;
• who participated,
• who participated;
• the timeframe;
• a verbatim record (not always necessary but may be useful - permission may be required);
• a summary of stakeholder concerns, expectations and perceptions;
• a summary of key discussions and interventions;
• outputs (e.g. queries, proposals, recommendations, agreed decisions and actions)

4.3.5 Develop an action plan

The organisation shall analyse the engagement and its outputs and develop an action plan that articulates how the organisation will to respond to the outputs of the engagement. The action plan shall provide a response to all outputs of the engagement.

It is not essential that the organisation do everything that is proposed or recommended. It should however respond to every output, giving reasons for it chosen decisions and actons.

The action plan should

• Ensure that decisions and actions take into account stakeholder concerns, expectations and perceptions, as well as key discussions and interventions;
• Ensure that roles and responsibilities are well-defined.

4.3.6 Report on engagement outputs and action plan

The organisation shall report to participants on the engagement, its outputs and the action plan. This shall be communicated in a timely fashion.

The organisation may provide a full record of the engagement or a summary. If it provides a summary it may wish to make the full record available to those who request it.

Organisations may use any suitable means to report back to participants, such as

• Written reports
• One-on-one conversations
• Follow-up telephone briefings
• Providing access to information on web portals.

The organisation may also choose to communicate this information more widely, both internally and externally. The organisation should seek feedback on the summary of the engagement from the participants and revise it in response to any legitimate queries raised.

4.4 Act, review and improve

4.4.1 Implement the action plan

The organisation shall implement the action plan.

Based on the action plan the organisation should implement the agreed policies, strategies, objectives and targets.  The organisation should ensure that it has allocated adequate resources.

Management should ensure that key enablers are in place, including:

• Governance and management commitment;
• Relevant policies;
• Strategies, objectives, targets and performance indicators;
• Clear assignment of responsibility and the necessary competencies;
• Review, learning and improvement processes.

4.4.2 Monitor, evaluate and audit engagement

The organisation shall systematically monitor, evaluate and audit its stakeholder engagement. The organisation shall monitor, evaluate and audit

• Commitment
• Purpose
• Process (planning, preparing, engaging, acting, reviewing and improving)
• Outcomes
• Reporting

For each of these areas, the organisation shall establish indicators that are meaningful to itself and its stakeholders.

Monitoring and evaluation should be based on the criteria in this standard. Each individual engagement should be monitored and evaluated. The information from individual engagements should then be aggregated and evaluated at group level. Indicators should be developed taking the need for aggregation into consideration.

Organisations should consider the use of participatory monitoring and evaluation methods.

The monitoring and evaluation of outcomes (the results of decisions and actions) should be integrated with overall sustainability performance monitoring and evaluation.

The organisation should analyse the full range of its strategic and operational engagements in relation to their overall contribution to the success of the organisation. Indicators should be developed that demonstrate the value added through the commitment to inclusivity.

The organisation should consider the extent to which measurement or assessment mechanisms exist and build on these.

The monitoring and evaluation process should be supported by periodic internal and external audits of both process and outcomes. Assurance of public reporting on stakeholder engagement can serve as independent external audits of stakeholder engagement.

Organisations should consider monitoring and evaluation is relation to the level of achievement rather than in relation to pass / fail criteria.

4.4.3 Report on engagement

Organisations shall publicly report on their stakeholder engagement.

Communicating to your stakeholders on the value and impact of engagement should go beyond reporting back to stakeholders who participated in specific engagements.  The organisation should publicly report on the aggregate of its engagement activities to demonstrate how they contribute to value to the strategy and operations of the organisation.

Organisations should integrate public reporting on stakeholder engagement with other forms of public organisational reporting.

Organisations should have the public reports independently assured. Independent external assurance of public reporting will increase the learning from engagement and increase the credibility of the report.

4.4.4 Improve

The organisation shall continually improve its stakeholder engagement.

The criteria in this standard, and associated indicators used by the organisation, provide the means to identify areas for improvement.