LLPR Senior Account Manager, Lucy Pearce, talks timelines when it comes to stakeholder engagement – when to start, and when to stop (or in this case, not!)
The purpose of stakeholder engagement is to build and maintain relationships with those impacted by your decision making, as well as those who can influence the outcome of those decisions.
Drawing on those keywords in bold – build and maintain – there are two critical considerations when looking at your stakeholder timeline.
- Start early
- Don’t stop
These points may seem obvious, but time and time again, we see the opposite happen.
Start engaging early, before it’s too late
A business may only start to engage stakeholders when a project is fully underway, such as a planning application which has already been submitted. It could be an afterthought as something you ‘probably should do’ after completing the gruelling pre-submission process, or a knee jerk reaction to a sea of objections from disgruntled individuals.
Whatever the reason, the reality is that you may well have missed the boat and made the process significantly more challenging.
Authenticity is critical when engaging stakeholders. People want to believe you have a genuine interest in developing a relationship, and that it’s not purely for your own benefit to get something over the line.
In an ideal world, stakeholder engagement would come long before any major change, such as a planning application, is even being contemplated. But let’s be realistic – such efforts take a lot of time, which, financially, may be better spent elsewhere in the business.
What should you do?
A prime time to engage a communications specialist is during the very initial planning stages of a project. Where a planning application is concerned, that period tends to be at pre-submission stages.
Make your stakeholders part of that process. You’re not just telling them what’s coming; you’re giving them the chance to be involved in your project. We’re not saying to take every single comment on board and change your entire concept – rather, give them the chance to be heard and feel valued. A public consultation in initial planning stages will help you see what the likely concerns will be and give you time to address them.
It may seem time intensive, but in the long run, you’re saving yourself a huge amount of time by knowing potential touchpoints in advance.
What’s more, remember to communicate your changes to your stakeholders. ‘You said X, we listened…’ – it speaks volumes.
Don’t stop engaging once you achieve your primary goal
So, you’ve built some great stakeholder relationships and won over your key influencers to get your project over the line. Time to put the brakes on engagement to focus on other things? Absolutely not!
It might be tempting to down tools and focus on the logistics of getting the project underway, but stakeholder engagement must be an ongoing focus. After such consistent communication, you need to show your stakeholders that the efforts you made were genuine. Although each objection won’t be officially logged for consideration on a council planning portal, individuals can still raise concerns with their local council and potentially put a spanner (or several) in the works.
Ongoing communication doesn’t just benefit the current project, either. Building long-term relationships could pay dividends in the future. You may need to call on allies to share support or try to minimise objections on another project in the pipeline.
Influential stakeholders in your local community may also have connections to help your business develop, such as sparking new partnerships between local businesses for mutually beneficial sales, PR and marketing opportunities.
What should you do?
Keep your stakeholders updated on your project progress – construction timelines, potential disruptions, and any changes which might impact them.
Community days are also a great way to help stakeholders visualise your project and connect with them in a face-to-face format.
Meanwhile, continue identifying and managing opportunities to engage the local community long-term – sponsoring a local sports team, donating materials/time for a community project, inviting community groups to host meetings on your site…the possibilities could be abundant.
Just make sure that you understand exactly what the community cares about – and that’s where your communications specialists come in.
What can we do?
We develop robust, thorough communication strategies which cover every stage of a project planning process and beyond.
Our specialists leave no stone unturned, digging deep to understand who your stakeholders are, what their touchpoints are, and how best to engage them.
We always work closely with all consultants involved in your scheme to ensure we’re all singing from the same hymn sheet.
Our stakeholder engagement activities cover a multitude of bases, including (but not limited to):
- Extensive stakeholder mapping
- Setting up and managing one-to-one meetings, community events, and public consultations
- Tracking and measuring stakeholder sentiment on an ongoing basis
- Identifying ambassadors
- Creating a Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) for planning application submissions
- Preparing planning committee briefing packs
- Drafting stakeholder communications
- Media relations
Every project is unique, so we always tailor our support to meet your bespoke needs. We believe in immersing ourselves in your business and becoming part of your team, to help you achieve success.
Interested in finding out more? Please get in touch.
