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Corporate Social Responsibility: An Implementation Guide for Business •
the requirements of regulators or permit-issuing bodies (e.g., to get an operating licence in certain countries, a firm may be required to engage indigenous peoples);
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some operations (e.g., emissions to land or water) may have extra-territorial impacts or implications that give legal or other grounds for special-issue groups to intervene; and
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the opportunity to share costs in addressing a specific challenge (e.g., by partnering with another firm or NGO working on the issue).
Task 2: Understand the reason for stakeholder engagement The firm may be contemplating stakeholder engagement to better understand its impacts, to help articulate its values, mission, strategy, commitments and implementation, to facilitate a regulatory approvals process, to participate in measurement and reporting, to avert or solve a crisis, or to proactively improve relationships. The reason for engaging stakeholders will determine the style of engagement and stakeholders’ expectations, all of which could change over time. It is important to be clear about where each engagement fits into the big picture. Will the role of stakeholders be advisory or participatory? Is the firm prepared to change its plans significantly based on what it learns? The demands on some stakeholder groups (e.g., NGOs) to participate in consultation processes have become so great that some are not willing to contribute much energy to processes in which they have little influence. Without committing any resources, becoming aware of stakeholders and their significance will benefit future business planning. Increasingly, many firms are using stakeholder engagement as part of a strategic process: as “radar” for identifying emerging issues, risks and opportunities; for expanding networks; for testing communications approaches; and for building brand and trust.
Task 3 : Plan the engagement process Determine the engagement objectives and boundaries. What does the firm want or need to get from the engagement? What do stakeholders want or need? How does the company relate to and what are the opportunities for working with the supply chain? The engagement plan should describe each stakeholder group and any corresponding subgroups, to help ensure that the individual participants are appropriately representative of the full stakeholder group. It should also describe existing engagement processes, since many of these can be used as a foundation to develop a more systemic approach. For example, engagement might already exist under the auspices of the current management approach (e.g., ISO 9000, ISO 14000 and the ISO 26000 Social Responsibility standard, under development). When engagement is planned in the context of a regulatory process or a crisis, it is crucial to ensure that the participants have the legal and/or moral authority to speak for their group. For engagement related to performance measurement or organizational learning, having representative participants, including employee representatives, can be important to ensure reliable results. The engagement plan should note the capacity of the group to engage with the firm on specific issues. Communities, indigenous peoples and other stakeholders may need resources to participate, including credible information, compensation or childcare (so indi-