Engaging stakeholders

Good stakeholder engagement is the cornerstone of corporate respect for human rights.

It is key to understanding your company’s human rights risks and the situation ‘on the ground’. It is also key to showing how your company is managing its human rights risks – and testing whether steps being taken are achieving positive outcomes.

It’s important to engage with the right people at the right time.

Relevant stakeholders may include your colleagues across the business, customers, suppliers and other business partners, potentially affected people (and/or their legitimate representatives), governments, investors, civil society organisations, trade unions, human rights defenders, industry peers, academics and consumers. By engaging with a broad range of stakeholders – ideally early and in an ongoing manner – you can draw on their diverse perspectives, insights, capabilities and networks to strengthen your efforts to address human rights issues and problems.

Some of these conversations may be difficult, particularly when stakeholders have critical views or ask challenging questions. But these conversations present an opportunity to learn more about the experiences of particular groups or individuals, and to build trust and credibility. If you’re not having uncomfortable conversations, you may not be talking to the right people.

Know what you want to achieve when undertaking a specific stakeholder engagement on human rights issues, and design the engagement with that outcome in mind. 

Before the engagement, get the right people involved, ensure you understand the issues for discussion and get familiar with the level/nature of experience the participants will bring. Be intentional about the design of the engagement and think about the best way to get meaninful input from participants. If your purpose is to share information, presentations may be appropriate. But if you want to generate input and ideas, other approaches may work better. In some situations, it may be helpful to share brief preparatory materials in advance and/or ask some participants to pre-prepare for particular discussions.

During the engagement, ensure that everyone understands the purpose and objective of the discussion. Set the right tone and be clear about any parameters for discussion (e.g. whether the discussion is being held under the Chatham House Rule). Be disciplined to keep the discussion on track, but also flexible; if the conversation is taking longer than anticipated but yielding rich insights, it may be more valuable to go with the flow and make up the time later.

After the engagement, communicate clearly with participants about next steps. Consider sharing how insights gained through the engagement are informing thinking and action within the company. 

Some stakeholders are easier to engage with and hear from than others. It’s important to ensure that your approach to these individuals or groups will elicit the information or feedback you are seeking.

For example, many companies find it difficult to engage directly with workers across their value chain. Traditional ways range from town hall-style meetings and sessions with select groups of people who represent a workforce, through to tried and tested online internal communications. New technologies, such as worker voice apps, can help here. However, these need to be used in smart ways, and it’s important to be mindful of their limitations. In some situations, it may be more effective to conduct an in-person deep dive with a small group of stakeholders than to collect less detailed responses from a larger group.

Further, when engaging with groups – such as workers or local communities – be mindful of cultural differences, power dynamics within the group, and language barriers. Workers may feel uncomfortable speaking openly in front of their employers. In local communities, it will be important to ensure that the voices of women, children, the elderly and members of marginalised or vulnerable groups are heard. Where it is necessary to speak to representatives of a group, ensure they are legitimate and speak for the whole group.

For more, see: Multistakeholder collaboration

Some companies gain significant value from a formalised stakeholder engagement panel.

Stakeholder engagement panels can take many forms. One approach is to establish a group comprising representatives of diverse relevant organisations that meets under the Chatham House Rule twice a year to engage with the CEO, members of the Board, and relevant management teams within the business. Some companies find it helpful to design the forum in a way that enables both the company and its stakeholders to bring agenda items, enabling two-way design of meetings.

Practitioners observe that it is critical to find the right people for the stakeholder engagement panel. Ideally, participants will have experience, expertise and the emotional intelligence to influence the company in constructive ways. Setting up that culture is key to ensuring the group operates as a critical but effective resource for the company.

Some companies that have established an effective stakeholder engagement panel observe that the benefits outweigh the risks. However, it is important that the company management perceives the inherent value of the group. An engagement panel may involve costs (travel, executive time etc.) and listening to criticism, so executive buy-in to the idea is crucial.

Internal stakeholders can provide valuable expertise, and can also be key to implementing human rights policies and processes across the business.

For example, strong buy-in and commitment from senior business leaders is needed to ensure a robust mandate for human rights work. Colleagues with relevant expertise – for example, in business units or divisions, in legal, human resources, community liaison or procurement roles – can help ensure policies, processes and other activities will be effective in daily operations. And these (and other) colleagues will also have a role in ensuring policies and processes are fully implemented across the business, and may take increasing ownership of this work over time.

Be strategic when deciding who to engage with – and on what. It may take time to find the right people. Think about who has relevant expertise, who will have a role in implementation – and also who could be an ally or strong voice to increase your traction in key parts of the business. Then think carefully about the best way to engage with colleagues. Remember that influencing is also about educating and supporting, and you may need to begin with awareness raising and capacity-building conversations. Real examples, clear ‘asks’ and concrete tools can be key to effective internal engagement. Practitioners observe that colleagues are often interested in supporting human rights work, but may be unsure how they can help and what they need to do.

Finally, persevere. As with most stakeholder relationships, your engagement with colleagues and senior leaders will ideally be long-term. Your impact may be less if you make one strong effort then move on to other things. Build ongoing relationships and check in regularly on progress and to offer support.