Stakeholder Communications

Introduction Relevant, timely and transparent communication is the lifeblood of effective and productive

collaboration among stakeholder groups. This paper briefly discusses:

1. Structuring the interactions between the primary stakeholders in this area

2. Communication strategies used to support these primary stakeholder structures - the

distinction has been made between internal communications strategies (intra-stakeholder

communication) and external communications strategies (stakeholders communicating to

the users of their services and the general public).

3. Outreach to aligned professional bodies that form secondary/tertiary level of stakeholders.

Primary Stakeholder Structures Xxxx stakeholders are drawn from a range of department and organisations including (governmental

service providers, non-governmental organisations, policy makers, professional representative

bodies and others). To manage this array of services, xxx needs to perform detailed stakeholder

analysis and to create structures to enable groups with overlapping goals to work together more

effectively. The first step is to identify the current primary stakeholders and establish working

groups to support them. The figure below shows the current primary stakeholders and their group

structures.

(insert your primary stakeholder structure here.)

(Alex - I didn’t include the difference between primary/secondary/tertiary stakeholders since the

client already knew this – let me know if you need help with this.

Figure II.1 Primary Stakeholder Groupings.

While the primary stakeholders are seen to be the main drivers of change, secondary stakeholders,

marginalised stakeholders and even opposition stakeholders are also important and must be

included in the communications processes. The nature and type of communications relates closely

to the degree of collaboration that the organisation is involved in. Collaboration, when seen as a

continuum, ranges from simple consultation to where the stakeholders act as advisors but the

leading agency makes the decisions to full collaboration where all stakeholders have equal

responsibility and accountability in achieving the goals of the group.

Indeed, within the stakeholder groups themselves, varying degrees of collaboration may be required

depending on which activity is being undertaken. An example of this would be the Xxxxx National

Awareness Campaign which benefits from consultation with the Violence against Older People

stakeholder group but Xxxxx makes the decisions with regard to the campaign whereas, in improving

services for older people, the same group would necessarily have more distributed decision making

responsibility.

Figure II.2 a & b Primary Stakeholder Groupings collaborating on service provision (a) and on

external communications (b)

Primary Stakeholder Communication Strategies

Intra-stakeholder Communications As stated above, intra-stakeholder communications are critical to the productive functioning

stakeholder group. The nature of these communications depends on the definition of the

stakeholder group as shown below in Figure II.3. This shows the various information and

communications outputs that may be used to ensure open, transparent and timely information can

be shared among the stakeholder groups depending on the degree of collaboration required from

each group.

“Charter”

The stakeholder charter is a document that is agreed between the stakeholder organisations and

serves as a record of the group operation at a given time although this may also change from time to

time as required by the stakeholder group. The “charter” has the following elements:-

Rules of Engagement.

How the group agrees to work together; takes input from members, resolves conflicts, and escalates

issues.etc.

Statement of the shared goals of the group.

This critical definition of the goals of the group is important to ensure that a coherent

communications strategy can be put in place. Unless the stakeholders have helped to formulate and

take ownership for common goal, it will be almost impossible to reach the stage where they can

collaborate effectively together. It is difficult to get to this stage and third party facilitation may be

required.

Roles and Responsibilities

This identifies the convenor, facilitator etc. and ensures that everyone understands their function

within the collaborating group.

National

)

Regional RAC

Local LAN?

Consultation Decision making input

Shared & transferred

responsibility

National

Regional RAC

Local LAN?

Consultation Decision making input

Shared & transferred

responsibility

Communication Tools & Processes

This section articulates all communications elements ranging from how the group’s decisions are

recorded and disseminated, how often and in what form the groups meet to how information is

shared between the members of the group.

Figure II.3 Communication Elements by Stakeholder Group.

Tracking progress of the group

This is an ongoing process where the progress of the group against its plan can be assessed. A simple

tool to achieve this is a dashboard which can be managed by the convenor This document distils the

progress of the group to a series of key performance indicators (KPIs) which can be evaluated on an

ongoing basis and used to focus the group on issues that require attention. The figure below shows a

fictional example of the progress of a working group against its top objectives.

• Stakeholder Charter & artefacts • Write access Information Share • Regular strategy and implementation meetings • Ezine recipients • External campaign consultation/shared decision making • Access to shared calendar • Event speaking opps /invitations •

Primary

Stakeholders

• Ad hoc meetings/ hello meetings • Read access to information share • Ezine recipients • Shared Calendar • Event Invites •

Secondary

Stakeholders

• eZine recipients • Access to shared calendar • Event invites • Tertiary

Objectives KPIs Value Target Status

Objectives agreed - -

Shared Communication Tools in place - -

Roles identified and agreed - -

% reduction of services provision overlap 30% 50%

Top 5 service gap reduction 2 3

€ decrease in ongoing service costs - 200k

% increase in successful case resolutions 2% 30%

% reduction in services user complaints 7% 15%

% increase in service awareness 65% 50%

1. Effective working group formation

2. Improve effectiveness of service inputs

3. Enhance Service Outputs

Key

target acheived

in progress

target not expected to be met

Not started

Figure II.4: Illustrative example of a sample KPI Dashboard.

Information Share

In most stakeholder groups, working documents are either circulated by email or distributed on a

paper format. The downside of this method of updating stakeholders is:

Spam – often large files are circulated to broad stakeholder lists and the spam tends

to mount in proportion to the complexity and scale of the project

Security Risk: documents sent through email are vulnerable while being sent and

paper documents can often be abandoned in the wrong places.

Version Control : it can be difficult to ensure that the version that you are working

off is the most up to date version and in some cases, a lot of work can be repeated

by proofing and correcting documents that have already been changed.

Inefficient collaboration: resources and time can often be consumed as people lose

documents and they have to be resent.

Data loss: key documents may be lost should the system currently housing them

become faulty.

Having an online information share can ensure that when the share is accessed, the most current

versions of the documents are readily available at any time. Data security can be enhanced by having

the share backed up regularly and subject to strong authentication and verification technology.

Access to the share can be controlled on a person by person basis – allowing primary stakeholders to

edit some documents or providing outlying stakeholder groups with the ability only to read files and

not edit them.

Regular Strategy and Progress Meetings.

These are vital for functioning collaborative groups to meet either face to face or via conference call

to assess progress against their goals and strategies. The meetings should occur at least on a

monthly basis depending on how close the group is to the actual execution of the strategy (e.g. the

NSC only meets on a quarterly basis whereas the public awareness sub-committee meets on a

monthly basis). While strategy changes may be discussed, it should only be in the light of the KPI

dashboard to ensure that all stakeholders are working together effectively. There are other proxy

metrics which will also implicitly give a health indicator of how successful the collaboration is:

Are organisations attending?

Are the right people attending?

Are people being pro-active in the meeting?

eZine

The eZine is a monthly email that will be sent to all stakeholders who have asked to receive it. It

takes the form of a mail that contains a serious of story headers and links that direct the reader back

to the xxxx website. The ezine fulfils the function of keeping primary stakeholders up to date

between meetings other stakeholders informed if they are not engaged with xxxx on a face to face

basis.

External Campaign Consultation

During campaign development it may be necessary to have a separate dialogue thread with

stakeholders who have been consulted for their input. This will primarily be through email and will

either distribute material via email or draw the stakeholders’ attention to the document share.

Shared Calendar

This is an online resource that will allow all stakeholders to post their external communication

activities via a simple questionnaire to a common calendar that will allow everyone to get an

immediate assessment of the ongoing activity in any given area.

Website

The website itself is a repository of information that can be used by stakeholders. At the time of

writing (September 2008) it is being redesigned to direct stakeholders to the sections of the site that

are relevant to them such as progress on the National Strategy development, changes to the funding

request process, relevant research resources and thexxx publications list. In addition, it will maintain

an archive of previous eZine articles and event presentations.

Events

In addition to their inherent value for informing stakeholders, events also provide an opportunity for

some stakeholders to interact withxxx on a 1-1 level for the first time. In an informal atmosphere it

would be possible for xxx to garner grass roots support for its strategies.

External Communications in Collaboration with Primary Stakeholders

Garnering Input from Stakeholders

As discussed in appendix 1 above, governmental, non-governmental service providers and

professional representative bodies can amplify and align key communications messages to their

audiences. By correctly harnessing the communications channels of the stakeholders, it is possible to

execute more impactful campaigns.

The difficulty in applying this model however is that the stakeholder organisations must be

comfortable with the communications messaging and that in principle, the timing of any given

campaign should not overlap any campaigns that the individual organisations may be undertaking. In

order to get true “buy in” from the stakeholders it is necessary that they see the campaign as an

extension of their own messaging which due to the subjective nature of marketing and the time

required for consultation can pose difficulties in meeting deadlines and incurring redundant

approval cycles.

The figure below shows how Xxxxx can get the input into any external campaigns that it is planning

by using a reducing input model. Given enough time, it is possible to consult and work with relevant

stakeholders to agree which audience should be addressed and even what direction the messaging

could take. In addition, the early involvement of the stakeholders can help identify positions and

messages that would be problematic for them and potentially cause them to turn against the

campaign.

Fig II.5 Primary Stakeholder Group Input into Campaigns over Development Time.

While creating a brief, it is possible to use the agreed collaboration structures to inform that brief

and engender a sense of shared ownership. Once input has been garnered, the main agency can take

control and brief the communications team and vendors.

The second stage is the initial presentation of the creative ideas. These are presented first to the

main agency for initial feedback. As a result of the subjective nature of creative, the input from the

stakeholders is now bounded within the range of the creative options which the Xxxxx itself wants.

Similarly through subsequent phases of creative amendment, the opportunity for input is bound

tighter until in the final phase main agency effectively is simply informing the stakeholders of the

final execution.

The purpose of this shrinking of stakeholder input ability is purely for the purposes of bringing the

campaign to market in such a way that all parties feel t is their campaign but the campaign can be

executed in a limited timeframe.

Amplification

As discussed in Appendix I above, each of the stakeholders has valuable communication channels

both to their own colleagues and key audiences including the general public that can be utilised to

amplify the messaging beyond the activity being conducted by xxx. The same is true of the

governmental organisations and the professional representative bodies. The former will often create

its own siloed public awareness campaigns and the latter have direct and regular communication

lines to thousands of members.

The strategies for leveraging these communication channels are:-

1. Inform the messaging of stakeholder campaigns

2. Extend the campaign development stage into implementation phase.

The first strategy requires the stakeholders to open up their own campaign development process to

the stakeholder group just as Xxxxx have done. The initial stage is the organisations need to share

their campaign planning at a top level through tools such as a shared messaging activity calendar, a

shared file repository where the organisation can post its draft briefs including information such as

target audience(s), campaign messages, planned spend & implementation ideas. Ideally, the

stakeholder should bring the brief development into open session as Xxxxx has done. And, using the

same process of decreasing input, Xxxxx and the other stakeholders may inform the campaign while

execution responsibility lies with the service provider itself.

The second strategy requires the two stages:

a) Garnering “buy in” from the stakeholder.

b) Provision of a correctly formatted campaign execution pack to the stakeholder for

dissemination through its own channels.

Stage a) is difficult because it requires the presentation of the campaign to the stakeholder and

ensuring that the campaign causes no conflicts for the stakeholder. In the case of primary

stakeholder groups, this will have already been done through the existing collaboration structures,

secondary stakeholder groups and representative bodies do not have the opportunity of these

intensive collaboration structures and must be communicated with either using existing

communication protocols (see above) or consulting on an ad hoc basis.

An additional benefit of this, of course, is that the process of informing non-primary stakeholders is

that it can prepare them for any unforeseen demand on their resources as a result of the halo effect

of a campaign e.g. the awareness campaign causes more people to call the National Crime Helpline

even though it is not specified as a call to action of the campaign execution.

During the second stage, campaign packs are designed to do the following:-

I. Provide an easy to understand campaign rationale showing messaging, audience,

creative, dates of execution, calls to action etc. that can be used by the stakeholder

organisation to inform its workers and partners.

II. Detail the agreed action that the stakeholder will take e.g. place campaign call to

action on website

III. Campaign execution guidelines (essentially a brand guide for the campaign).

IV. Provide campaign material that can be re-packaged using the campaign guidelines

V. Agreed methods of reporting on campaign impact e.g. helpline spikes

VI. Incentive for the stakeholder organisation e.g. T-shirts for call centre staff etc.

VII. Escalation instructions for questions that can be answered promptly.

An additional element might be a visit from Xxxxx to help train stakeholder staff which would again

serve to provide additional commitment from a stakeholder organisation.

Assessment of Stakeholder Capability

While there may be an aspiration of having all stakeholders take campaigns and run with them,

expectations need to be informed as to the stakeholders’ capabilities from a communications

perspective. This is especially true of the smaller NGOs who may not have access to sophisticated

communications channels or processes and in many cases it is rare for service providers to have

formally devised a communications strategy or communications calendar for any medium term

period. A high level mapping of the stakeholders’ communication capabilities has been engaged in

using social audit, appreciative enquiry and historical impact assessments. The benefit of course is

that collaboration at a national and regional level will “raise all boats” in terms of getting an effective

message to victims, general public and perpetrators.

Leveraging Representative Bodies as Stakeholders There are many professional representative bodies in Ireland ranging from trade unions (e.g. ICTU)

to the typically middle class professions (e.g. Law Society, ICGP) to special interest bodies (Disability

Federation of Ireland). The common attribute is that they have a clearly defined set of members

whose interests they represent and highly developed and active internal communications channels

and procedures. Figure II.6 shows a selection of some of the largest groups in Ireland. By carefully

selecting and developing a working relationship with a prioritised subset of these groups, Xxxxx will

be able to:-

1. Amplify the public outreach efforts in driving awareness and changing attitudes

2. Encourage up-skilling of potential front-line service staff (e.g. Nurses, Gardai) through

training and guidance

3. Gain insight into the experiences of front line staff in this area by creating an inward flow of

communication from group members.

There are challenges in achieving this which pivot essentially on being able to set the agenda with

these groups so that they sufficiently prioritise the issues as something their members should be

aware of or take action on. Typically, these groups represent an attractive target for most special

interest and lobby groups and there is a specific requirement for Xxxxx to differentiate itself and its

message from the general noise.

Association Association Name Members

IBEC Irish Business and Employers Confederation 7500 businesses

ASTI Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland 122,000 teachers

NYCI National Youth Council Ireland 53 youth organisations

ICGP Irish College of General Practitioners

AGP Asssociation of General Practitioners

GRA Guarda Representative Association 10,500

AGSI Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors 2000+

CCI Chambers Commerce Ireland 12,000

CIF Construction Industry Federation 3000

IMO Irish Medical Organisation

INO Irish Nurses Organisation 28,000

POA Prison Officers Association 98% of all prison officers in Ireland

SIPTU Services Industrial, Professional and Technical Union 200,000 individuals

INTO Irish National Teachers Organisation 35,000 members

INOU Irish National Organisation for the Unemloyed

IMPACT 55,000 members

ICTU Irish Congress of Trade Unions 832,000 thought the member bodies

AHCPS Association of Higher and Civil Public Servants 3000

UNITE

DFI Disability Federation Ireland ~120 disability organisations

IACT Irish Association of Counselling and Therapy 3500

IASCW Irish Association of Social Care Workers

IASW Irish Association of Social Workers

Law Society Ireland 8,400

Bar Council of Ireland 2002

Figure II.6 Selection of Professional Representative Associations in Ireland

Strategies for Engagement with Professional Representative Bodies Effective engagement with the professional representative bodies must take place over a series of

steps as shown in figure II.7. :

Prioritisation

Representative bodies can be assessed on two dimensions: -alignment with Xxxxx’s

objectives (and therefore importance to the fulfilment of Xxxxx’s remit) and their assessed

willingness to work with Xxxxx. An example would be the Garda associations who have a

significant overlap with Xxxxx goals due to the frontline nature of the work and who rank

highly in their openness to work in this area. By rating each organisation on these

dimensions, this will clarify which bodies are critical to Xxxxx’s goals and which are likely to

be the easiest to work with. This analysis will yield a shortlist of perhaps 6 key organisations

which require engagement before the others. Further analysis should also yield the key

priorities of these organisations and the potential channels of communication and training

that Xxxxx may be able to leverage.

Engagement

On identification of the key organisations, Xxxxx will make an initial assessment to judge

whether the degree of engagement is simply leveraging their communication channels or

whether a deeper level of collaboration is required e.g. through up-skilling and training.

Xxxxx can then decide at what level engagement is required to take place ranging from 1-1

meetings with senior figures from Xxxxx and the organisation down to simple outreach in

order to place relevant messaging content such as opinion pieces for the organisation’s

member magazine etc.

Agreed Common Goals

Once the organisations have been engaged, both Xxxxx and the representative body should

agree a common goals and strategies to achieve their aims. Given the likely resource

constraints on both sides, initial goals and strategies must be realistic and readily

achievable with the minimum of effort i.e. both organisations should use existing processes

and resources to get the desired effect.

Prioritisation EngagementAgreed

Common Goals

Execution of Strategies

Results Assessment

Figure II.7 Collaborating with Representative Bodies

Example goals could involve outreach to members, training or even research among

members.

Execution of Strategies

The agreed strategies can then be executed over the required time period. As noted above,

these simple strategies can be managed as mini-projects that are aligned with Xxxxx’s main

communications plan efforts.

Results Assessment

Once the engagement is underway, it is critical that good results are obtained and

highlighted to both organisations to ensure further collaboration in the future. This requires

an agreed measurement methodology and the commitment to regular communication and

feedback between both organisations.

Conclusion Strong communications processes in the stakeholder space will greatly enhance the ability for xxx to

achieve the goals it has set out for itself. Not only will it be simpler to facilitate stakeholders’ ability

to collaborate to improve services but it will also ensure that all agencies in this sector are speaking

with a common and very loud voice. Over a longer term, raising the priority in the public’s minds will

also help to ensure that policy can be influenced correctly in this area. Creating robust and effective

stakeholder communications strategies is a complex and iterative task. Once the key building blocks

are in place, there is then a process of repeated evaluation and the rejection of ineffective strategies

and the promotion of effective ones. It is only by actively trying these strategies that this insight will

be gained.