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Albert Vilario Alonso

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Consultant in Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability, Reputation and Corporate Communicatio

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Building stakeholder engagement:

there is room for improvement.

NOTE: this article was first published in spanish and can be found here.
One of the main difficulties and failures when implementing CSR in some
organizations is the almost nonexistent or deficient relationship with their
stakeholders
Stakeholder means any group or individual that can affect or be affected
by an organization or its activities.
The relationship with stakeholders is still a pending subject in many
organizations. And this not only happens in those that have just begun to
walk the path of Corporate Social Responsibility but is also something that
happens in many who are not new to it
In the beginners group, there is a tendency in many cases to treat both the
definition of the map of stakeholders and the selection of which themes are
relevant to them in a completely internal and unilateral way
That is to say, at best, that the heads of different departments meet, list
which they think are the groups that affect the activities of the organization
(often the opposite effect is not usually contemplated), without asking them
they decide which are supposedly relevant topics for them, and among these
they chose some that are more in line with the relevant topics for the
organization in order to build around them the CSR practices of the
organization.
In the case of organizations that are already tanned in CSR, stakeholder
engagement is often reduced simply to sending surveys to
stakeholders to know their most relevant concerns regarding their
relationship with the organization.
These surveys would be followed by the unilateral adoption of
activities and measures related to these proposed topics and, with good
luck a posteriori, once the corresponding CSR report has been carried out
and / or published, they are asked again if they agree to what was done and
what topics they would like to add for the following year.
There are different approaches in the relationship with the
interest groups, from almost the mere ignorance of their existence, to
relations based simply on the provision of information, others in which
besides the transfer of information there is also the consultation of the
parties, those that have taken another step and that use the dialogue as a
main tool, to end with those full relations based on all the above plus the
establishment of alliances and joint projects.

Benefits of the stakeholder engagement.

Organizations and their stakeholders acknowledge that todays complex
problems can not be solved by a single actor, but require a
coordinated effort by the parties to help find innovative and sustainable
solutions
Through the effective participation of stakeholders, these challenges can
be managed and create value for for all involved.
In addition, other benefits of a good stakeholder engagement are the
development of trust relationships between organization and stakeholder,
an improvement of decision-making processes and the contribution to a
more equitable social development by giving voice in those processes to
those who are entitled to be heard, or a better risk management and
corporate reputation.

The need for real accountability.

None of the methodologies of the two type organizations cited above are
the most appropriate for stakeholder engagement and are far from the
concept of accountability, which makes it impossible for RSC systems
derived from them to be successful.
The AA1000 family of standards created and promoted by
AccountAbility (a British entity that since 1995 provides innovative
solutions to the most critical challenges of corporate responsibility and
sustainable development) are largely unknown to many organizations and
their use to achieve the implementation of CSR policies, actions and
systems is still rare.
As defined by this series of standards, accountability is the
acknowledgment and the assumption of responsibility and transparent
attitude about the impacts of policies, decisions, actions, products and the
associated performance.
The organization is required to engage stakeholders to identify,
understand and respond to sustainability issues and concerns. And it also
forces itself to inform, explain and be able to respond to stakeholders by
decisions, actions and performance.
As it can be seen, this accountability could not be given in this way and in
that extension and depth in the organizations put as examples at the
beginning of the article.

AA1000SES: How to carry out a correct

stakeholder engagement.
Within the series of standards of AccountAbility, the AA1000SES (for
Stakeholder Engagement System) is dedicated exclusively to define how to
make the relationship with stakeholders.
This standard has been renewed at the end of the year 2015 with the
publication of a new revision (dating the previous one of 2011) that has
not had hardly publicity and that still is not translated into Spanish.
The AA1000SES standard describes:
How to establish engagement with stakeholders.
How to determine the purpose, scope and stakeholders involved in the
engagement.
How to integrate the relationship with stakeholders within corporate
governance, strategy and operations.
The processes that will result in inclusive and quality commitment as well
as valuable results.
The AA1000SES can not be applied separately as is based on the
AA1000APS (AccountAbility Principles Standard) of 2008 and therefore
has to take into account its principles that are:
Inclusiveness: stakeholder participation in development and
achievement of a responsible and strategic response to sustainability.
Materiality: the determination of the relevance and importance of a
matter for an organization and its stakeholders.
Responsiveness: it is the response of an organization to the problems of
the stakeholders that affect its performance in sustainability, and that is
done through decision-making, actions and performance, as well as through
communication with the parties concerned.

The AA1000SES text itself describes the engagement process with

stakeholders as a journey whose initial starting point is often to alleviate
a nuisance by something negative that has to be solved urgently.
Once organizations discover that engagement with stakeholders has helped
solve a problem, they then look for ways to apply that commitment as
a preventive measure rather than as a reactive mechanism, as
they see a better understanding of their stakeholders In a simpler and more
receptive operating environment.
Finally, they discover that relationships can contribute to both strategic
improvements and operational improvements and that commitment can
be a great source of innovation and new alliances, realizing that
stakeholders are a resource and not a nuisance to manage.
At this point, the commitment of the stakeholders promotes
strategic direction as well as operational excellence.
We are perhaps in front with a norm that is generally wasted but is certainly
a fundamental ally for achieving the sustainability of organizations.

Stakeholder engagement according to the

type of organization.
Of course, every stakeholder has interests and ways of being and acting.
Therefore, it will not be the same to interact with a SME, a large
corporation, an NGO, a union, a sector association, etc., since they will have
to be treated with a different approach.
To help with this work of building dialogue and trust with each of these
organizations, Volume 1 of the From Words to Action. The
Stakeholder Engagement Manual published in 2005 can be very
useful as it is still fully in force.
This guide provides many guidelines and tools on how to interact
with different stakeholders, as well as information on trends to
consider with each of them, examples of best practices, success factors,
benefits, perspectives and observations according to regions or geographic
locations, challenges to maximize the creation of value, etc.
Sustainability

Csr

Stakeholder

Rse

Rsc

Albert Vilario Alonso

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Consultant in Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability, Reputation and

Corporate Communication,and integration of people with disabilities.

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