The Stakeholder Engagement Manual Volume 2 - AccountAbility

Think Strategically
P4: PRIORITISING STAKEHOLDERS AND ISSUES
BACKGROUND
Engaging with all stakeholders or on all issues is neither possible nor desirable.
Th is would go beyond any available resources, and at the same time make it very
diffi cult to adequately respond to stakeholders, leading to frustration. Th erefore,
you should try and prioritise your stakeholders and issues to ensure that time,
resources and expectations are well managed.
Th e previous processes have enabled an initial overview of the materiality of
issues and the related concerns and expectations of stakeholders, as well as over
their relationship to the organisation's strategic objectives. However, further
factors need to be considered before deciding on priorities for engagement.
Prioritisation is diffi cult because it is often not possible to quantify the various
‘stakes’ and make objective comparisons. Nevertheless by setting clear criteria
for prioritisation linked to the company processes and business strategy you
are better able to steer the engagement away from being driven by un-strategic
considerations such as the ‘noisiest’ stakeholders, the short-term focus of the
media, or the comfort-zone of managers. Below are two ways of prioritising
stakeholders:
Prioritisation according to the social maturity of issues
One useful way to understand the wide range of issues raised by the diversity
of stakeholders is to consider the maturity of the issues. Pharmaceutical
company Novo Nordisk created a scale to classify issues according to their
maturity (see box).
SIG's Initial Prioritisation and Categorisation of Stakeholders
The Swiss utilities company SIG started the process of prioritisation with a discussion amongst the executive management team.
The sustainable development team facilitated the discussion. It identifi ed an ‘a-priori’ set of stakeholder categories: shareholders,
clients, business partners, employees, public contractors and civil society interest groups.
The expectations of these groups, and their degree of satisfaction with SIG’s performance, were subsequently evaluated in various
dialogues with stakeholders. Existing customer surveys also served to shed further light on these subjects. In the prioritisation of
their stakeholders, SIG considered their importance to SIG’s strategic business objectives, and their current degree of satisfaction.