How can you use ISO 26000 guidance to engage stakeholders?

2 Principles of stakeholder engagement

ISO 26000 outlines six principles that should guide your stakeholder engagement process. These include accountability, transparency, ethical behavior, respect for stakeholder interests, respect for the rule of law, and respect for international norms of behavior. You should be accountable and transparent in your actions and decisions, act with integrity and fairness, consider the legitimate interests of your stakeholders, comply with laws and regulations, and avoid complicity in any adverse impacts. Moreover, you should disclose relevant information to your stakeholders in a timely manner and respond to their inquiries and feedback.

3 Steps of stakeholder engagement

ISO 26000 suggests four steps to implement an effective stakeholder engagement process. First, you should identify who your stakeholders are, their roles and responsibilities, and how they relate to your organization and its impacts. Then, prioritize your stakeholders based on their influence, interest, urgency, and legitimacy. This will help you decide how to engage them. After that, plan how to communicate and interact with your stakeholders, the methods and tools to use, objectives and outcomes to achieve, and how to monitor and evaluate your engagement. Lastly, engage your stakeholders in a dialogue that is inclusive, participatory, respectful, and responsive; this will allow for mutual learning and collaboration.

4 Tools for stakeholder engagement

ISO 26000 provides some examples of tools to facilitate your stakeholder engagement process, such as stakeholder mapping, analysis, consultation, dialogue and partnership. Stakeholder mapping helps identify and categorize stakeholders based on their attributes and relationships. Stakeholder analysis helps understand their needs, expectations, interests and perspectives, and how they affect or are affected by your organization. Stakeholder consultation is a tool to solicit and collect feedback on social responsibility issues and actions. Dialogue is an opportunity to exchange information and views with stakeholders to explore opportunities for cooperation and improvement. Lastly, stakeholder partnership is a way to establish long-term relationships with stakeholders to work together on common goals and projects.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?