Developing An Engagement Plan

Commit to coming up with and improving on your companies goals. CSR commitments communicate the nature and direction of the firm’s social and environmental activities and, will help others understand how the organization is likely to behave in a particular situation

• Do a scan of CSR commitments
• Hold discussions with major stakeholders
• Create a working group to develop the commitments
• Prepare a preliminary draft
• Consult with affected stakeholders
• Revise and publish the commitments
• Consider what is feasible within the budget
  • To ensure employee buy-in, include employees in the process of developing the vision and values.
  • To spark the process, create a CSR working group or hold a contest for the best suggestions, encouraging employees and their representatives to put some thought into their submissions.
  • Host a visioning session and ask participants to think about what the firm could look like in the future as a CSR leader.
  • Review the CSR priorities to determine which codes of ethics or conduct fit best with the firm’s goals.

Consultants are recommended when planning for CSR activities involving small, medium and large sized corporations. All levels of management should be on board, and the support of high ranking corporate officials should be given.

When it comes to CSR practices, stakeholder engagement can seem about as cutting edge as bread and butter. This is happening because stakeholder engagement is part of the CSR basics. Companies are feeling the increasing external pressure and recognizing that they must engage in the outreach buckets of public relations or communications.

Companies are using specific tools and principles for planning processes. One of the common framework used in developing engagement plan is discussed below:

Stakeholder Engagement Planning Process

Step	Purpose
Prepare	Identify and understand the territory to be explored through engagement with stakeholders. Eg: What are our most important issues where stakeholder engagement might be helpful?
Plan	Set objectives and parameters of engagement, and identify and prioritize stakeholders with whom to engage. Eg: How do we set an adequate objective for engagement?
Design	Co-develop engagement plan, including agenda and logistics, to meet engagement objectives. Eg: How and when do we extend an invitation to explore whether engagement is possible?
Engage	Successfully meet objectives through execution of engagement plan with stakeholders. Eg: Do we have the correct background information, materials and training to begin our engagement?
Evaluate	Assess outcomes of engagement for both company and stakeholders against specific objectives. Eg: Do we have the correct background information, materials and training to begin our engagement?
Apply	Share learnings and integrate engagement outcomes appropriately into business practices. Eg: How can we ensure that the results of the engagement reach the right internal decision makers?

The engagement plan helps companies to maintain quality relationships and to develop knowledge for making better-informed decisions and significant improvements in business practices and processes. A well planned stakeholder engagement process provides opportunities to further align business practices with societal needs and expectations, helping to drive long-term sustainability and shareholder value.