From investors and board members to employees, and even the general public, your stakeholders have high expectations on ESG issues. Working with them to identify and address these topics can be challenging.
Materiality assessments are a key part of your toolkit here, helping to prioritize and communicate the issues that matter most to your organization and the stakeholder.
More than just a reporting tool, a well-executed materiality assessment strengthens internal and external stakeholder relationships and turns them into advocates who help accelerate your ESG goals.
Let’s explore how organizations can use the materiality assessment process to improve stakeholder engagement.
who are stakeholders in business?
Anyone who is impacted by the actions of your organization is a stakeholder. They are generally divided into two categories:
Internal stakeholders include people who are in a direct relationship with the organization such as employees, shareholders, or members of the board of directors.
External stakeholders include anyone, or anything, that could be affected by the actions of an organization like customers, investors, regulatory bodies, governments, communities, and more.
what is stakeholder engagement?
Despite varying perspectives among stakeholder groups, it is essential to plan and implement action plans to drive connection on key issues. Stakeholder engagement refers to this process of communicating, interacting, and building rapport with those who impact your organization's success.
At its core, engagement is about building a positive and result-driven working relationship that support long-term business performance and sustainability.
how materiality assessment can drive stakeholder buy-in:
Materiality assessments can help determine what is relevant to your organization and provide an initial point of engagement with those that matter most to your success. Here are three ways you can use the assessment process to further improve stakeholder buy-in:
involve stakeholders early in the materiality process
The first and easiest way to start engaging stakeholders is to involve them in the materiality process from the beginning. Remember to cast your net wide in order to ensure that all stakeholder concerns and opinions are considered.
Involving stakeholders in this way helps them feel a sense of ownership around sustainability initiatives and goals. This drives not only deeper engagement, but also significant motivation to address these topics and issues.
share materiality assessment results with your stakeholders
Once you have completed an initial assessment and mapped the results on a materiality matrix, it’s time to share the results with stakeholders. This transparency not only fosters trust but also increases future engagement as stakeholders appreciate seeing how their input is reflected in outcomes.
Materiality assessment results should directly inform your sustainability strategies, helping to set priorities for the short and long term and determine the frequency of updates. With limited time and resources, not every stakeholder issue can be addressed immediately, so it’s important to clearly communicate the assessment outcomes and priorities, as well as the rationale behind them.
If the stakeholder's concerns were not addressed in the initial phase, setting up ongoing meetings to provide updates and evaluate progress can help maintain their trust
continue the conversation
Reporting assessment results should not be the end of your communication. Stakeholders should be encouraged to share their feedback and insights continuously. Again, when stakeholders feel heard and valued, they become more engaged in the outcomes of the overall process and want to contribute to program success.
Keep in mind that valuing stakeholders means attempting to connect in a convenient and reasonable way for them. Not all stakeholder groups will have the same access or means of communication. For example, some customers might not have regular internet access to answer an email survey. It is therefore important to customize outreach to ensure that everyone is given a chance to contribute their thoughts.
Efficiency is also key to secure participation. Surveys should not only be accessible but kept short and to the point to respect the valuable time of all stakeholders.
creating sustainability champions
By incorporating materiality assessment results and stakeholder feedback into your sustainability strategy, it is not only possible to build a comprehensive ESG program, but also to improve all-important stakeholder buy-in.
Garnering this buy-in from the right stakeholders, like your board of directors or investors, is essential to long term program and organizational success.
Ready to tackle your materiality process and make sustainability champions of your stakeholders? The AMCS ESG Solution brings your strategy to life with interactive maps, integrated scorecards, and materiality assessment tools.
To find out more about how AMCS can help your materiality assessment, speak with one of our experts today.