Stakeholder Engagement
Effectively engage your stakeholders and synthesize their input into meaningful insights and recommendations.
A Consultative Approach
Organizations making important decisions – especially decisions that will affect people they have a mandate to serve (members, citizens, residents) – often need to gather viewpoints from key stakeholders through a formal process. Environics Research helps you effectively engage your stakeholders and synthesize their input into meaningful insights and recommendations.
Our stakeholder engagement projects are led by specially trained consultants who design a custom approach by evaluating your organization’s issues-environment, identifying relevant stakeholders, and determining the best ways to reach them. We have a record of connecting with harder-to-reach participants – from time-stressed professionals to members of marginalized communities – and engaging them with sensitivity and skill.
Building Credibility And Driving Meaningful Outcomes
Successful stakeholder engagement requires buy-in from participants. We work to understand each stakeholder’s context and relationship with our client, and we tailor our approaches accordingly. We consider the ease or difficulty of reaching participants, barriers that may affect their willingness to participate, and their impression of your organization at the time we reach out. We work carefully to ensure a positive and credible process – regardless of stakeholders’ pre-existing relationship with our client organization – recognizing that the quality of the engagement process affects participants’ perceptions of your eventual course of action. Your reputation is shaped by not only by the decisions you ultimately make, but the path you took to reach those decisions; we’re mindful of your reputation at every step.
We apply a range of tools to gather meaningful input from stakeholders, taking into account the needs of our client and the groups we need to engage. Methods for stakeholder engagement can include moderated town halls, focus groups, one-one-one interviews, surveys, and customized online engagement tools.
Our proven track record includes stakeholder engagement work on behalf of some of Canada’s most significant organizations and government departments, including the Public Service Alliance of Canada, the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario, the Canadian Institute for Health Information, Forests Ontario, as well as numerous governments at the federal, provincial, regional and municipal levels.
International Association for Public Participation (IAP2)
Our work is grounded in the core values of public participation, defined by the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2). The IAP2’s community of practice is governed by the philosophy that:
- Those affected by a decision have a right to be involved in the decision-making process.
- Sustainable decisions can only be made by recognizing and communicating the needs and interests of all participants.
- An effective project must seek out and facilitate involvement of those potentially affected by or interested in a decision.
By partnering with Environics Research, your organization is connecting with an experienced team dedicated to effective, respectful stakeholder engagement. The outcome of a high-quality process is meaningful and actionable advice that will ultimately lead to better decision-making and a stronger reputation for your organization.
