In light of the changes that were needed to protect us during the Coronavirus pandemic, we wanted to share some information in regard to the importance of engaging stakeholders during times of crisis that may prove helpful.
Never has it been as essential to have clarity from across your diverse stakeholder landscape in order to minimise the risk of panic and confusion.
If your organisation has gone through a period of reduction in employee presence in the office or is working in conditions where staff are partially/fully working from home, we would advise taking measures to look to secure extra support.
A stakeholder engagement & management system is designed to help bridge the gaps and eliminate silo working whilst representing a solid investment for the future as things can change so quickly. It can help in a variety of key areas:
Coordinating and mapping stakeholders
SRM - stakeholder relationship management software - allows you to categorise your stakeholders according to your own stakeholder mapping activity.
As you can imagine, at the present time, your current mapping models may be ever-shifting with people moving into high interest and high influence.
You may need to remap as a team – and move at speed to deliver relevant communications to these new individuals.
An SRM system enables you to easily upload new categories of stakeholders into the system in minutes. With just a few clicks, you can deliver the relevant message at the right time.
Some SRMs systems, such as Tractivity, will provide unlimited changes and at no cost, so you have confidence however the landscape changes, you can stay one step ahead.
Coordinating your teams
As your teams may become more fragmented and your office-based workforce retreats home, you can’t afford to lose key information or skip deliverables.
Stakeholder engagement systems are built as cloud-based SaaS systems, which means that anyone can log on and deliver communications and reports and manage stakeholder data just as they would back at HQ.
This has already become an invaluable way of working. The system is designed to track everyone’s usage of the system, so not only can you ensure that tasks are being undertaken, you have complete visibility of your resource at a glance. And, with internet access, they are available anywhere and anytime, on your laptop or on mobile.
Managing and reporting on stakeholder feedback for effective communication
Managing and reporting on sentiment has never been so key as in a crisis.
People respond very differently to perceived threats and seek out information to stay informed. If you switched from face-to-face events and meetings and are moving towards surveys and email communication, an SRM can help you.
It allows stakeholders to respond back to your email newsletters, allowing a one-on-one dialogue to start and helping you build relationships and trust.
All engagements captured are saved in the system, allowing anyone to take over and act on behalf of your business in communicating.
SRMs also allow you to pull out sentiments from surveys and emails, providing you with a ‘temperature check’ of the current feedback. This tool is invaluable when data is not simply binary but packed with emotion.
Ensuring communication clarity
Stakeholder engagement systems can help you standardise and solidify your approach, regardless of how fragmented your organisation may be at present.
It’s important that as you engage with stakeholders you have clear guidelines on how to communicate. You should have the information you need to feel confident about the company’s business continuity and approach to safety.
By using an SRM system, your whole company and any external agencies will have access to all your communications, notes and details regarding your stakeholders, allowing a single point of information that is a trusted resource.
Effective reporting across a fragmented stakeholder landscape
Finally, we wanted to make a note about reporting. Feedback shows that the task of reporting using any other method at the best of times can be arduous and taxing.
Now more than ever, there is no time or capacity to take days to pull reports from multiple systems.
Understanding your email, surveys and general stakeholder database can be done in minutes using an SRM tool, and even emailed directly as a PDF or graphic to the people who need to know.
Great reporting means you can make informed decisions, something that is critical right now.
The leading SRM system to help you navigate times of crisis
Tractivity stakeholder engagement system can handle everything, from your data uploads and communication needs to video calls and webinars that allow the whole team to understand it and start using the software with immediate effect.
Contact us to learn more about how we can support your organisation.
