6 Tips For Businesses To Maintain Positive Stakeholder Relationships
Stakeholders in a business aren’t limited to the owners or employees. Many groups of people have an impact on businesses directly or indirectly and are referred to as stakeholders. That’s why the circle of stakeholders is extensive and includes the media, investors, creditors, customers, communities, suppliers, and even government entities.
The circle of stakeholders gets even bigger if your business is dealing with exports or conducting business in promising economies like Hong Kong. In 2021, Hong Kong registered a whopping total of 110,840 companies with more than 66,000 incorporated online. These statistics corroborate Hong Kong’s growing economy and its potential for business startups. But how can these businesses maintain cooperative and positive stakeholder relationships? Let’s find out below:
How To Maintain Positive Stakeholder Relationships:
Maintaining positive stakeholder relationships is critical to a business’s survival. But building and nurturing positive relations with offshore stakeholders or those not directly involved with the project might seem challenging.
Here are six practical tips for fostering positive relationships with all your stakeholder groups:
Hold Meet-Ups
In the dynamic economic landscape of Hong Kong, where growing numbers are wavering according to the S&P Global Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), proactive stakeholder engagement is crucial for businesses to maintain a competitive edge.
While emails and virtual meetings might be sufficient for communication once you have a stakeholder on board, these are not sufficient to maintain a relationship in the long term. After all, the messages exchanged via digital communication are short, lacking the human touch.
Periodic in-person meetings, whether with manufacturers, suppliers, or business managers, have the power to cultivate a sense of teamwork and collaboration.
Organizing business events can prove incredibly beneficial in yielding desired stakeholder relationships. Business events offer a platform for industry leaders, partners, suppliers, and customers to engage and share valuable information. If you’re organizing your event in Hong Kong, look up event venue rental Hong Kong, and get flexible event spaces at exceptional locations.
Categorize And Prioritize Stakeholders
Categorize stakeholders based on their type. The two major types of stakeholders are:
- Those who have a vested interest in the project.
- Those who are impacted by its outcomes.
And to gain a deeper understanding of stakeholders, the next step is to categorize them into sub-groups based on their involvement in the project and their power or influence in decision-making processes.
For instance, investors and employees are stakeholders who have vested interests in the project, but their roles differ significantly. While investors may not be actively engaged in the day-to-day progress and issues of the project, they hold decision-making power regarding financial investments. On the other hand, employees are directly involved in project execution but may not have a significant influence on major project-related decisions.
Targeted Communication With Stakeholders
After evaluating each stakeholder group’s impact and influence, develop a targeted communication and engagement strategy catering to their needs and concerns. A targeted strategy ensures that stakeholders receive the appropriate level of involvement and keeps them engaged and supportive of the business.
For instance, customers may not need to be informed about supplier issues if it does not directly affect them. On the other hand, employees and relevant third parties who are directly impacted should be kept informed and involved in addressing these concerns. If customers are communicated with supplier issues, it will impact the business’ brand image.
Similarly, while keeping investors informed is important, keeping them in the loop for every minor issue is unnecessary. They could receive regular updates and key information directly impacting their investment and overall business performance. If the investors are informed about every hurdle that comes along the way, they might lose trust in the business.
Take Responsibility For Issues
Taking responsibility for issues instead of blaming circumstances on other stakeholders is key to fostering trust in stakeholder relationships. There will be many times when the business faces losses. However, maintaining transparency with relevant stakeholders is pivotal to building trust during this time.
When faced with issues, stakeholders must be given updates about the situation and the actions being taken to resolve them. While it’s advised to avoid overpromising, in case it happens, remaining silent on the matter can negatively impact the relationship. Instead, honest communication can help maintain credibility and trust.
Use Relationship Management Platforms To Engage Stakeholders
A successful stakeholder relationship goes beyond merely influencing decisions; it involves keeping all stakeholders updated about the project’s progress. Organizations with numerous stakeholders and complex projects cannot operate using traditional communication methods like emails or meetings. That’s where relationship management platforms come into play.
Businesses can centralize and streamline all stakeholder activities using a relationship management platform. For instance, in a company with a large supply chain involving multiple stakeholders such as suppliers, employees, and logistics providers, a platform that maintains accurate and updated information is necessary to optimize processes. Stakeholders can access the platform to view raw material demands and promptly initiate the necessary tasks.
Use Different Ways To Communicate
Many stakeholders, like C-suite executives, might not have time to attend meetings or read through extensive progress emails. So, here are some ideas to keep the stakeholders of a company or project well-informed and engaged:
Newsletters
Like suppliers, those not actively involved in decision-making can learn about new projects and major decisions via newsletters. But a well-structured and easy-to-understand newsletter is important to maintain the stakeholder’s trust in the organization.
Progress Emails
Periodic progress emails that are concise keep stakeholders updated. If possible, the information should be broken down into bullets so the stakeholders can understand the purpose of the email at a glance.
Hold Brainstorming Sessions
Brainstorming sessions can be quite useful for a project’s success. Since all the stakeholders cannot participate in ad hoc meetings, they should be informed of the meeting’s time and date beforehand. It allows stakeholders to plan their attendance.
Final Words
A business without its stakeholders is just an entity on paper. The active contribution of the stakeholders is what allows a business to operate. But if the business doesn’t maintain positive relations with its stakeholders, this will jeopardize its existence. Every business needs to conduct physical meetings to ensure a human touch, communicate with stakeholders based on their nature of involvement, and ensure transparency and honesty to foster mutually-benefiting relations.
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Abdul Aziz Mondal
Abdul Aziz Mondol is a professional blogger who is having a colossal interest in writing blogs and other jones of calligraphies. In terms of his professional commitments, he loves to share content related to business, finance, technology, and the gaming niche.
