Embed in management systems

1. Embedded commitment: The company has a policy commitment to ongoing stakeholder engagement, and embeds it in its governance, culture, and management strategy.​

Create a Tailored Engagement Plan​

2. Inclusiveness: The company listens to a full range of rights-holders across the value chain and has a process to identify legitimate representatives.
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3. A Focus on Those Most at Risk​:  The company prioritizes engaging with the rightsholders who are most likely to be harmed by its operations​, and therefore where early engagement is critical.​​

Conduct appropriate  activities

​​4. Informed Participation: The company establishes ongoing, two-way communication with affected rights holders that provides affected stakeholders with relevant critical information well in advance of key decision points.

5. Trust and Accountability: The company establishes procedures, tailored to the context, to build rights holder trust and accountability for its actions.​

Ensure follow through

6. Stakeholder-informed Action Plan: The company analyzes information obtained through affected stakeholder engagement and collaborates with rights holders to formulate an action plan.

7. Monitoring, Transparency, and Continuous Improvement​: The company establishes and maintains a transparent and stakeholder-informed monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system.​

effectiveness criterion 3

our approach

financial materiality

Stakeholder Engagement Main Page > Four Pillars > ​Effectiveness Criterion 2

2. Inclusiveness​​​

The company listens to a full range of rights holders and has a process to identify legitimate representatives.

what this means

questions for portfolio companies

What to look for

Issue & SEctor considerations

for workers

High risk situations

In developing their engagement plans, companies need to identify the full range of affected rights holders. This process begins with stakeholder mapping of its direct operations and that of their first tier suppliers,  as well as where salient risks are identified in their value chain. In identifying affected stakeholders, companies must think broadly beyond workers and the immediate community. For an oil refinery, for example, stakeholders would include not only refinery staff and landowners, but also coastal communities, commercial and subsistence hunters, and those in the tourism industry, as these groups may also be affected (OECD 2017, 45).

A rights holder viewpoint
A Colombian community where a mining operation was planned reported that the company merely created the appearance of dialogue without genuinely engaging the community. This was the case despite the community having provided the company representatives with their Autonomous Consultation Protocol. In the Protocol, which they developed, they had named their designated spokespeople and explained community dynamics and vulnerabilities. Instead of following the protocol, the mining company contacted a different person who was not recognized by the community as the group's spokesperson. The community was certain that the company had ignored the protocol in order to selectively engage with individuals who would support its position.
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That same community also reported that, as the company’s operations branched out across the territory, the local river became polluted. This time, the company limited its engagement to the community located closest to its facilities, and failed to talk with river communities who were also directly affected.