Stakeholder Auditing & Mapping

The starting point of any Public Affairs programme, whether pure Government Relations or a more broad-based public affairs campaign, is a thorough picture of who pulls the levers of power on your issue, who influences those people and what other routes offer themselves as an effective transmission-route for your message.

In Grayling’s global Public Affairs practice, we have honed our approach to stakeholder auditing and mapping which we offer to clients as a packaged product on a stand-alone basis, as well as an integral part of our Public Affairs retainers.

It is also a very valuable tool for many of our ‘public interest issue’ Public Relations campaigns; and our PA and PR colleagues work together to carry out stakeholder mapping and auditing for many of our PR programmes.

How we would approach the project

Kick-off meeting to determine the scope of the stakeholder auditing research and to agree audience selection, methodology and topic guide (not a tick-box questionnaire).
We suggest to use both qualitative and quantitative approaches for our audits - a sense of ‘scale’ of opinion, but also why people hold the opinions that they do:
Qualitative:will be carried out through one-to-one interviews to fully explore the attitudes and impressions in detail, particularly when dealing with Special publics.
Quantitative:will be carried out through telephone interviews, each by pre-arrangement (recruitment), with a broad cross section of stakeholders.

Target Audiences

We will draw up a target audience list which will be based on stakeholder groups selection in the Stakeholder Engagement plan and will also include key stakeholders who have influence on how businesses dive or thrive in the marketplace (industry experts, academic institutions, investment analysts, etc.)

Typical delivery schedule

The report will summarise the main qualitative and quantitative findings of the research. The number of interviewees does not aim to be statistically significant, but instead aims to be sufficient to identify principles and challenges for further attention.

Stakeholder Mapping

Along with conducting the stakeholder audit research Grayling recommends compiling a comprehensive targeted stakeholder map.

A stakeholder map will provide a clear view of the target audience landscape in terms of the most effective ways of interaction with them. It will also help to determine the key influencers and decision-makers in the target ministries, agencies and committees.

Day to day contact with prioritised stakeholder groups will help to:

gain better structural knowledge of each sub-group
understand perceptions of your business and communication activity with Government reps

A stakeholder map will include

Name, title and role of stakeholder
Key positions (officials) that might influence in decision taking hierarchy
“Road map” or delivery channels to better and comprehensive solving of company related issues
Matrix of stakeholder and issues
Numerical ranking in terms of influence and potential as being a “champion” for the client’s interests

Based on this map, Grayling would propose a Government Relations outreach campaign and action points for meeting set objectives which will be the next step for providing on-going Government Relations consultancy.