Stakeholder engagement is an integral part of all construction projects. Stakeholders are all parties that, directly or indirectly, have an interest in what you are doing or in the final result. With platforms like SitePodium, engaging your stakeholders becomes a lot easier.
Involving all parties should be common practice, but unfortunately this part of project management is too often ignored. Good stakeholder engagement starts with mapping out all the parties involved in your construction project. Naturally, this list varies per project
Therefore, the question – Who are the stakeholders in a construction project? – will always generate different answers, simply because no project is the same. In this article we will discuss the most common stakeholders in construction projects. We will look at classifying them and why it is so important to keep them in the loop.
Who are the stakeholders in a construction project?
So, stakeholders are all the parties with an interest in your project. The list is long and consists of contributors such as your client, (sub)contractors, designers, the local and national authorities, residents and business owners around the site, politicians and government officials, etcetera.
Stakeholders are commonly divided into two main groups, namely direct (internal) and indirect (external) stakeholders.
- Direct/internal stakeholders: direct stakeholders are all people and groups directly involved in or associated with your project. The most important direct stakeholders are your client, your sponsors, the project manager and his or her team, consultants, suppliers, (sub)contractors and end users.
- Indirect/external stakeholders: indirect stakeholders are indirectly involved in or associated with your project. The most common indirect stakeholders in construction projects are local residents and shops, government bodies, labour unions, inspecting- and licensing organisations, public utilities and professional bodies.
Which stakeholders are involuntarily affected?
Furthermore, it is always worthwhile to point out the stakeholders that are involuntarily affected by your project. These are the ones for whom proper and complete stakeholder engagement is most beneficial. You will find that these are mostly the parties in your indirect stakeholders group.
Good engagement of affected stakeholders helps them understand the why of a situation. That makes it automatically a lot easier for them to deal with. Even if the news is bad, being told about it properly and allowed to have a say in it, makes it a lot easier to accept.
Think of a resident who will not be able to park at his usual spot for a week or a shop owner whose entrance will be blocked for a few hours. Engage these affected parties in your project. Explain to them why, and what you are doing to make it easier for them. Give them a way to contact you, in case something goes wrong. They can then start the day knowing what to expect from the situation and from you.
The importance of proper stakeholder engagement
Ignoring a stakeholder, big or small, can have a huge effect on your construction project. The way you answered the question – Who are the stakeholders in a construction project? – is essential for the success of it. Those stakeholders will all need to be properly engaged.
After mapping your stakeholders, you compile a stakeholder engagement plan which lists all their individual needs and risks. Document for every stakeholder, direct and indirect, what their stake is, what their contributions and/or threats are to your project, in which way you carry responsibility for them and what the best plan of action is to keep them engaged.
Conclusion
Proper communication and engagement with stakeholders are key for a smoothly operated construction project. And why would you not organise meetings for local residents, communicate regularly with your project managers and keep the local politicians informed? Your construction project impacts them all, so it would actually be rude not to.
Engaging internal and direct stakeholders will result in a project which runs like a well-oiled machine. It ensures that all your partners do what they should be doing, when they should be doing it and with whom they should be doing it.
By not excluding your external/indirect/affected stakeholders, you will keep the potentially problematic parties happy and involved. They observe your project from a completely different viewpoint, and might actually have some good ideas to put forward as well.
Engage your stakeholders with SitePodium
Stakeholder engagement does not have to be time consuming and complicated. Every project manager can do this, with the proper tools. And what better than an app that every stakeholder can download on their smartphone, ready to use whenever they need it?
SitePodium is the perfect platform for stakeholder engagement. It is where all stakeholders in a building project come together, receive and share information and are able to actively participate. The app encourages two-way communication between residents and construction companies and gives you the chance to get everyone involved.
Place regular updates and allow the users to respond. Listen to the community and address their worries and concerns. Get input and ideas from parties you would otherwise have discarded. Allow stakeholders set up notifications and reminders of events they need to be aware of. And analyse all your efforts with statistics and custom generated reports.
The opportunities with SitePodium are huge. It takes stakeholder engagement to the next level and makes your life easier in the process. Visit our website for more information and pricing. You can also request more information without obligation or download our SitePodium brochure.
