Sustainable development starts with understanding relationships – with employees, clients, suppliers, and local communities. That’s why stakeholder identification is a key element of any ESG strategy today. Knowing who is involved in the company’s operations – and the nature of these mutual relationships – enables more conscious and responsible decision-making.
Stakeholders – who are they, exactly?
Put simply, stakeholders are all individuals and entities that are affected by a company – and that influence the company in return. This broad concept includes employees, clients, suppliers, and architects, as well as industry organisations, local communities, and public institutions.
In sustainability reporting standards (such as ESRS or ISO 26000), stakeholders are recognised as a key component of responsible management. Their expectations, needs and feedback should be taken into account in business decision-making – not only for ethical reasons but also from a strategic perspective.
How to identify a company’s stakeholders?
Stakeholder mapping is the first step in building an effective ESG strategy. The process is best carried out through internal workshops involving different departments, to get a comprehensive picture of the company’s relationship network. The next step is stakeholder prioritisation – ranking groups based on the level of influence they have on the organisation and vice versa. To guide this process, it’s worth asking the following questions:
- Who are our close and more distant stakeholders?
- Who do we most strongly affect across the value chain?
- Who has the greatest impact on us?
- What do our stakeholders expect and need?
- What could we do with and for them?
- What are our legal obligations towards them?
- Who might express concerns about our decisions and actions?
A simple rating scale (e.g. from 0 to 5) can also be helpful in identifying key stakeholders.
Stakeholders at Balma Furniture Factory
At Balma Furniture Factory, a dedicated survey was carried out among management staff to identify key stakeholder groups and evaluate both the company’s influence on them and their influence on the organisation. As ESG Manager Magdalena Kaniewska explains, the analysis covered a wide spectrum of relationships, enabling the company to define its main stakeholders – including employees and collaborators, clients, suppliers and subcontractors (such as assembly and service teams), distributors, and architects and designers. Other stakeholder groups identified included the local community, natural environment, universities, industry and certification bodies, media, public institutions, and NGOs. This diversity reflects a wide range of needs and expectations that the company strives to understand and responsibly address in its day-to-day operations.
How to engage in dialogue with stakeholders? Practical tools
Dialogue with stakeholders is a cornerstone of sustainable development. It is not about one-off surveys but about ongoing, authentic communication that leads to shared solutions.
The most commonly used methods include:
- satisfaction and opinion surveys,
- stakeholder dialogue sessions and panels,
- advisory groups,
- individual interviews,
- collaborative projects,
- ongoing communication through media and social channels.
It’s also worth developing a stakeholder communication strategy – defining the frequency of contact, communication channels, and expected outcomes.
Sustainable development starts with relationships
Well-managed stakeholder dialogue forms the foundation for effective ESG strategy and responsible business practices. Taking into account a wide range of perspectives allows companies to make decisions that are better aligned with real-world challenges and expectations.
Sustainability is not a one-time goal, but a continuous process – one that requires consistent information-sharing and trust-building. Only through this kind of ongoing engagement can companies create durable solutions that truly respond to the demands of today’s market.
