How do you know if your airport stakeholders are engaged?

1 Define your objectives

Before you start engaging with your stakeholders, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and why. What are the main issues or opportunities that you want to address with them? What are the expected outcomes and benefits of the engagement? How will you measure the success of the engagement? Having a clear and realistic set of objectives will help you plan and implement your engagement activities, as well as evaluate their effectiveness.

2 Identify and prioritize your stakeholders

Not all stakeholders are equally important or relevant for your airport. You need to identify who they are, what their interests and expectations are, how they can affect or be affected by your airport, and how much influence and power they have. You can use a stakeholder analysis matrix or a stakeholder map to categorize and prioritize your stakeholders based on their level of interest and influence. This will help you decide how to allocate your resources and tailor your engagement strategies for different stakeholder groups.

3 Choose the right methods and channels

There are many ways to engage with your stakeholders, depending on your objectives, stakeholder characteristics, and available resources. You can use surveys, interviews, focus groups, workshops, meetings, newsletters, websites, social media, and more. The key is to choose the methods and channels that are most appropriate and effective for your purpose and audience. You should also consider the frequency, timing, and duration of your engagement activities, as well as the feedback mechanisms and follow-up actions.

4 Monitor and evaluate your engagement

To know if your airport stakeholders are engaged, you need to monitor and evaluate your engagement activities regularly. You can use quantitative and qualitative indicators to measure the inputs, outputs, outcomes, and impacts of your engagement. For example, you can track the number of participants, the response rate, the satisfaction level, the changes in attitudes or behaviors, the improvement in performance or results, and the achievement of objectives. You should also collect and analyze feedback from your stakeholders, as well as from your own team, to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your engagement.

5 Learn and improve your engagement

Monitoring and evaluating your engagement is not enough. You also need to learn from the data and feedback you collect, and use them to improve your engagement. You should identify the best practices and lessons learned from your engagement activities, and share them with your team and stakeholders. You should also recognize and celebrate the successes and achievements of your engagement, and acknowledge and address the challenges and gaps. By doing so, you can foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement in your airport stakeholder engagement.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?