Organisations that excel at stakeholder engagement excel in business. The skills developed through effective communication and stakeholder engagement are invaluable in an increasingly complex world where organisations deal with many different relationships that all potentially impact their business.
A key component of every organisation is the recognition, engagement, and management of stakeholders. Often overlooked, stakeholder management and engagement are vital to organisations across all sectors.
In 2022, Council approved the Stakeholder Engagement Framework for the NWU. The main purpose of the framework is to ensure that the NWU adopts a stakeholder inclusive approach when planning and implementing its core business. This must be achieved by taking into account the reasonable needs, interests and expectations of NWU stakeholders, and at the same time, considering the sustainability of the university. Balancing the needs, interests and expectations of stakeholders and ensuring that the university is sustainable, is a dynamic and ongoing process. The NWU must establish and maintain strong relationships with material stakeholders, and this will make it possible for the university to manage and strike this balance when dealing with issues.
Accompanying the Stakeholder Engagement Framework is a set of guidelines for the implementation of the framework as well as a template which needs to be completed after engagements to ensure that proper reporting in among others the Annual Integrated Report can take place: