A statutory authority had undertaken a focused effort on improving relationships with key government stakeholders. FPL Advisory was engaged to assist the authority in measuring and assessing the success of their efforts and to identify new areas of focus.
Situation
In 2017, FPL Advisory assisted a statutory authority to undertake a Government Stakeholder Review and Planning exercise. The authority faced the dual challenge of being accountable to Executive Government whilst also being responsible to customers and was looking to understand how best to manage relationships to meet both obligations. The review identified key senior level stakeholders in Victorian Government Departments, Agencies and Regulators; highlighted their interests, priorities and influence in the industry; and evaluated their existing relationships with the statutory authority. Building on the review, an action plan was developed that outlined strategies to improve relationships.
Action
FPL Advisory was reengaged by the authority in 2018 to undertake a Government Stakeholder Audit to assess the current status of stakeholder engagement against the 2017 Stakeholder Engagement Plan. The audit included a high-level review of current priorities which were then assessed through a series of short interviews with external and internal stakeholders. The interviews included structured questions where stakeholders were asked to provide a rating, as well as comments followed by a more open conversation on feedback and improvements.
Resolution
The review found that the authority, and particularly the team responsible for government relationships, had made significant progress towards improving relationships throughout the year by implementing a number of the strategies from the 2017 plan. Relationships with external stakeholders were largely identified to have improved or significantly improved; and in cases where relationships had stayed the same, this was attributed to existing strong relationships being maintained and/or that the relationship was appropriate for the function of the agencies (such as with regulators). We were able to identify particular areas where relationship barriers remained, allowing the authority to target their resources in these areas to achieve their strategic engagement objectives.
FPL Advisory supports clients across many industry sectors to resolve risks, create opportunities and support government engagement.