Stakeholder engagement in the new normal

MORNA IKOSAThe Covid-19 pandemic, though ferocious and deadly, has provided communicators tools to enhance stakeholder engagement. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said “change is the only constant in life”. Those who are agile, dynamic, and flexible rule the world. Communicators as social scientists, have a unique opportunity to set new precedence on how to effectively communicate with their stakeholders during this pandemic and beyond. The quote: “Never waste an opportunity offered by a good crisis.,” by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, is indicative of what we at the Government Institution Pension Fund (GIPF) did, when it came to quickly adapting our stakeholder engagement strategy to adapt to the “new normal”. GIPF has been hard at work to find new ways to engage diverse stakeholders.Firstly, the entire GIPF stakeholder engagement department signed up as members of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC). The IABC has been in existence since 1970. It serves professionals in the field of business communication, set global standards in communication through their educational offerings, certification, awards program, resource library, online magazine and annual World Conference. Through the IABC, the department garnered relevant information that has further enhanced its stakeholder engagement strategy. Similarly, the department had real-time access to other experienced and knowledgeable peers across the world, and attended webinars, which were insightful and thought-provoking. The skills transfer assisted the department to formulate initiatives ‘beyond the box’.Secondly, GIPF embraced tools like Zoom and Microsoft teams, as its regional staff, who often, due to location, could not attend meetings and events. Now, with the heightened use of these technology platforms, they could join in real-time meetings, decreasing travelling expenditure and saving on time. Their participation in meetings significantly improved, as they feel consulted, informed and engaged at all levels. They now could directly interact with the CEO and other senior management, without having to go through various structures, which too, broke some silo structures that might have been in place. Those tools also provided the much-needed flexibility, for working nursing mothers, GIPF pensioners and members.There is no doubt that the pandemic brought pandemonium in many people’s lives as they did not have enough time to re-organise and adapt to change, thus it was important for GIPF to do check in sessions with the employees. One approach that was adopted was to arrange for virtual team building sessions across the entire organisation. The virtual team building sessions proved to be a huge success. It provided useful insights to further improve team engagement. Some of the feedback received was for the Fund to use platforms like Telegram and WhatsApp to communicate internally with staff.

Stakeholder engagement in the new normal

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Republikein 2026-06-10

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Stakeholder engagement in the new normal

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Republikein 2026-06-10

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