3 Critical Reasons to Identify Stakeholders before a Construction Project

Engineers face many challenges when it comes to project design, but they can face even more if they don’t take the community into account during the planning stages of a project. Below are three reasons why stakeholder identification is a critical factor in project considerations.

1. Save costs if external conflicts exist. Just like your company, other entities may have projects plans in the works. These project plans may conflict with yours, which can lead to expensive changes like schedule delays or even complete site relocations. Identifying the stakeholders surrounding your planned project location is the first step to determining if other projects are in the works, but because many plans never become public until well into the process, sometimes the only way to learn more about the plans is to talk directly with the stakeholder.

2. Anticipate concerns. Knowing the stakeholders in your project’s area will help you determine the needs of the surrounding community. A residential neighborhood will be more sensitive to early morning, evening, and weekend work hours. A commercial/industrial area may be more impacted by workday traffic delays that affect shipments.

3. Minimize negative attitudes in the community and the media. Any construction project impacts its surrounding community, but early direct communication with the stakeholders in your project area allows you to present the long-term positives of the short-term headache of construction. Direct communication also gives the community a way to voice their concerns and have questions answered. Without this opportunity, community members are more likely to voice negativity through social media and their local newspaper or news station, which can drum up negative attitudes and even organized oppositional groups.