For those of us who have been working in engagement for some time, there has been a noticeable shift in how people think about engagement over the past few years.

We remember a time when community engagement was the job of a select few, who had their work cut out for them convincing organisations of the value of listening to the people affected by their decisions.

Today, our inboxes are full of requests to ‘tell us what you think’ and organisations - both public and private - are inviting us to ‘have your say’. Engaging with the community has become the norm, not the exception, and community members’ expectations around how they are engaged have similarly changed.

However, does this mean that our organisations are genuinely engaging people in a way that is easy, genuine and satisfying? Sadly, from what the community tell us, this is not always the case.

MosaicLab has developed the Independent Engagement Culture Assessment to examine and objectively review the engagement culture within organisations, in order to give them clear recommendations on priorities for improvement.

Independent Engagement Culture Assessment

WHO THIS IS FOR

This assessment is designed for organisations who want an objective review on how they are doing at engaging with their communities, and are interested in understanding where to focus their efforts in order to improve, and ultimately, embed engagement into the culture of their organisation.

WHAT WE ASSESS

We will use a variety of processes to review and assess the five pillars of organisational engagement culture:

Leadership and governance
Processes and systems
Staff capacity and capability
Engagement practices
Community and stakeholder satisfaction

HOW IT WORks

The assessment methods will include:

benchmarking against similar organisations
reviewing policy and guidance materials against IAP2 standards and best practice
evaluating past engagement activities
engaging with staff members and organisation leaders
reviewing community feedback (where available).

Optional:

A sensemaking workshop to go through findings and recommendations with the organisation’s leadership. (The benefit of this final step is that the findings are understood and owned by the organisation).

WHAT THE REPORT WILL CONTAIN

We will provide a comprehensive report including;

an overall rating against each of the five pillars
a breakdown of the data found on each of the five pillars
identification of specific areas for improvement
a list of prioritised recommendations to improve the engagement practices of the organisation.