About ESA

Stakeholder Engagement Principles

Download Stakeholder Engagement Principles

Purpose

ESA’s Stakeholder Engagement Principles aim:

To set clear norms, expectations, and guiding principles for both ESA and stakeholders;
To establish rights, responsibilities, and obligations in a trustworthy and effective manner;
To guide stakeholder engagement planning and implementation;
To promote consistency;
To express principles such as clarity, openness, accountability, traceability, fairness and respect; and
To drive strategic direction and operational excellence.

Decision Making

The role of ESA’s stakeholder engagement processes is to collect advice;
Stakeholder engagement is an essential part of ESA’s decision making. This improves the quality and effectiveness of decisions;
ESA provides meaningful and timely opportunities for stakeholders to provide input;
ESA’s decision-making processes are clear, open, and traceable;
Decision makers learn about stakeholder views before making decisions. These includes minority views;
ESA tries to reach consensus where possible. If not, the engagement process produces a shared understanding of issues;
ESA will communicate its decisions, and their rationale, to stakeholders. Messages will also explain how ESA considered stakeholder input; and
ESA will be clear about expected outcomes to help manage stakeholder expectations.

Participation and Process

ESA tries to earn the respect, trust, and cooperation of all stakeholders. ESA tries to create relationships that support developing a shared vision;
ESA’s has an inclusive stakeholder engagement processes. It aims to capture the views of all stakeholder sectors that have interest in an issue;
ESA provides different levels of stakeholder engagement. These include information/education; feedback; consultation; and collaboration/consensus. Stakeholder involvement depends on their interest. It also depends on the issue's effect, complexity, scope, and significance to electrical safety. ESA tries to be open in communicating the level of engagement it seeks;
ESA aims for a fair and effective balance among stakeholder interests. This recognizes stakeholder diversity and the different effects on stakeholders;
ESA aims for a balanced approach to stakeholder engagement. ESA considers all perspectives and experiences. No group has excessive influence on the process;
Stakeholders take part in the process voluntarily. They try to build mutual understanding, trust, and respect;
ESA wants representation from both individuals and organizations with valuable experience and expertise. Those representing organizations should have the authority to represent that organization’s views. They should commit to keeping their host organizations informed of the process;
ESA and its stakeholders work to operate the engagement processes efficiently to minimize costs; and
Where possible, ESA uses stakeholder input to find options to resolve different points of view.

Information Exchange

Participants and ESA aim for timely sharing of information of interest to the engagement process. This includes plans, new or ongoing issues, and decisions;
Participants and ESA want all parties to have timely, accessible, and accurate information. This helps them understand the effects of different types of action; and
Participants and ESA will be well informed about all the facts relevant to the process. They share their views fully, openly, respectfully and courteously, and support others in doing the same.

Implementation and Continuous Improvement

ESA will use advanced tactics to gather stakeholder views in an effective and efficient manner. This takes place while being aware of costs; and
ESA will regularly measure the effectiveness of its stakeholder engagement processes.