How to use community communications to help your business

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When is a good moment to go back to first principles? When did you last review how your community audiences are hearing you and your approach to community communication? Good, planned and timely communications build trust and broaden understanding. By keeping people informed about a project’s plans, purpose and the actions that are required to make it a success a mining company (indeed any company whose operations are disrupted when relations with local communities break down) can build credibility in the minds of this audience. Ongoing credibility leads to legitimacy. 

Being proactive in your community communications enables you to address concerns and issues as they arise. This helps prevent them becoming costly challenges. Many companies are well versed in providing information about risks and the mitigation strategies in place in a timely fashion. As important as preparing this information is, is the necessary consideration being given to how it actually reaches the target audiences? Getting this right alleviates community concerns and builds community confidence in the operations. It is also an important measure to reduce the impact of misunderstandings and mitigating the damage caused when conspiracy theories gain traction. Good communications build mechanisms to that go both ways, further enabling the company to identify and address local concerns before they escalate. 

Effective community communications enable the company to identify the community’s priorities and support initiatives that will have a contribute to their social and economic development. Beyond the anticipated job opportunities and procurement opportunities a company which is listening to its communities’ can identify the sustainable and necessary local programmes or projects to support. A robust and systematic approach to community communications will enhance the breadth and depth of initiatives when reporting on ESG.

Social licence to operate has moved from an operational priority to a corporate necessity. As well as the E, successful EIA submissions need to address the S of ESG. A company that can demonstrate its internal support for active forward-looking communications with its local communities in its EIA is one step closer to a smoother process. Pre-emptive, considered and impactful community communications will deliver both a simpler operational pathway and also meaningful long-term community development.  Being able to demonstrate effective community communications will help to attract investment and foster long-term success because it enables you to demonstrate that you are a responsible and ethical corporate citizen.

Giles Bancroft
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