Research and engagement strategy
settle
Stakeholder and public affairs
We really enjoy working with See Media – they help us think about how we communicate with customers and stakeholders, what they want to know, how we ensure we listen and how to get messages across. The Listen 2 You campaign was incredibly useful in helping us know what matters to customers and the stakeholder event, held last autumn, was extremely valuable.
Chief Executive, settleWe have worked with settle since 2016 on a variety of projects encompassing social media, media relations and podcasting. This stemmed from an initial project to explore 9,000-home settle’s stakeholder and sentiment and improve engagement.
settle is a stock transfer housing association based in Letchworth Garden City in Hertfordshire. Ten years on from its launch, it had achieved its principal initial goals of investing significant sums in improving its homes. Its new executive team and board were keen to move the organisation to the next phase, but wanted to ensure the new strategy reflected the views and needs of key stakeholders.
We undertook a number of activities to help inform settle’s approach. We conducted a stakeholder mapping exercise and used this to construct a stakeholder engagement plan of interviews and meetings with key individuals and organisations. We reported on the results and this fed into settle’s updated corporate aims and strategy. As part of this work we also devised the ‘Listen 2 You’ campaign which gathered the views of 1,500 tenants to contribute to settle’s strategic development.
settle’s senior leadership team was informed of key stakeholder views – including via several face-to-face meetings and briefings with local and national politicians. The resulting strategy has allowed stakeholder relationships to flourish and settle to confidently work with partners to construct and deliver its ambitious new plans to build more affordable homes. See Media has continued to support settle to grow its profile with key audiences through a rebrand (from North Hertfordshire Homes) and a range of other measures.