Community Reports

A community report is a communication tool that is produced and distributed in the format and frequency determined by sound research. Reports can take the form of printed pieces, emails alone or with links to a website, social media applications, open meetings with the community, one-on-one with influential stakeholders, and other methods. They have many purposes, perhaps the most fundamental of which is to justify the right to operate.

The relationship between an industrial facility and its community is scrutinized, challenged, validated, measured, and ultimately redefined as public expectations evolve. One indication of a socially responsible facility is the extent to which it engages in dialogue with the community. One of these tools, a community report, can be particularly effective when it addresses local issues and concerns and is produced as one component of an overall communications strategy.

Community reports have been around for decades in one form or another, typically published as a subset of a financial, operations, or philanthropic annual report. Today's world of instant electronic communication tools has effectively made the “annual” community report obsolete. Good reports—traditional printed media, or new and emerging media, such as social media—are those that have credibility with their target audiences. A public that has grown comparatively more astute and less accepting over time now requires, and in some cases demands, details about the good, bad, and ugly aspects of facility operations that affect their quality of life. And depending on the historical operations of a facility—including its ability to quickly communicate in response to incidents that directly impact neighbors, such as noise, odor, lights, and emergencies—a comprehensive annual, quarterly, or monthly report may not be sufficient. Recurring or significant problems that disrupt quiet residential life are clear justifications for ongoing communications.

Regardless of the format and frequency of a community report, the starting point is understanding who the relevant stakeholders are and what constitutes meaningful dialogue with them. Only then can a baseline be established and a go-forward strategy implemented that are critical to planning for and measuring the effectiveness of a community report. It is critically important to define the purpose of a community report (informational, educational, image-building, etc.), identify the target audience(s), select a look and feel (printed, electronic, or both), consider when and how often the report is issued/updated, and determine if the goal is one-way or two-way dialogue.

Dialogue with the community means engaging stakeholders and listening to what they tell facility representatives. Done well, good dialogue sets the stage for mutual understanding and respect, clear and open lines of communication, opportunities to identify common ground, and other benefits. One limitation to dialogue is the inability to reach everyone who feels they have an interest in facility operations. Some people or communities farther away from the facility, or special communities of interest within the facility's operational area, may feel excluded. A community report mailed to homes and businesses by zip code is a way of reaching stakeholders beyond traditional community boundaries.

A stakeholder is anyone who has an interest in or can influence a business or facility. Stakeholder cooperation or involvement is needed for the facility to obtain and maintain its “license to operate.” Stakeholders may be shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers, contractors, families of workers, business partners, people whose livelihoods are dependent on the facility, and people who live and work near the facility—the community—which includes local media, elected officials, activists, civic leaders, schools, and residential and industrial neighbors. It is this community stakeholder group, along with employees and retirees, who are the primary audiences for a community report. These stakeholders are at the front line of a facility's efforts to develop and sustain community goodwill and trust needed for reputation management. In good times, this bank of reputation receives deposits through good operational performance and relationship building; on the other hand, reputation hits or withdrawals occur when facility performance negatively affects the community, such as during an accident that requires public action or, at the very least, when operations are more noticeable than usual to nearby residents. Public perception of indifference to a problem caused by a facility, particularly through inadequate communication, can drain the reputation account and test community expectations regarding facility social performance.

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