Organisations across all industry sectors and diverse sizes can benefit from a participation or engagement platform. Whether your organisation is large or small – a participation platform can help you coordinate and streamline your community and stakeholder engagement.  

What is a participation platform? 

A participation or engagement platform is a software system normally with a front-end website that provides various tools to allow stakeholders or community members to engage on ideas, submit content and find information about projects or initiatives.   There are various platforms available on the market which offer diverse functionality. For a detailed comparison of these platforms and what they offer, please contact us.   Engagement Hub is the only software to include a comprehensive Stakeholder Management System (SRM) as standard. This allows organisations to have all their engagement activity in one secure place. View a quick video here to understand more about the SRM. 

Top 7 types of organisations using participation platforms 

At Engagement Hub, we have clients from across the world in various industry sectors. Here are our Top 7 types of organisations using participation platforms to empower their engagement.  

1. Government  

All levels of Government from Federal to State to Local, regularly use participation platforms to inform, consult and empower their communities and stakeholders. With such a vast array of projects and committees within each organisation, a participation platform can bring together disparate communication into one coherent place and simplify processes and outward communication internally.   For example: 

• Federal Government – NHVR Case Study 
• State Government – Reimagine Kangaroo Island Case Study 
• Local Government – City of Prospect Case Study

2. Health  Much like Government, Health organisations operate across large districts and participation platforms can bring together GP forums, health care committees and staff to collaborate, communicate and see feedback and data across the whole area.   For example:   

• The Royal Women’s Hospital in Victoria used Engagement Hub to consult on the establishment or regional maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity committees.  
• The NSW Rural Doctors Network use our participation platform to facilitate a community-centred approach to addressing primary health care challenges in remote and rural NSW. 

3. Education & Training  Universities, Colleges and all education establishments have extensive networks to keep informed, to consult and to empower decision making both internally and externally. A participation platform can support educational organisations to develop in-depth consultations and effective stakeholder management. For example: 

• Dementia Training Australia – provides dementia-specific accredited and non-accredited education, training, and professional development for aged and health care professionals. Their engagement platform offers a space they can engage, consult and network with their stakeholders.

4. Planning & Development  Going deeper than statutory consultation, a participation platform can assist organisations and consultants working on large infrastructure or community projects to connect with residents and stakeholders involved or impacted by development plans and to create genuine engagement and projects founded on collaboration.   For example: 

• Ausgrid who is one of the largest electrical suppliers in Australia delivering electricity to 1.8 million homes, use Engagement Hub to plan for their future grid and seek community and stakeholder feedback on their services.  
• Sydney Civil extensively use their participation platform to engage and collate feedback from the community, businesses and industry stakeholders affected by their civil works. This complex task is made simple through the creation of individual online consultations for each project where people can access plans, maps, timelines and details as well as communicate and engage directly with the team. In-depth reporting functionality means Sydney Civil can see at a glance where more support or community consultation is needed across their many projects.  

5. Not-for-profit  Stakeholder management is vital in the NFP sector and we support many charities and not-for-profit organisations to forge lasting relationships through effective, timely communication and engagement. Like many organisations, NFPs can use a participation platform for both private and public engagement so they can reach out to their communities as well as ensure a continual connection with stakeholders.  For example: 

• Gladstone Mindcare Case Study – read about how this organisation are using their platform to promote improved mental health and wellbeing in their community.  
• COTA is the Council for the Ageing and operates state-based organisations advancing the rights, interests and futures of people as we age. Both COTA NT and COTA QLD use Engagement Hub platforms to create a place where people can share experiences and ideas, be heard and be kept informed.  

6. Research  A participation platform is a perfect system to support the research sector to reach more participants digitally, consult amongst stakeholders and report effectively. Universities and research bodies use Engagement Hub to ease the administrative burden and increase the reach and transparency of research projects.  For example: 

• The APPF is a world-leading infrastructure facility underpinning plant phenomics research from the University of Adelaide. Their Engagement Hub platform assists them to better listen to, consult and collaborate with our stakeholders as well as coordinate data across multiple projects.  

7. Employee / Member Engagement  Large national bodies and forward-thinking organisations use participation platforms to build a bridge between the organisation and employees and to generate relevant and worthwhile communication and collaboration.  For example: 

• The Town & Country Planning Association advocates for integrated planning of land use and transport for sustainability and a healthy living environment. They regularly use their Engagement Hub platform to seek member feedback on their submissions to Government bodies and to manage their member database and communication.  

Participation platforms are robust, flexible and packed with features enabling the software to support any organisation to better engage, consult and communicate with their communities and stakeholders.   If you would like more information on Engagement Hub’s many software features please visit our overview here. To see the software in action in a free virtual demonstration, book a place directly in our calendar here.