Executives are pivoting this week from their Thanksgiving holiday to their end of year tasks — including finalizing 2024 budgets. Government affairs executives seem especially stressed about this year’s budget planning effort given the resource freezes or cutbacks that seem to be occurring at organizations across the board, as well as the unpredictability they are facing from government activities in the United States and around the world in 2024. Members of the Poligage Expert Network who have successfully managed difficult government affairs budget planning and advocacy efforts before have offered a few recommendations for executives facing this pain today:

Reflect and learn from the year about to end with an open mind: There is a lot to be learned from the way a government affairs team has operated in the year that is about to end. While the issues and priorities may not be the same in the year ahead and will require different resourcing focuses and activities, this is the time to document what worked well in 2023 and should be continued in 2024, as well as what caused major headaches that needs to be adjusted. Budget planning doesn’t need to be a tabula raza nor a carbon copy of a prior year. There will surely be some activities and systems worth repeating, which will and there will need to be some tweaks needed.  You’ll find that some expenditures (of both time and money) delivered greater value and outcomes you can point to then others. Pay attention to the winners and losers from this assessment exercise. Spend an hour or two capturing this feedback from your team and have it handy as you’re planning for 2024.

Align with your organization’s strategic priorities: It’s dangerous to a government affairs team’s defensibility when the function exists in a vacuum or is expected to just “be there when needed” by others in the organization. Your budget for the year ahead will face easier approval if you can tie government affairs expenditures and investments to achieving business outcomes. So spend some time during the budget development process analyzing your organization’s overall strategic plan and 2024 business goals, and then brainstorm what government affairs-related activities could assist with achieving them. Discuss and seek buy-in on these ideas from the corporate leaders responsible for each business outcome. While some of your budget will be tied to having a voice in key government activities relevant to your industry that you are aware will be happening in the year ahead and to managing key stakeholders, it is most powerful if the outline of your budget plan consists of overall business goals or strategic plan pillars and every proposed resource allocation, expenditure, and activity in your budget falls under one of those headings.

Prepare now for success at being accountable: Government affairs can be one of the harder business functions to measure since these efforts often have long, multi-year time horizons to conclude, or they prevent reputation and other business risks from occurring that are hard to assign credit to. A few things that government affairs executives can do to demonstrate accountability and an outcomes-based approach are to research and benchmark your proposed budget against those of similar organizations in your industry or sector. This will provide valuable insights into industry standards and help you ensure that your budget is competitive and effective, and it may open your eyes to team roles, technology, communications efforts, or other activities being done by peers that you could add to your toolbox. You can also create a monthly or quarterly timeline that at least indicates where you expect longer activities to be over the course of a year so that you can evaluate whether the investments you will make are paying off. Lastly, develop as many meaningful metrics as you can that you can use to measure whether your resourcing is delivering on outcomes as intended.

Build Flexibility Into Your Plan: No business plan or budget has ever looked the same over the course of a year as it did on January 1, and you’ll improve your ability to be flexible and make pivots as the year moves along if you work now to maximize the flexibility of your resourcing plan. A concept called Agility-Based Budgeting has been helpful to executives in all business functions. Determine which costs (especially staffing) should be made by evaluating the spectrum that exists between what you are sure of vs the unpredictable issues you’ll undoubtedly face and making sure you have a resourcing mix or a toolkit of solutions to accommodate that spectrum. Being strategic and thoughtful about resourcing now will help you both secure & insure your year ahead.

Would you like an expert second opinion on your proposed budget plan for 2024? Are you seeking solutions to the gaps you feel you might be facing? Schedule a complementary consultation to discuss how you can secure & insure a budget plan built for success.