On the face of it, the BBC’s plan to recruit a more ‘diverse’ workforce to combat the liberal bias of its output doesn’t sound promising. After all, when an organisation professes its commitment to ‘diversity’, it usually mean hiring more people that look different but who all have the same Left-wing views. But what the BBC means, apparently, is recruiting a more intellectually diverse workforce. The Telegraph has more.
The BBC is examining ways it can ensure new recruits have ‘diverse’ opinions following repeated claims of a ‘liberal bias’ among presenters and off-screen staff.
Senior figures such as Tim Davie, the BBC’s director general, held talks on changes that could be made to the corporation’s recruitment process to ensure it hires staff with a wide range of views and perspectives.
The move is highly unusual because it goes significantly beyond a past focus simply on the views of on-screen presenters who have faced accusations of bias.
This was revealed in recently-published minutes of a meeting of the Board’s Remuneration Committee, which oversees matters relating to staff pay.
The minutes of the meeting, which was attended by Mr. Davie, Leigh Tavaziva, the BBC’s chief operating officer, and Rachel Currie, its HR director, stated: “The Committee discussed analysis on ways in which the BBC was ensuring diversity of thought across the workforce.
“The analysis was noted and it was agreed that the issue was critical for the BBC, though specific monitoring and measurement in this area was not possible.
“The Committee discussed ways in which recruitment processes could be structured to ensure this was an issue being considered. Ongoing work to revise the interview process was noted. Further analysis of approaches taken in other organisations would be considered, including potential ways to assess the issue through surveying.”
The meeting was held on Feb 22nd and chaired by Sir Robbie Gibb, a BBC board member who was once Number 10’s Director of Communications under Theresa May. The record of the discussion is the most recent set of minutes to have been uploaded to the BBC website.
A mid-term review of the BBC’s Royal Charter is currently examining whether the corporation is sufficiently impartial and the extent to which it is “representing audiences from working class backgrounds”.
Worth reading in full.
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