Never wrong for long

Last Friday I reported that BBC News HR operative Dale Haddon had been seconded to the happy band of warriors producing HR Transformation. Got it wrong.

He has, indeed, been moved temporarily from the direct counsels of News Director James Harding, but to a team looking at the BBC's terms and conditions of employment. The BBC has many entertaining elements in its remuneration package, including the marvellous UPA (Un-Predictability Allowance, also occasionally known by management as Flexibility Allowance, but that's never stuck with the troops). By my calculations this will be the sixth time a group has been assembled to dismantle the thing, and take on other costly elements of the BBC pay package, such as agreements on salary progression; HR Director Valerie Hughes D'Aeth wants a plan by the Autumn.

In 2011, more than 8,000 staff were getting UPA/Flexibility allowances, at a total cost of £32.5m p.a.
Most of them are in news. Mr Haddon has with him consultant Alan Thorburn, who handled pay and reward issues for six years at the Trinity Mirror group. I think, if I were DG, I'd put this project on the critical list, too.