Seeing right through...

Trasnparency at the BBC is, according to former employee Will Hutton, second to none. But here's some odds and ends from his 50-page report, not necessarily highlighted in the BBC press releases.

"A mood of quiet distrust still exists for some staff – even though almost all staff are proud of their work and pleased, even proud, to work in an organisation that gives them the opportunity to exercise such creativity. The BBC now finds itself in an unstable position. There is continued widespread suspicion of how it has behaved as an employer in the past accompanied by demands for more transparency, but so far the anticipated gains in terms of higher morale and trust from the transparency initiatives that it has made, and which compare so favourably with the rest of the public sector, have yet to manifest themselves as they could.

"Despite the recent programme of reform undertaken by the BBC, still only 30% and 16% of respondents agree or strongly agree that they know how pay is set for their Career Path Framework job and for other BBC jobs respectively, as opposed to 55% and 62% of respondents who disagree. This is not an issue of access; an overwhelming number (83%) say that they know where to find information about their pay, suggesting that the volume or availability of information is not a barrier. Rather the issue is more about how to put individuals in a position to judge matters for themselves, or to follow, check or challenge the information that they are provided.

"In the workshops, we heard cases where the BBC’s efforts to encourage feedback has been taken up, with some line managers very proactive in using 360-degree feedback– and in those cases where it was used, staff felt it worked exceptionally well. Others said that 360-degree feedback had achieved an almost mythical status, talked about in reverential tones. However, like one of David Attenborough’s rarer species, it has rarely been spotted in use. Similar inconsistencies were found in the application of Performance Development Reviews (PDRs) with participants highlighting the lack of incentives to complete them, including trade union wariness. As one participant observed “The Performance Development Reviews process is relaunched every year, but it still doesn’t get followed.