People thought Galileo was mad...we’re on a journey, says diversity boss
‘ THE BBC understands the benefit of a diverse and inclusive organisation. We have moved away from the normal areas of diversity, gender and ethnicity, and expanded it to include sexual orientation and trans, class, religion, thought processes and social economic diversity.
We want to ensure 8 per cent of our people are from the LGBT community by 2020. We did a census to make sure that we could put the information we have of individuals on to their records, but it was also anonymous. Only a couple of people would ever know that data, I am one... No one else would know anything about the ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender of anyone within the BBC and it was important to buy in the whole of the organisation, just over 21,000 people. The results were fascinating.
Can someone have a guess at how many people we’ve got who have disclosed that they are transgender in the BBC? Ten? Anyone else? Twenty? Not bad. One more? I will put you out of your misery, we’ve got 417 people within the BBC who have said they are transgender, almost 2 per cent of the organisation, which is very, very high. If you have a figure like that you have to think how you make the BBC inclusive – because people have trusted you.
We have looked at how we work with people who are trans, or thinking of transitioning, within the organisation.
We do not operate an official dress code...and recognise the importance of using an individual’s preferred pronoun and using a pronoun incorrectly could amount to bullying and harassment. We are committed to supporting employees who choose to transition, including providing for paid time off for medical appointments, treatments and surgical procedures in line with the managing health and attendance policy.
We have launched four new work streams to look at the culture and career progression of under-represented groups within the BBC. We felt that we didn’t need one around LGBT because our figures were quite high in terms of our percentages – 11 per cent of BBC employees say that they are LGBT and, of that 11 per cent, 12 per cent are in leadership positions.
Then some people said ... they are mainly the Gs [gay] and the Bs [bisexual], so the lesbians and the transgender folk, the figures are not as high as you would want them to be, especially with the lesbians. We needed a fifth work stream around LGBT, which will be starting in the next couple of weeks, with an apology to the organisation for not starting with them in the first place.
People thought Galileo was mad because he thought the earth revolved around the sun. Everyone else thought the sun revolved around the earth. But he said ‘measure what is measurable and find a way to measure that what is not’ – and it is very important.
Because what gets measured gets done, and the fact that we have measured in the BBC and know what the figures are, has helped us move the agenda forward.
Our goal is to create a culture where everyone feels they can bring their best work and begin to change the thought processes and ways people behave and broadcast their programmes.
We’re looking at the style guide, we are on a journey.