Gloom grows at BBC as three in four staff have no faith in management
LESS than a quarter of BBC staff have confidence in the corporation’s leadership team, headed by director general Tim Davie, an internal survey shows.
The poll of BBC television and radio employees, seen by The Daily Telegraph, shows confidence in senior management has dropped by 20 per cent in the past year.
Asked whether they agreed or disagreed with the statement “I have confidence in the executive team and our vision for the BBC”, just 24 per cent of “content” staff agreed.
The findings come after BBC Radio 4’s Today programme was last week found to have lost 800,000 listeners to rival talk shows in the past 12 months, according to the latest listening figures.
In March, Mr Davie was accused of overseeing a toxic culture of “fear and paranoia” after executives terminated the BBC Singers choir as a part of “devastating” cuts to the corporation’s three English orchestras.
Although the choir was given a forced reprieve, a plan to make the BBC’S local radio network less local by amalgamating shows across different regions sparked strike action after presenters at 39 stations were asked to apply for fewer jobs.
The departure of Ken Bruce, the BBC veteran, from Radio 2 has also raised eyebrows, along with Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker’s tweets about the Government’s immigration policy in April which saw him briefly taken off air amid a row over impartiality.
The relaunch of the BBC news channel, combining and replacing BBC World News, was described as a “s--show” by one veteran after presenters including Huw Edwards, Clive Myrie and Sophie Raworth received letters inviting them to consider applying for voluntary redundancy.
The staff survey, shared with BBC employees on Monday, also found only 28 per cent agreed with the statement that “The BBC is in a position to really succeed over the next three years”, a drop of 9 per cent since last year.
Asked whether they were “proud” to work for the BBC, 68 per cent said yes but that was a fall of 15 per cent. Only 60 per cent of staff would “recommend the BBC as a great place to work”, down by 9 per cent on last year.
More than half (55 per cent) agreed with the statement “I believe in the BBC’S strategy to deliver value for all audiences”. That figure is down 12 per cent on last year’s responses.
In an email to staff, Charlotte Moore, the BBC’S chief content officer, who is responsible for all its network television and radio output, admitted the results “tell us that there are things we’re doing well and where we are seeing improvement, but also areas where we need to focus more”.
She added: “Clearly there are some areas we need to address around pride and confidence in our future.”
Ms Moore, who first joined the BBC in 2006 and earns between £425,000 and £429,999 a year, invited her staff, 73 per cent of whom took part in the poll, to “share your opinions and suggestions at any point with your manager or senior leader”.