BBC profile Strategic HR
The BBC I
believe is
now much
more open,
transparent,
fair and
inclusive
than it
was five
years ago
The key was to weigh things up
quickly though, and to rapidly bring
together different historically-dispersed
bits of HR to create a more “holistic
function that could service the whole of
the BBC”. “Examples were internal
comms, D&I and the academy, which
weren’t initially part of HR,” says
Hughes-D’Aeth.
She adds: “I’d also been asked to
take out cost if I could. So I took out
£10 million per annum… That’s a
nice feeling. But it was a very significant
upheaval; about 60% of the function
were new in those first two to
three years.”
A feat of multitasking
It wasn’t, however, a case of “just wait
until we’ve sorted ourselves out to
support the organisation,” says Hughes-
D’Aeth. “You’ve got a mix of things and
it’s not a question of let’s do one and
move on to the other.”
The other “professional support”
functions (IT, finance, procurement)
received the same scrutiny as HR. “We
did a big piece of work looking at all
the functions that aren’t directly
content related… It was finding out
how much we were spending on those
activities. What was right and proper?
How many people were needed?
“So we spent a lot of 2015 sorting out
what was right strategically. Sometimes
it was right to have a centralised
function… Sometimes it was right to
be slightly decentralised.”
On the simplification front, the HR
team first looked at whether the BBC
was organised divisionally in the best
way. A wholesale review of layers within
divisions formed part of this. “There
were instances of 12, 13, 14 layers, and
that’s not ever conducive to great
comms flowing up and down… We
decided seven from the director general
to the frontline was the right principle
to set,” says Hughes-D’Aeth, adding
that redefining spans of control for
managers was also important.
“We did a whole raft of work around
those roles and identified that the BBC
had about 2,300 team managers, which
for an organisation of our size is
perfectly respectable. That gave us a
very clear community of people… who
we needed to support and develop, and
who we need to communicate with.”
Comms and leadership
Given the difficulty for any one person
to get their head around the whole of
the BBC, deciding how to best
communicate changes and its
overarching purpose has been key.
Last year the HR team asked all
employees what their experience of the
BBC was and what they’d like to see
change. The first finding was “about
very clear meaningful work”, reports
Hughes-D’Aeth. “They wanted to
understand what the direction of
the organisation is… and to regularly
know what’s going on and their
individual part.”
In January the Press Pause Moment
initiative was launched. “Tony did a
video for the whole organisation.
People were asked to watch the video in
their teams with their manager, and
then discuss it in teams,” says Hughes-
D’Aeth, adding: “Every few months
Tony will speak to the organisation.”
Two-way communication has also
become a much stronger part of
leadership development. And this has
received a huge refresh, with Tony Hall
describing this as “the biggest
investment in leadership development
for a generation” at the BBC, Hughes-
D’Aeth reports.
“Last year we went out and listened
to all of our leaders and basically said:
what is good leadership at the BBC? On
the back of that we developed six
leadership competencies and 2,300
leaders were taken through sessions last
Summer,” says Hughes-D’Aeth.
She adds: “One of the biggest parts of
the HR business partners’ roles is to sit
round the table with small groups of
managers saying ‘today let’s talk about
handling difficult conversations’,
for example.”
Culture and values
“People said during the listening
exercise in 2018 they really wanted
trusted leadership – leaders who really
care about them as individuals,” says
Hughes-D’Aeth. Which brings us to the
area she’s most proud of.
“It’s the broad culture piece; the BBC
I believe is now much more open,
transparent, fair and inclusive than it
was five years ago,” Hughes-D’Aeth
says. “I was particularly proud that
when I announced I was leaving in
June, a very key individual from the
unions said to me how much more
reassured they’d been since I’d been in
post… That was one of those moments
when I thought ‘all of that hard work
was worthwhile’.”
hrmagazine.co.uk November 2019 HR 33
Photography: Leo Wilkinson
/hrmagazine.co.uk