Resettlement a priority in BBC cuts

The BBC has pledged to resettle staff wherever possible as Greg Dyke's cuts close jobs.

At at a meeting to discuss the reorganisation of several major BBC divisions, senior managers promised that efforts to find jobs for staff threatened by the drive to cut support costs could start even before they knew their jobs were at risk.

In many divisions, the final jobs toll has not been identified, but management are already planning a "people forum" in which designated personnel managers from each division would exchange details of areas facing cuts and look for potential resettlement opportunities in other divisions.

A retraining fund will also be available to re-skill staff who are willing to switch careers in order to stay at the BBC. Although Dyke's target is 900 job cuts in areas outside Resources, the DG expects that the creation of new jobs in output-related areas could actually boost overall employment figures.

At the meeting on July 14, management said that they had so far identified roughly 300 of the target 900 job cuts. In some divisions, particularly the programme departments, these would fall mostly among senior managers, finance, and business support staff. Other divisions were still working on their plans, and could offer only predictions of the number of jobs that would go.

In Finance, where many jobs were already at risk because of the introduction of the Apollo computer system, the reorganisation had been complicated by last week's announcement that many other parts of the BBC would be transferred into the division.

More jobs are likely to be identified for closure in many divisions once the new management teams take up their duties, and begin looking at their staffing structures. Dyke's target of 900 cuts is expected to be reached over the next three years.

One major change confirmed by the BBC was an overhaul of the way Personnel works. Under a proposal put to Dyke for a 20% saving in the area, almost all personnel staff would be grouped together in a telephone service centre, leaving only a token presence in the operational divisions.

Management hoped that more detailed information would be available at a series of divisional-level negotiating meetings over the next fortnight in areas where job cuts have been identified.

These meetings are expected to cover Television, Radio, Drama Entertainment and Children's Directorate, and Factual and Learning.

---

Area-by-area reports on the Dyke reorganisation.

Radio and Music

• In Radio 1,2,3, commissioning, production, and music policy all integrated. Saving of 17% of overheads and management costs by elimination of duplication. TV classical music and live events move into radio.

  Radio new media section created by merging radio online and digital radio teams. Business units cut from 15 to 8.

  Initial job cuts expected to be less than 20, mostly in senior management and support areas.

Television

• Broadcast and Presentation re-integrate. More power given to genre commissioners, and faster mechanisms to transfer cash to programme areas. Independent Commissioning Unit closes, but BBC still obliged to treat indies with "fairness and propriety".

  Target for cuts is 40% of editorial and business support areas.

  Post closures are expected to be a few dozen in areas like senior management and the ICU.

Factual and Learning

• 10 existing departments converged into 3: Documentaries and Investigation, Leisure and Factual Entertainment, and Specialist Factual. Education moves into mainstream departments. Manchester, Bristol and Birmingham continue with specialist roles.

  Target saving 25% in overhead and management costs.

  Job cuts estimated to be 50, 3 of them in Radio, and potentially 25 in Finance.

Drama, Entertainment, Children's, and Films

• Separate HQ operations will be combined, with consequent savings. Changes to Film activities will follow later in the year. Schools analogue TV production moves into this division. Overall staff in DEC will be 975 app.

  Savings target is 20% reduction in overheads and management costs over 2 years.

  Job cuts initially 20, with possibility of more in future.

Finance, Property, and Business Services

• Old Finance Division takes over Information & Archives, Property, Facilities Management, and other areas, mostly from the Resources Directorate. Will also, over time, absorb finance and business services staff from all other BBC divisions.

  Business units will be cut from 150 to 60. Of roughly 2,000 staff in the new division, 730 have been identified as being in finance related areas, and are expected to suffer most of the medium-term job cuts.

  Savings in finance jobs will come from the roll-out of the Apollo project, which will automate many financial transactions in the BBC, and simplification of the internal market.

  Target for savings is 27% over three years.

  No estimate of actual job cuts until later in the year.

  Management hope that natural turnover and resettlement will minimise the number of actual redundancies. However, once Apollo is up and running in about three years time, resettlement opportunities will be limited.

Human Resouces

• New telephone service centre to be established for entire BBC, with only one senior personnel post in each division to be called "HR Partners". Local managers will be expected to take over more day-to-day responsibility for dealing with staff problems.

  No plans have been finalised for areas that move into Human Resources, like Recruitment, Diversity, and Health & Safety.

  Target for savings is 20%.

  Of more than 500 jobs in the new division, over 100 could be closed over the next 3 years.

News

• Has been given no target for savings, and expects no job cuts as a direct result of the Dyke reorganisation. Future reviews of the division might, however, lead to proposals for cuts, but none are planned at present. In News Resources, which transfers into News Division, any existing cuts plans, for example in the finance area, will still go through.

Marketing and Strategy

• These two divisions are reduced in size, and expected to work closely together in the reorganised BBC. Management report that many posts are already vacant, as staff have moved on in anticipation of cuts.

  Target for savings: Strategy - 23%, Marketing - 40%.

  23 job cuts announced already in strategy. Marketing expected to announce a few dozen cuts over the next week.

---