December 01 2002
by Briefing staffA few days ago, millions around the country will have ushered in the New Year to the familiar tones of Big Ben striking twelve. Since then, we may well have moaned at the weather forecast, watched the Queen's speech on repeat, or caught the latest sports results online - all brought to us by one BBC service or another.
The "good old Beeb" forms part of the national fabric. But being a public institution has its drawbacks. First and foremost, every licence payer needs to feel they are getting value for money. John Smith, BBC finance director, spelt it out in a recent FT interview about the corporation's current spate of belttightening:
"The macroeconomics of the BBC are simple: it is about maximising licence-fee revenue and spending it in the best possible way."
So, every penny devoted to programmes then, and not much room for the sort of community involvement activities that are now routine in other companies, you might think? It's not an unfair assumption. Indeed, as a statutory corporation, not a privately owned company, the BBC's charter explicitly forbids it from donating to charitable causes.
Yet speak to Yogesh Chauhan, the BBC's community affairs manager, and the overriding impression is one of bustling activity. Ticking the fingers of one hand, he dashes off a quick list of the BBC's main community projects. First there comes BBC Children in Need, one of the ten largest grant-making charities in the UK (the latest appeal generated over £13m from the public in the first evening alone). The BBC World Service Trust provides another stellar example of the corporation's community contribution. A litany of individual examples from across the whole BBC network occupy his remaining fingers, ranging from free tours around the BBC's main television studios to running charity appeals on local radio. The rationale behind CCI So how does the BBC explain to licencepayers the rationale behind its active community programme? Unlike others, pure philanthropy can play no part. Internally there's a compelling business case argument, which many others will be familiar with - team building, skills, retention, morale. On average, one in four BBC employees currently volunteers, amounting to an estimated value of almost £600,000 per year. In keeping with the cost-benefit mantra, however, BBC employees who wish to volunteer need to convince their line manager why it would be good for the BBC or for their own workrelated development.
In the run-up to the Children in Need appeal, Yogesh was also involved in launching a new payroll giving scheme. Both initiatives provide excellent examples of how the BBC is using its leverage role, both as a national broadcaster and a major employer, to generate support for the community in a cost-efficient way. The emphasis on a low-cost approach to community involvement is one of the principal reasons why the BBC decided to join LBG (London Benchmarking Group), which has helped it distinguish between the costs on the one hand, and leverage and outputs on the other. Unique as the BBC's public mandate might make its approach to community involvement, its central motivation for such involvement is common to many - namely, staying connected. Indeed, seeing community involvement as a means to 'connectedness' gets to the heart of what the BBC is all about. To borrow from the political lexicon, the BBC was designed from the start to be TV and radio (and more recently, internet services) 'of the people, by the people, and for the people'. Out-oftouch programmes and an 'ivory tower' approach were not part of the package, as the BBC's critics are never slow to point out. And under Greg Dyke, the corporation seems to be rediscovering its roots. Rarely does the current director-general make a speech without paying deference to notions of accountability, diversity and linking to communities.
'Connecting', therefore, has emerged as an unofficial pillar of the BBC in recent years. In practical terms, it means that everything the BBC does must be seen to reflect the concerns, interests and realities of its audience, namely Mrs. Josephine Public - plus her sports-loving husband, her with-it children, the parish priest, and the businessman next door. You get the idea. This is stakeholder theory at the extreme.
What is vital to understand about Yogesh's role is the way in which the community activities he manages feed through to better connected broadcasting. It is among the production teams and in the editorial meetings, therefore, that the true measure of the BBC's community connectedness - and Yogesh's success - will ultimately be judged. What should emerge are more programmes such as 'A Sense of Place' or internet services in the 'BBCi where I live'(http://www.bbc.co.uk/whereilive) mould, which aim to make the link with communities. Following on the heels of 'Greatest Britons', for example, the BBC is planning to team up with English Heritage and other conservation groups in a series called 'Restoration', the idea being that viewers nominate which building they would most like to see restored.
An excellent model for how community involvement complements the BBC's mainstream activities can be seen in the recent partnership between the corporation and the Community Channel, which grew out of a BBC employee volunteer seeing the confluence between the two organisations. With recent changes in programming, learning is also being integrated into mainstream output, building on the success of initiatives such as BBC Two's Learning Zone. This should mean that providing follow-up learning materials linked with landmark programmes, such as The Blue Planet, should become more commonplace in the future. Materials on political literacy, for example, will accompany an upcoming education series on the subject of citizenship.
How communities are portrayed is also a key factor in future programming, something the corporation is already working hard on in terms of the representation of issues such as age, disability, faith, gender and race. Getting communities involved in programming marks a radical departure from the 'ivory tower' approach. The BBC already employs eleven community affairs researchers to work within communities to generate local stories. A recent attempt to work with inner city children in Harlsden, London, in programme input and output represents just the kind of experimentation that Yogesh is keen to see more of.
It is tempting to write off the BBC as a case unto itself. However, the experimentation that a lowcontributory approach has fostered offers interesting lessons for the private sector. While it might not be competing in the corporate donation tables, the BBC has struck on a community involvement formula that delivers to the corporation a sense of belonging, purpose and connectedness. It is outputs like these that win over costcutting finance directors.
The 'connecting' rationale behind community involvement provides an obvious lead into the corporation's broader social responsibilities. Add to this the BBC's obligation "to educate" and "to inform", and you begin to see why it's the 'how' question that predominates discussions on CSR, rather than the 'why' or 'what'. Just by giving news coverage to the anti/globalisation debate, covering Open University lectures or addressing key social issues in EastEnders, the BBC could be said to be 'doing CSR'.
By Yogesh's own confession, however, the BBC's historic approach suffers from a lack of co-ordination. Community involvement has traditionally been managed centrally by a community affairs team of one and a half people, who in turn liaise with a crossorganisational network of individuals with responsibility for community activities. Running parallel are teams from human resources, the environment unit, customer services, the corporate charities, and the diversity centre, all of whom are involved with some aspect of the BBC's wider CSR programme.
To cut out duplication of effort and deliver a clearer internal and external communications message, Yogesh has won approval for his proposed 'CSR Centre'. The new centre officially came into being once Big Ben stopped its clanging. Its remit extends to the entire BBC, including the commercial areas of the corporation and the Foreign Officefunded World Service.
Moving from his role as head of political and parliamentary affairs , Michael Hastings will head the new unit. He will be joined by Yogesh, who will concentrate on the corporation's community involvement programme, and by a project officer. The unit will report to Caroline Thomson, director of public policy and executive member with responsibility for CSR. From CSR strategy to implementation.
Michael's vision for the unit is straightforward. It is designed to provide a framework within which the energies and creativity of the BBC as a whole can be exercised. The centre will therefore look to deliver collaboration among existing projects, to encourage new partnerships and initiatives and to raise awareness both inside and outside the BBC. "CSR by default, not edict" is Michael's way of summing up this part-inspirational, partfacilitating strategy of the centre. Getting the wheels of the BBC turning - and, more importantly, turning together - will be no small challenge. Michael and Yogesh are confident, however, that they have the answer to ensuring that the desired cross-departmental engagement is achieved. Or, more accurately, they have three answers:
Virtual teams: these will be selected from across a range of functions within the corporation, and tasked to work on specific CSRrelated initiatives;
BBC-wide CSR forum: this will provide an opportunity for key stakeholders to feed into the development of the BBC's community and CSR activities. It will be chaired by director-general, Greg Dyke, and will meet two or three times a year;
Reporting: By 2004, the BBC is promising to have the first composite CSR report for the whole corporation. This will build on its existing commitment to environmental reporting.
Some of this has already started to happen, with a 'virtual team' of over 20 people who worked on the BitC CR index. The resultant report should bring about the single internal focus that the BBC is aiming for. What is more, a holistic report should also position the corporation well for charter renewal in 2006, when the function and performance of the BBC will be up for interrogation.
Getting the green light for the CSR Centre is no mean achievement for the BBC's community affairs manager. The main challenge for the next year will be to keep the 'buzz' about CSR going. A more streamlined management will definitely help. It will be interesting to see the impact that the proposed virtual teams have in terms of co-ordinating activities across sectors. Getting the mechanics in place for a holistic report will be no easy task. Applying the lessons learned from its experience of environmental and community auditing, however, should smooth the process.
The stakes are high. BBC managers are starting to focus on the impending charter renewal. If the BBC is to be successful in protecting the privileges it enjoys under the current charter, then proving its public service record will be essential. It is no throwaway line, therefore, when Michael describes CSR as "defining what the BBC wants to be in the future". Again, the BBC's unique position as a competitive, but publicly accountable organisation has helped develop the concept of CSR from something worthy to something that encapsulates what the corporation is all about. And surely that's the nub of CSR for all organisations, be they public or private?
Yogesh joined the BBC in September 2001. His primary responsibilities centre on developing community involvement activities and spearheading the corporation's work on CSR. He began his career as development officer for the National Development Agency for the Minority Ethnic voluntary sector. In 1996, he joined the London Voluntary Service Council, where he was responsible for managing development training, learning, advice and consultancy. Immediately before joining the BBC, Yogesh spent two years as programme director at West London Leadership, a strategic partnership between the public and private sectors. He is vice-chairman of the Charities Aid Foundation Grants Advisory Council and chairman of the Minority Ethnic Fund. He is also vicechairman of Employees in the Community Network and a trustee of BBC Children in Need. His interests include contemporary art and photography, cycling and travel.