The public service broadcaster reported today that it has reached staff ethnicity targets set in 2000 to have 10% ethnic minority staff by the end of 2003. In fact it has managed to surpass this target by boosting ethnic numbers to 10.02%.
Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland's 'The Mix' programme two years ago, Dyke said that the BBC was a "predominantly white" organisation that had difficulty attracting and keeping ethnic minority employees. He added that staff from ethnic minorities were leaving because the corporation failed to promote them and that the BBC did not reflect Britain.
The BBC was then forced to quash fears among staff that it was to impose an ethnic quota system. It stressed that employees would be hired based on their talent not the colour of their skin. It stressed that it was setting targets, not quotas.
Further targets have been met in that around 650 more people from ethnic minority backgrounds now work at the BBC compared with four years ago.
The broadcaster has also hit its target for 4% of senior managers to be from ethnic minority backgrounds. The actual figure was 4.38%.
The BBC has now set new targets to be reached by the end of 2007, for 12.5% of staff and 7% of senior management to be from ethnic minority backgrounds. Dyke claimed that the BBC felt that this was an "appropriate middle way".
According to Dyke: "I'm absolutely convinced that it was only by setting targets and regularly monitoring our progress towards them at BBC Executive Committee -- and by regular I mean every three months -- that we are able to meet them. Abstract commitments to diversity don't, in my experience, actually change much in large organisations. You only do that by real figures and regular monitoring."
Dyke was speaking at an event to raise awareness of a joint BBC and Arts Council England initiative called Roots.
The BBC boosted its ethnic credentials further last week when it announced it had hired Andrea Callender as its head of diversity last week. She comes from pressure group Race for Opportunity and her remit will include co-coordinating the broadcaster's efforts across the organisation to improve on-air representation and portrayal, and the diversity of BBC staff. She takes up her role on April 19.
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