Candidates applying to the BBC through the Internet are of a higher quality
than other applicants and are being shortlisted more often, according to the
firm’s head of online recruitment.
John Clark told delegates that although the split between paper and online
applications was even, the corporation was shortlisting slightly more
candidates who applied via the web.
"We now get around 50 per cent of our responses from the internet, and
it also offersa slightly higher quality candidate than from paper
applications," he said.
He claimed online candidates tend to be more suitable because it is possible
to give more detail about job positions on the web and adverts are bigger.
Clarke said the ability to attract good-quality applications at the BBC was
vital because it recruits just 6,000 to 7,000 new staff every year from more
than 100,000 applications. "It’s almost 95 per cent wastage so the BBC
values the quality and not quantity of applications," he said.
Clarke told delegates that the BBC is advertising more in publications that
have a wide ethnic readership because it needs to improve the proportion of its
managers from ethnic minorities, which currently stands at only 2 per cent
compared to an overall ethnic population of 8 per cent throughout the
organisation.
"It means we have a lot of ethnic cleaners and caterers but not many
managers and that’s not good enough. We want the BBC to reflect the diversity
of the overall license-paying public," he said.
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