BBC staff to receive ‘unconscious bias’ training

BBC staff are starting to undergo “unconscious bias” training.

BBC Pacific Quay. Picture: John Devlin

Staff are being asked to complete online courses.

A spokeswoman said training is being provided to all staff and is designed to make the BBC a “better and more inclusive” place to work.

The BBC said it early February that it would “roll out” unconscious bias training.

Bosses said the aim was to “tackle the potential for the small amounts of this that may exist in any organisation”.

They did not say how much training would cost.

BBC journalists have examined unconscious bias in a number of programmes in recent years.

A social psychologist recently explored the “current trend in unconscious bias training” in a BBC Radio 4 documentary. Dr Keon West looked at “bias, unconscious and not” in an episode of the Seriously... series called “I Can’t Be Racist...”

The BBC World Service Business Daily programme also last year examined “hidden forces affecting how we treat others, and how businesses are tackling them” in a programme called Unconscious Bias.