Employer Brand Healthcheck: BBC Wood Lane, London Middlesex England

The broadcaster's reputation as 'the' place for aspiring media professionals is under threat. Internal dissatisfaction over high executive pay is exacerbated by job cuts and pension reforms.

Not since the first fuzzy transmissions were beamed from Alexandra Palace 88 years ago has a burden of expectation hung so heavily on the shoulders of BBC staff. With a multi-platform, multi-channel era ushering in media consumption Lord Reith could only have imagined, renewal of the £3.5 billion licence fee in 2013 is anything but certain. After Sir Michael Lyons ordered a strategic review of the corporation's size and quality of output (as well as having to defend salaries of its management and entertainers), its 40,000 rank-and-file staff are fighting for survival. Cuts announced this summer, as part of a £600 million reallocation of funds, have included slashing staff at BBC Online by 25%, and the controversial plans to axe 6 Music and the Asian Network. Internal dissatisfaction over executive pay has been exacerbated by pension reforms (the Beeb faces a pensions deficit of £1.5 billion) - proposals which led to staff voting to strike this month. A pay freeze for staff earning £37,726 still exists, and don't even mention the 2,500 told they have relocate to its Manchester 'MediaCity UK HQ' (most angrily the Breakfast News team.) Has the BBC lost finally its gleam as 'the' place for aspiring media professionals?

[Source: www.hrmagazine.co.uk]