The broadcaster June Sarpong has been hired by the BBC to ensure its output represents minority communities, as the corporation deals with continued concerns from staff over the decision to censure Naga Munchetty.

The former T4 presenter has been appointed as the broadcaster’s first director of creative diversity, with a remit to improve “the BBC’s on-air talent portrayal and commissioning” to represent all minority communities across the corporation’s output. She will also be responsible for increasing the diversity of staff involved in the programme-commissioning process.

The day before her appointment, internal concerns were raised about the wider representation of staff from minority backgrounds at the organisation.

BBC News’s editorial director, Kamal Ahmed, told the corporation’s journalists on Thursday afternoon that he had been shocked by some of the language he had heard during his five years working at the organisation, while one prominent reporter from a minority ethnic background said the row had caused substantial damage to the relationship between the BBC and minority communities who “do not trust us”.

A leaked recording of the meeting heard by the Guardian also revealed tensions over how the corporation’s impartiality rules would be implemented in future and which topics were considered worthy of debate, with one journalist complaining that topics around LGBT rights were often treated as a “talking point for a controversial discussion”.

Sarpong began her career at MTV, followed by a lengthy stint on Channel 4’s youth strand. She helped launch the campaign for a remain vote in the 2016 EU referendum and has campaigned on a number of diversity issues for many years, writing two books on the topic.

She will work for the BBC three days a week on an initial two-year contract. As part of this, Sarpong will attend the BBC’s executive committee – the current members of which signed a public letter last week backing the original ruling against Munchetty.

Sarpong has been allowed to continue as a panellist on opinion programmes such as Sky News’s The Pledge and ITV’s Loose Women, enabling her to broadcast her opinions on topics of public interest without being bound by the BBC’s editorial guidelines.

The job was advertised in May and interviews have been going on for some time, with the BBC saying the appointment is unrelated to the Munchetty row. The corporation is aiming for 15% of its staff and managers to be from BME backgrounds by 2020, but accepts that while progress is being made, “more needs to be done, particularly at the very highest executive levels”.

Sarpong said: “I relish the challenge of working with senior leadership to make the BBC more inclusive and representative of the broad and diverse audience it serves.

“The task is indeed daunting; however, being awarded the opportunity to help level the playing field for the next generation of diverse talent makes the obstacles and discrimination I have personally faced throughout my own career all the more worthwhile.”