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What is the Bradford Factor?

A handy little tool that few people know about; just what is the Bradford Factor and how does it work?

What is the Bradford Factor?Question: Can you summarize what the Bradford Factor does?

Answer: The simplest way to explain the Bradford Factor is that it is a scoring method that takes in to account not only how many days an employee is absent, but also how frequently these absences occur. It is particularly effective in identifying individuals who take multiple, unplanned short-term absences

Question: Why is that important?

Answer: Unplanned absences are clearly disruptive to any business and it is important that companies are able to easily identify employees to whom this might apply. When random absences are spread throughout the year it can sometimes be difficult to notice just how often a person is absent from work. The Bradford Factor understands this and allows you to easily track and review this behaviour.

Question: Can you give me an example of the Bradford Factor at work?

Answer: Sure. Let’s use the following scenario and look at what each employee would ‘score’. Let’s call our employees James and Sarah.

James had one absence of 12 consecutive working days
Sarah had 12 individual absences, each of one day
Using the Bradford Factor, James would have a ‘score’ of 12, whereas Sarah would have a ‘score’ of 1,728. A bit of a difference that really highlights the disruptive nature of Sarah’s random absences.

Question: How does the Bradford Factor work out these scores?

Answer: The calculation is simply: (No. of Days Absent) x (No. of instances of absence) x (No. of instances of absence). Note, it is because the ‘instances’ have been ‘squared’ that gives rise to a significantly higher score.

So in the above example, James scores 12 x 1 x 1 = 12, and Sarah scores 12 x 12 x 12 = 1,728

Question: So how does this help me and my company?

Answer: It helps in several ways. First, you simply add the Bradford Factor into your disciplinary procedure, together with various score thresholds for action, e.g. a score of 50 could give rise to a ‘chat’; a score of 120 a verbal warning, 200 a written warning, etc. It’s also useful for spotting ‘trends’ in certain employees who continue to have these disruptive one-off days of absences over and over again. Most importantly, because it takes into account how often an employee is absent, it means you can differentiate between someone who has had the flu for a couple of weeks, compared to someone who is having random days or ‘long weekends’.

Question: Do I need to include all absences?

Answer: Not at all. You decide which types of absence will count, so items such as ‘compassionate leave’ and the like can be excluded, making the scheme fair for all.

Question: What should my ‘scores’ be for disciplinary action?

Answer: Good question. Industries may vary in what is acceptable, but a few worked examples using Excel will soon allow you to agree thresholds. Look at historic employee records to see what individuals would have scored and maybe use these as your benchmarks. Thresholds can always be changed over time as more information becomes available.

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