Could a formula help you slash sickness absence?

Sick leave is a problem

Research shows that in the past twelve months sickness absence has dropped from an average of 6.7 days to 6.4 days per employee. That’s certainly a move in the right direction for employers but, overall, this particular issue still accounts for 180 million lost working days each year.

Sounds familiar

The biggest problem that employers face is short-term illness and “sickies”. These are most usually episodes of one or two days’ sickness absence, that don’t seem to have any real cause. Over time these can add up and may indicate an underlying problem that you need to tackle via disciplinary action. So if you’re facing this problem and need to reduce sickness absence levels, how can the “Bradford Factor” help you?

What is the Bradford Factor?

Believed to have originated from Bradford University, the Bradford Factor, or formula, is used to score: (1) episodes of sickness absence; (2) their frequency; and (3) their duration. It’s mainly used to manage short-duration, high-frequency absences, although it can be applied to long-term ones too.

How does it work?

The formula is: S2 x D = Bradford score points. “S” is the number of times that sickness absence has occurred in the last 52 weeks (squared) and “D” is the total number of days’ absence occurring during this particular period. The greater the number of individual episodes of sickness absence, the higher the employee’s Bradford score will be.

Worked examples

So an employee with a single ten-day absence in the last 52 weeks (perhaps due to an operation) will score ten points (1 x 1 x 10). If the same employee has five separate two-day absences, it rises to 250 points (5 x 5 x 10). However, if they’ve had ten separate one-day episodes, then their score will shoot up to 1,000 points (10 x 10 x 10) and you can see that you’ve got a problem.

Link to disciplinary proceedings

The Bradford factor allows you to set your own acceptable sickness absence levels, e.g. 250 points. Once an employee reaches this score, an “absence review” is triggered. This allows you to informally discuss the absences with the employee (to determine if there is an underlying problem) and, where appropriate, advise them that if attendance doesn’t improve, disciplinary action will follow.

Moving forwards

Where you’ve identified a problem, you can assess improvements as the 52-week period moves forward. For example, if you review again in eight weeks’ time and two of the absences have dropped off, the score falls to 512, i.e. 8 x 8 x 8. But if two more have occurred and the rest are still valid, it rises to 1,728, i.e. 12 x 12 x 12. You can then decide what (if any) action needs to be taken.

Tip. The Bradford Factor should not be applied to any sickness absence that is pregnancy-related or a qualifying disability under the Disability Discrimination Acts 1995 and 2005. This leaves you vulnerable to a claim of discrimination as it should only be used to monitor and act on problem absences, not genuine ones.