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Bradford Factor

 “The Bradford Factor” a new method for measuring employee absence

Absence Management never seems to be far from the top of Managements' agenda. Companies measure absence in a number of ways, including and excluding various types of absence. As a result, one company may have a higher absence rate than another organisation only because it includes more non-sickness variables when measuring absence. Many companies fail to distinguish clearly between short-term and long-term absence however - an important short coming with profound implications for attendance management.

Measuring the overall rate

In calculating overall absence rates, many organisations use a standard formula to show the amount of time lost:
 

(Number of days/shifts lost to absence x 100) / (Total number of working days/shifts)

 
This figure however, leaves many questions unanswered. For example, is the absence rate a reflection of a few employees suffering from long-term ill health or are a substantial number of employees being regularly absent for relatively short spells?
 
Whereas most time and attendance systems track absenteeism, Clockwise focuses on problem areas and/or employees, and enables organisations to take proactive measures to improve attendance. The Clockwise Attendance Management solution begins with a thorough assessment of valid, accurate data, measuring severity, (the number of hours/days lost); frequency (number of episodes); concentration (many absent occasionally or few absent frequently); a search for patterns (a particular day of the week, one or two specific departments and/or short-term absences consisting of one or two days at a time, spread throughout the year).
 
For many organisations, the cost and disruption of persistent, short spells of absence are greater than for occasional, longer periods of absence. To address this problem, Softworks has developed a formula based on the Bradford factor, which measures the Number of Incidences and the Duration of each incidence to compute an absence score for each employee.
 

The Bradford Factor

The Bradford factor measures an employee's irregularity of attendance. It is calculated by multiplying:

S x S x D = Bradford points score

Where S is the number of spells of absence in the last 52 weeks and D is the number of days' absence during the last 52 weeks.
 
So for employees with 10 days' absence in one year, differently distributed, the score can vary enormously:
  • 1 absence of 10 days is 10 points (1 x 1 x 10) 
  • 5 absences of two days each is 250 points (5 x 5 x 10) 
  • 10 days of one day each is 1000 points (10 x 10 x 10) 
 
Using this formula, HR Managers can see at a glance, the effects of employee absence on the organisation as a whole as well as a comparison between departments.
 
 
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