Glossary
What is the Bradford Factor?
The Bradford Factor is an absence-measurement score that weights many short, separate absences more heavily than a single long one, on the theory that frequent unplanned absences are more disruptive than one continuous period off.
The score is calculated from two numbers over a period: how many separate spells of absence a person had, and how many days in total. The number of spells is weighted most heavily, so a pattern of repeated one-day absences produces a high score.
It is used in the UK in particular as a trigger for a conversation rather than a verdict: a score crossing a threshold flags a pattern worth looking at. It is a prompt for managers, not an automatic judgement about a person.
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