Absence rate and Bradford factor calculator
Absenteeism is one component of shrinkage and the one HR measures differently. Enter the days lost and scheduled for a team to get the rate and its shrinkage effect, and an individual's spells and days for the Bradford factor, which weights frequent short absences over one long one.
Days lost ÷ days scheduled.
- Bradford factor
- 128
- Days lost per scheduled year
- 18.0
worth a conversation
At 260 working days.
Show the working
- Absence rate = 180 days lost ÷ 2600 scheduled = 6.9%. Every point of absence is a point of shrinkage that was not planned.
- Bradford factor = spells² × days = 4² × 8 = 128 (worth a conversation). Eight days in one spell would score 8; in 4 spells it scores 128.
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How absence rate and the Bradford factor are calculated
The absence rate is days lost divided by days scheduled, for a team over a period. Four per cent means the team was short one agent in twenty-five on an average day, and unlike leave it was not in the plan, so it comes straight out of service level unless the shrinkage assumption already allowed for it.
The Bradford factor scores an individual: spells squared times days. It exists because frequent short absences disrupt a roster more than one long one of the same length; eight single days score 512, one eight-day spell scores 8. HR policies use bands to trigger conversations.
For planning, absence is measured, not managed: it goes into the shrinkage calculator as sickness days, ideally by week, since it has seasons. For managing it, the Bradford factor and the return-to-work conversation are the tools, and both work better when occupancy is not the cause.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a typical absence rate?
- Three to five per cent for UK contact centres, against about two per cent for the wider workforce. Rates above six per cent usually point at occupancy, shift patterns or management rather than at the agents.
- Is absence the same as shrinkage?
- It is one part of it. Shrinkage is all paid time not available for contacts; absence is the unplanned part of the external component. The shrinkage calculator has a line for it.
- What Bradford score should trigger action?
- Policies vary. Fifty is often a first conversation, 200 a formal review, 400 and above serious. Apply the bands consistently and remember the score cannot tell you why someone is absent.
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