How employee absence can be measured
Employee absence, especially unplanned absences, impact companies in several ways – especially when it comes to productivity. The most apparent reason for this is the reduced output that results from having fewer employees. This has the potential to be a significant bottleneck if a company has a compact workforce and/or it’s a busy period for them.
Annual leave is a planned, legitimate form of absence that is distinct from unplanned sick leave. Managing annual leave strategically helps prevent burnout, supports employee well-being, and maintains productivity by ensuring employees take necessary breaks without disrupting business operations.
On the other side of the coin, however, are the remaining employees who have to pick up the slack. Short-term, if they feel pressured or rushed, this may cause the quality of their work to dip. Longer term, if it happens frequently, it could cause them to burnout. Worse, they could start to resent both their absent colleagues and the company, negatively influencing company culture.
To avoid such scenarios within your company, it’s important to measure employee absence; this post explores a few ways to do just that.
Establishing clear policies on leave types, such as annual leave and sick leave, and reporting procedures is crucial for effective absence management.
Why measure employee absence?
It’s crucial to measure employee absence to maintain your company’s productivity and protect its culture. Measuring absence is essential for quantifying and analyzing absences, which helps organizations understand the scope and impact of absenteeism.
Firstly, measuring staff absence can tell you more about each of your employee’s performance and attitude. Measuring absence can lead to identifying and addressing underlying issues that may be affecting employee engagement or satisfaction. Let’s face it, every company makes hiring mistakes. Employees often aren’t who they presented themselves to be during the recruitment process or aren’t as well suited to the job as either party would have hoped.
Similarly, for a variety of reasons, an employee’s attitude and motivation can change, affecting their performance. Put another way, somewhere along the line, a breach of the psychological contract occurred between you and the employee. Measuring absence provides an indication of overall workforce health and organizational performance, allowing you to spot early warning signs and take appropriate management actions.
Absenteeism directly impacts productivity through financial and operational costs, including wages for unworked time and overtime costs. Tracking absenteeism metrics helps organizations identify root causes and implement targeted interventions to mitigate its impact.
How to measure employee absence?
Monitoring and tracking absences are essential for identifying trends, understanding underlying causes, and improving absence management within your organization. By regularly monitoring employee absence, HR teams can implement strategies that enhance workforce attendance and overall organizational health. Using absence management software can also streamline manual tasks for HR and management teams.
Here are three common methods for measuring employee absence.
Lost time rate
Lost time rate is a measure of absence as a percentage of the total working time available. To measure employee absence, use the following formula:
Lost Time Rate (%) = (Total absence during a certain time period ÷ Total available working hours in the same period) x 100
For example, let’s say an employee can work a possible maximum of 150 hours in a month (7.5 hours a day x 5 days x 4 weeks (37.5 x 4)). If the employee is absent for three days in that month, the total absence is 22.5 hours, representing the time lost due to absence during that certain time period.
The calculation would be:
(22.5 (time lost) ÷ 150 (total possible hours) x 100) = 15%
Monitoring key metrics like Lost Time Rate and Frequency Rate supports effective absenteeism management.
After using any of these methods to measure employee absence, you could then calculate the average rate for all employees to get a company average rate of absence.
Frequency rate
The frequency rate measures the average rate of absence for the company as a whole for a given period, expressed as a percentage. It’s calculated by simply dividing the number of absences by the number of employees. The individual frequency rate specifically measures how many employees in the workforce take at least one absence spell during the same period, highlighting the proportion of staff experiencing absence regardless of the number or length of absences.
The main benefit of the frequency rate is that it’s easy to calculate. Its main drawback, however, is that it doesn’t account for the length of absences or which employees are most frequently absent. Additionally, the frequency rate does not account for employees who take more than one period of absence during the same period, so it provides no insight into multiple absences by the same individual.
For example, you have 32 employees and had 7 absences over a given timespan:
(7 (absences) ÷ 32 (employees) x 100) = 21.8%
Organizations also track the Employee Availability Rate as a Key Performance Indicator to gauge workforce readiness and predict production capacity.
Bradford Factor
Finally, there’s the Bradford Factor method, a scoring system used within HR functions to monitor employee absence. The Bradford Factor produces a quantitative result known as the bradford score, which attempts to measure the impact of an employee’s unplanned absences on a business. In this way, it can be a useful measure for identifying potential problems with particular employees and organizational disruption, and for informing absence triggers.
An employee’s Bradford Factor score (B) is calculated as follows: S2 x D = B, where:
S = the number of the employee’s total separate absences in a year
D = total number of days off
The Bradford Factor was developed by researchers at the Bradford University School of Management in the 1980s as part of a study into absenteeism.
For example:
5 one-day absences: 5 x 5 x 5 = 125
Conversely, 1 seven-day absence: 1 x 1 x 7 = 7
The Bradford Factor primarily focuses on short, frequent, and unplanned absences, rather than long-term sick leave. It is most effective at flagging patterns of frequent short-term absences that may otherwise be missed, while long-term absences such as extended sick leave are less heavily weighted.
However, as detailed in our previous post on Bradford Factor Triggers, this method has its flaws. The most glaring of which is that a single absence, whether a day or a week, counts as 1. This means that you could unfairly penalise an employee who’s chronically ill or, similarly, someone who was sick but returned to work too quickly, and then required more time off. The use of the Bradford Factor is controversial for this reason, as it can disproportionately affect employees who experience genuine illness but make efforts to return promptly.
Also, it doesn’t account for when these absences are: the 7-day absence in the above example could have been at a busy time – while some of the single-day absences could have occurred in quiet periods. A high Bradford Factor score is usually triggered by frequent short-term absences and flags patterns that may otherwise be missed.
Specialized software like PeopleHR or Calamari automates the Bradford Factor calculations, reducing HR burdens and making it easier to track and respond to employee absence data.
When responding to high Bradford Factor scores, a different approach may be needed depending on whether the absences are due to minor ailments or more serious health issues, ensuring effective support and reduction of sick days.
It’s important to clarify what types of absences are included: the Bradford Factor calculation typically includes unplanned absences such as sick leave, but may exclude planned leave like annual holidays or parental leave, depending on company policy.
ScheduleLeave’s powerful and easy-to-use reporting tools make it simple to measure employee absence, track leave efficiently, and identify important trends that would otherwise slip by unnoticed. Sign up for your free trial to discover how it much it can help your company.
Absence measurement tools
Modern absence measurement tools are essential for organisations aiming to manage employee absence efficiently and proactively. These digital solutions allow HR teams and managers to track absences in real time, monitor trends, and analyze the impact of sickness absence, unplanned absences, and persistent short term absence on business operations. By automating the collection and analysis of absence data, these tools provide a clear overview of absence rates, the total number of absent days, and the average number of absences per employee over any set period.
One of the most valuable features of absence measurement tools is their ability to calculate key metrics such as the Bradford Factor score, which helps identify patterns of repeat absences and highlights employees whose frequent short-term absences may require further support or intervention. Using the Bradford Factor formula (S x S x D), HR teams can quickly spot trends that might otherwise go unnoticed, allowing them to address underlying causes and manage absence more effectively.
Beyond tracking sickness absence and calculating absence rates, these tools also support compliance with statutory sick pay and sick pay schemes, ensuring that all absences are recorded accurately and that employees receive the correct entitlements. With configurable absence policies, managers can set triggers for disciplinary action or additional support, making it easier to manage persistent short term absence and ensure a fair, transparent process for all employees.
Absence measurement tools also provide valuable insights into the reasons behind employee absence, such as illness, disability, or workplace concerns. By identifying these underlying causes, employers can take a more supportive approach—offering guidance, adjustments, or wellbeing initiatives to help employees return to work and reduce future absence. This not only improves people management but also helps maintain productivity and morale across the organisation.
For businesses looking to move away from manual spreadsheets and paper forms, cloud-based absence management platforms like ScheduleLeave offer intuitive dashboards, automated reporting, and seamless integration with existing calendar and payroll systems. This enables HR teams to monitor absence rates, track the number of spells and days of absence, and generate detailed reports for any time period—all of which support better decision-making and a more proactive approach to absence management.
Ultimately, using absence measurement tools gives employers a better understanding of absence patterns, helps identify issues early, and supports the development of effective absence policies. By leveraging these insights, organisations can reduce absenteeism, support employee wellbeing, and ensure that absence is managed fairly and consistently across the workplace.
