Measuring absence disruption   The Bradford Factor

New compensation limits from 1st February 2008.   From 1st February 2008 the compensation limits for redundancy pay and unfair dismissal will be increased.

Is it capability or age or both!   

First Aid at Work   One of the questions we are often asked is whether the company should have a trained first-aider on site.

Measuring absence disruption

According to the research carried out by the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD) Employee absence is a significant cost to 90% of businesses. It identified that on average sickness absence costs employers £659 per employee every year and employee absence costs employers 8.4 working days for every member of staff per year; this represents 3.7% of working time.

For many organisations, the cost and disruption of persistent, short spells of absence are greater than for occasional, longer periods of absence.

Those who regularly take odd days off at the first sign of a snuffle don’t always realise how frustrating it can be for their colleagues. You usually end up hearing comments such as “Nicks off again….another duvet day I expect” or “he’s off on a long weekend again”.

To address this problem of short spells of absence, some companies use a method often referred to as the Bradford factor.

Although it is a simple formulae, applying it in practice can be time consuming for large numbers of employees. Picasso HR has made this easy with its on-line HR Information System (HRIS) which can calculate all the scores with a click of a button.

This ‘Bradford’ formula 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 in the last 52 weeks.

So for employees with 14 days’ absence in one year, differently distributed, the score can vary enormously:

• one absence of 14 days is 14 points (ie 1x1x14)
• seven absences of two days each is 686 (ie 7x7x14)
• 14 absences of one day each is 2,744 points (ie 14x14x14)

NB: Absences relating to a disability should be disregarded when calculating the Bradford Factor; this would need to be dealt with differently.

The organisation can then identify particular scores which will trigger formal discussions with the employee about their level of absence. An organisation can choose whether to align the formal meetings with an existing disciplinary procedure, or create a separate absence procedure with appropriate warning levels. An example of such a process would be as follows:

• Bradford Score = 50  Informal discussion on absence with manager
• Bradford Score = 125 First written warning
• Bradford Score = 200 possible occupational health assessment + Final Written warning
• Bradford Score = 300 Dismissal

Any formal meetings about absence that may result in a warning to the employee must comply with the Statutory Disciplinary Procedure i.e.

• The employee should be issued with a letter inviting them to the formal discussion, with full details of the issues to be discussed at the meeting contained in the letter
• The organisation must allow the employee to be accompanied at the meetings
• The employee must be given the opportunity to state their case
• The employee must be given the opportunity to appeal against any warning given

There are a number of benefits of using the Bradford Factor to manage sickness absence:

• The system targets those employees with frequent short-term absence first. Those with longer periods of genuine absence, such as two weeks off with a bad back, will take longer to build up an actionable score
• The scheme is objective – the scoring is based on fact rather than the judgement of an individual manager
• The ‘trigger’ score can be built up from a wide range of absence combinations, so the scheme reduces the employee belief that they are entitled to take ‘x’ days off sick before the company takes any action

However, it is important to ensure that this is not used in isolation – it can be a useful indicator and gives managers information on which to open up their conversation with the absentee. It is also important to identify any underlying illness or issues.

New compensation limits from 1st February 2008.

When someone is made redundant they are entitled to a certain number of weeks statutory redundancy pay, depending on their age and length of service. So for example a 30 year old with 3 years service is entitled to 3 weeks pay.

But a weeks pay here may not be what you think it is. It all goes back to 1965 when the first Redundancy Payments Act was introduced and firms could reclaim 40% of the cost from the government.

So the government put a limit on how much they would pay out. It was only eight pounds seven and sixpence a week in those days but the idea caught on. Nowadays the limit on a weeks pay is £310, and it’s due to be increased to £330 on 1st February.

 Incidentally that’s quite a generous increase at a time the government is trying to keep public sector pay rises down to 2% or so. The reason is that redundancy and unfair dismissal increases are tied-in to the Retail Prices Index. Pensioners have been fighting for years to be treated as generously as that!

The same increases apply to the awards tribunals make to people who have been unfairly dismissed. The basic award for unfair dismissal is the same amount the person would receive if they were made redundant. The maximum basic award, from 1st February 2008, will be £9,900.

But we all know that tribunals can award much larger amounts than £9,900. The reason is that tribunals make compensatory awards on top of the basic award.

The compensatory award is calculated to compensate the person for all the financial losses he or she will suffer as a result of the dismissal. Most importantly the tribunal will try to calculate a figure for loss of earnings, extending into the future.

When they make this calculation they base it on the person’s real salary. On this basis the compensatory award could end up as a very big figure indeed. But there is a cap on it and this cap is revised each year on the 1st February.

So from 1st February 2008 the maximum compensatory award that a tribunal can make increases from £60,000 to £63,000. While we’re on the subject we should just mention that for discrimination cases the maximum award will not alter by a single penny on 1st February 2008.

It can’t be increased because it’s already unlimited! But as they say at the end of each episode of “Crimewatch”….. don’t have nightmares. Most tribunal awards are nothing like the maximum amounts, in fact the average pay-out is much less than £10,000.

And of course clients of Picasso HR don’t need to lose any sleep over tribunal awards. We take care, so you don’t go there.

Is it capability or age or both!

There is a fine line between being unable to do a particular job because of youth and inexperience versus a genuine inability or capability. So at what point do you allow for youth and inexperience and provide additional support & training, or reject an applicant because of the belief the individual is so young that it will take a long time to be good enough? 

So if an employer allowed for the fact that an older worker may be a bit slower whizzing around serving drinks, shouldn't the same employer "level the playing field" by accepting the training needs of the younger worker?  

Well we don’t know what the actual circumstances were in the case of Megan Thomas Vs The Eight Members Club (London), but Megan a 20 year old secretary was sacked because she was told that she was too young to deal with it’s members. It makes you question why they took her on in the first place if that was their rational!

The ruling that Thomas was unfairly dismissed and discriminated against is the first of its kind against younger people.

After the ruling Thomas, said: "I was told I was too young and if they had met me a few years later there may not have been a problem."

However, the club will appeal the decision, on the grounds it employed several young people. The club's owner said he was planning to end Thomas' contract of employment because she had made "mistakes".
 

First Aid at Work

One of the questions we are often asked is whether the company should have a trained first-aider on site. 

As is often the case, the answer starts with “it depends”. 

The legal requirement is to provide “adequate and appropriate facilities” for first aid.

What is adequate and appropriate will depend on a number of things, like the number of people at work and the type of work they do.

Where there are small numbers of people working in a low-risk situation such as in an office, the company just needs to provide a first-aid box and have an “appointed person”. The appointed person is responsible for looking after the first-aid box and taking charge if someone needs first aid. This may mean calling an ambulance. The appointed person is not required to be trained in first aid.

Where there are over 50 people employed and the risk is higher, HSE recommends that a first-aider should be available. Here a first-aider means someone who has been trained and holds a current first aid at work certificate. First aid training usually takes 3 to 4 days and the certificate must be renewed every 3 years.

For high-risk occupations such as construction sites, HSE recommends there should be a first aider present if there are 5 or more employees on site. 

Incidentally, there is no standard list of items to put in the first aid box, but it mustn’t contain tablets or medicines.

Once you have put your first aid arrangements in place it’s important to make sure people know about them. Putting up a notice with first aiders names and the location of the first aid box is a good idea.

RIDDOR 

RIDDOR is the name of the regulations under which accidents, dangerous occurrences and industrial diseases have to be reported. 

If someone has an accident, you must report it to HSE if the person is unable to carry out their duties for 3 days or more as a result. The easiest and quickest way to report an accident is by using HSE’s website or by telephone.

If you have any questions about first-aid, reporting accidents or any other health and safety matters please call us at Picasso HR. We’re here to help.

The information in this newsletter is of a general nature and is not a substitute for professional advice. You are recommended to obtain specific professional advice before you take any action.

For further information, advice or assistance on any of the matters raised in this newsletter please contact Picasso HR on 01473 890037.

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