Sickness and Bradford Factor
The Study
When we started working with this business, they asked us to look at the high sickness rates which were at 4.9%. The Company was not managing sickness absence proactively and so we discussed the introduction of the Bradford Factor.
What We Did To Change It
The Company decided there was quite a few changes they wanted to make within the handbook and the contracts, so we decided to take the employees through a consultation process and update those at the same time as the introduction of the Bradford Factor process. We communicated with the employees throughout the process and held lots of meetings both in groups and individually to get the employee buy in.
We re-trained the managers on how to manage sickness absence properly including return to work interviews and understanding how to support their employees properly.
The Bradford Factor was introduced, and the managers were given ongoing training on how to hold the meetings and coaching with regards nohow they were managing the process.
The business started to see a steady improvement in the scores and over the year and the sickness absence rates dropped to 1.3%.
Within the same Company we have supported them with looking at training their employees to be mental health first aiders through MHFA England and to put a focus on mental health within their workplace.