Wednesday 22 March 2023

The simple solution to managing staff absence.

The simple solution to managing staff absence.

 

                  

Staff sickness and absenteeism is disruptive to your practice. It can lead to resentment within the team, adversely affect patients, treatments you are able to provide, have financial implications if you are paying for locums and it causes you undue stress worrying about how to manage it and be fair to your team.

 

You were taught how to fix teeth not how to manage staff sickness, build team morale or create a culture.

 

The Bradford score is a simple Key Performance Indicator (KPI) that gives you and easy to use framework that enables you to know when to intervene and when not to. The Bradford score gives a rating to the potential disruption of absence on your business and give you a framework to use when having a conversation with a team member.

 

Before I explain how to calculate Bradford scores, it is important to remind you that the culture that you create within the practice has a massive impact on absence. When you have actively created a culture  where your team want to be at work because they feel valued,  what they do is purposeful  and they are well remunerated, they will want to be in work. Conversely if the culture is one of distrust, no appreciation, no purpose, low wages,  your staff will look for reasons not to come in. There is an often-used phrase, people don’t quit a job they leave a boss.

 

Assuming you have a practice culture that cultivates true teamwork, health and wellbeing, but you also have absences, the Bradford score is a useful tool.

 

The Bradford score formula

B = (S X S) X D 

B = Bradford Score

S = Total number of absence instances or spells over a set period (usually 52 weeks)

D = Total number of days of absence over a set period (usually 52 weeks) 

 

Scenarios

Nurse A          one day absence for 12 days in a three-month period

S = 1 D=12

B= (1 x 1) x 12 = 12

B=12

 

Nurse B          4 instances of absence, each 3 days in a three-month period

S = 4 D=12

B = (4X4) X 12= 192

B=192

 

Nurse C          7 incidences of absence totalling 12 days.

S=7 D=12

B= (7x7) X 12 = 588

B=588

 

From these examples you can see that with the same number of days absence, 12, the Bradford score is different, reflecting the disruptiveness to the practice.

 

How do you use this score?

 

The Bradford score is a useful KPI that you use to track absenteeism that you can use to have a conversation with a team member to support them in improving their health and well-being or if need be managing them out of the business.

 

Having a culture that supports health and well-being combined with a transparent predefined approach to managing absence will assist you and your team moving forward; reducing disruption, resentment and stress, enabling you to build a healthy happy team.

 

Use the tables below and if you would like further assistance dealing with building a healthy practice culture or managing absenteeism, please book a SPEAK WITH JANE appointment www.TheInstituteofdentalbusiness.co.uk

 

All that really matters is your team and practice are healthy and happy. Together we can make it happen.