SteadMark Research

Load Score Methodology

Load score is SteadMark's per-employee measure of current change exposure on a 0 to 100 scale. It is the capacity input to Effective Change Capacity. A high load score does not mean an employee is failing. It means they are already carrying a lot.

Inputs

Load score reads three inputs:

Active initiative count. Every change initiative the employee is named on contributes weight. Initiatives near launch weigh more than initiatives in early scoping.
Recency of reorg events. A reorg within the last 90 days lifts the score. The effect decays over the next 60 days.
Tenure adjustment. Tenure under 12 months adds a small uplift, reflecting that newer employees absorb the same change load with more cognitive cost.

Weights

Weighting is configured per tenant in BACKBONE-1's tenant_classifier_config table. The default weighting favors active initiative count, with recency and tenure each contributing roughly a quarter of the final score. Tenants can adjust the mix when their context calls for it (for example, a team that just absorbed a reorg may want to weight recency more heavily for a defined window).

How the model expresses uncertainty

Load score is reported with a categorical confidence indicator (high, moderate, low) rather than a numeric error bar. The indicator drops as the underlying inputs age past the freshness window the model is calibrated on.

Aging is handled by the classification aging model. The score never disappears when inputs age. It loses confidence.

Method footnote

Load score is computed in the CAPACITY-1 lane and persisted to employee_capacity_current. The score is read by Effective Change Capacity (RECEPT-2) and by the manager-facing capacity surface. Per-employee scores are not shown to managers as rankings or evaluations.

See it in the product

The framework on this page powers the daily plan SteadMark sends each manager.

See the demo