The Importance of a Drug Free Workplace and Creating a Drug Testing Policy for your Business


By Serhat Pala


Drug abuse in the workplace is a serious problem that affects the status and output of American businesses. $100 billion a year is lost in revenues and production or spent on insurance claims, paid sick leave, theft and accidents due to drug use. However, drug testing in the workplace can dramatically lower this number, by preventing the hire of drug abusers, eliminating employees who choose to indulge in the use of illicit drugs and rehabilitating those employees with an addiction. Drug testing in the workplace not only helps businesses thrive, but it also helps individuals find the help they need before causing injury to themselves or fellow employees.

Opting Not to Enforce Workplace Drug Testing

Ruling out drug testing is not necessarily a great idea. Drug users are three times more likely to call in sick from their jobs, causing a decrease in production. What is truly alarming, however, is that drug using employees are involved in nearly four times as many accidents on the jobsite than non-drug abusers. This clearly shows the direct link between using drugs and one’s job performance as well as the costs such behavior will incur on the employer or business owner. The importance of drug prevention in the workplace is immense, and can be best achieved through the use of drug testing.

How to Perform Drug Testing in the Workplace

In order to create a drug free workplace, many employers hire contracted laboratories to conduct drug testing on their employees. However, many business owners are now opting to create corporate accounts with drug test retailers. These companies provide easy-to-use drug test kits, that can be administered by just about anyone and make results available within a few minutes’ time.

Drug screening in the workplace requires a well-written policy that informs employees as well as managerial workers of how drug testing will take place and what is expected of them.

There are several different ways to conduct workplace drug testing. These methods include random drug testing, reasonable suspicion drug testing, annual drug testing and after treatment for a previous bout with drug use. Each of these methods of detecting drug abuse in the workplace provide employers with the peace of mind they need to conduct business as usual, without having to worry about potential drug abuse and its costs and effects to the company’s success and reputation.

What Kinds of Drug Tests Are Available

There are many different types of drug testing kits available for use in the work place. Most commonly used are urine drug tests, saliva drug tests and hair drug tests. Each of these have their own pros and cons for drug testing in the workplace, but can all successfully identify drug abusers in a relatively short period of time. While hair drug testing need to be sent to the lab for results, they often provide the most accurate of results as compared to other methods of drug testing. However, urine testing is considered the staple in work place drug testing because it is easy to administer and the results can be read and photocopied in a matter of minutes.

A longer version of this article can be found at Drug Testing in the Workplace . The article is prepared by Serhat Pala who runs the website TestCountry.com

Some of the information used in this article is taken from: Creating a Drug Testing Policy


More Resources

Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting

More Management Information:

Related Articles

Retail Apparel POS Software for Business Stores
Apparel software provides affordable, powerful and simple solutions that will definitely automate movement of the inventory in brick and mortar store.


Enterprise Risk Management-ERM Benefits
We all know that, enterprise risk management is essential for almost any business to be successful available out there, id regarding enterprise risk along with the assist regarding risk management software handling the enterprise risk is vital.


Are You Building a Learning Organization?
Building a learning organization doesn't occur overnight and it certainly doesn't happen if everyone in the company doesn't participate. To ensure your company develops into a learning organization, get started with these helpful tips.


With Supply Chain Consulting You Can Streamline The Way You Work
When you want advice on contracts, you seek help from a lawyer, when you want your car fixed, you go to the mechanic, so when you want to optimise your supply chain you should seek an expert supply chain consulting company.


Why Enterprise Risk Management is Critical to Deal with Uncertainty in Business
Business has been defined as a 'state of being busy' by some of the earlier management gurus; this is certainly a vague definition of business as business is a lot more than just a state of being busy.


Prepare Yourself For The Worst With Emergency Disaster Management
Prepared efforts by the government and the native authorities need to be compelled to possess clear structures with regard to handling emergency disaster management once they occur.


Corporate Events Management Services in Sydney for Effective Business Output
One of the most effective ways in which to build good business relationships is by holding a corporate event. Corporate events allow businesses to promote their products and services as well as allow them to showcase the business in a uniformed structured manner. Businesses have the opportunity to interact on a personal basis with prospective clients.


Top benefits of hiring online event management software
Eventsbot has helped hundreds of event planners, show creators and managers to hold successful events. There are a number of benefits that the organizers derive by hiring the expert services of an online event registration company.


Benefits of online event ticketing to an event attendee
Are you regular at attending big shows and events? If yes, then you must be looking for ways by which you can book event tickets with ease. You will be more than excited to know that you need not have to waste time at the ticket counter or contact an event planner in person to get access to shows and events including seminars, exhibitions, trade shows and conferences.


Helping Small Businesses Save On Shipping
Finding the most efficient and cost-effective way to ship a product can be a big challenge when someone is trying to start or grow a small business.


Home Work—Getting The Job Done From Home
Increasingly common in the corporate world, telecommuting allows employees to work from home while staying connected to their office through conference calls and videoconferencing. According to the Huffington Post, "It is a trend that has grown, with 34 percent of connected workers saying they would be very likely to telecommute on a full-time basis if they could."


Business Owners Finding Free Time In The Cloud
Innovative technology is helping a growing number of small-business owners finally enjoy some vacation time.


Conference Calls Made Better
You and your colleagues may be more productive on your next conference call with the help of an interactive new service.


How to Maximize Flexibility
For small businesses, it's a thin line between success and failure. Flexibility is key. This ability to respond swiftly often gives small businesses a desirable advantage over their much-larger competitors because they can adapt to take advantage of growing opportunities and changes in their particular industries.


How Safe Are You From Your Own Employees?
For businesses, the average financial loss for one instance of employee fraud -- the deliberate misuse or misapplication of company resources -- is $140,000, and 40 to 50 percent of victimized companies don't recover any of their losses.