How you can benefit from pre-employment drug screening Did you know that drug users or 77% are employed? According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse this is true. This means that there are many drug users there and you might be hiring one of them. Drug use in the workplace can contribute to injuries, violence, accidents and absenteeism. Employers are increasingly including drug testing as part of their selection process pre-employment/background to ensure they are not hiring a person with a drug problem.
To approve the decisions of drug testing part of your job selection process, it is entirely up to you. Some employers are required to drug test applicants and employees, but many are not. Take a look at the position you are hiring for. Does the person to work with children or elderly, have access to prescription drugs, operating a company vehicle or heavy machinery? In all these cases, it would be desirable to conduct drug testing on the two candidates and current employees.
If you decide to implement a drug testing program, you must decide if you will be screening applicants through the screening process prior to employment and / or your current employees as a random selection process underway . Once you decide on the program (s) you want to implement, you must adhere to a universal set of rules and screen all candidates and / or all current employees of equal and equally . This protects you against yourself against laws against discrimination.
If you implement your new program of drug testing as part of a verification process prior to employment, you must obtain the written consent of the applicant. Your company must have a background check of a form of output you can use for this purpose. If you implement a post hire drug testing program that must be stated in an employee manual or other documents like this that makes the employee fully aware that they are subject to screening Drug randomly throughout their employment.
The next step is to decide what type of drug test that you want to administer. The most common is a screen for drugs in urine. However, hair and saliva drug screens are also available. The two most common types of drug test are 5 and 10 panel drug screens. The screen 5 panel drug will test for the 5 "street drugs base" such as marijuana, cocaine, PCP, opiates, amphetamines and. The panel 10 will test for these five drugs in addition to some common prescription drugs. The determination tests to be administered depends on you. Again, take a look at the position you are hiring for. If you are hiring a nurse working in a nursing home to have access to many drugs, it would be desirable to use the drug screen 10 Panel.
The main reason for implementing a drug testing process is to protect you and your employees. Given the number of drug users in the U.S. you can see how easily you can hire a habitual drug user without even knowing it, causing problems on the road by the theft of drugs, damaging vehicles and equipment, and do not take proper care of children or the elderly.
Posted on February 23, 2010.