Employee Drug Screening : A Definitive Guide

Employee drug screening is a simple procedure followed by organizations to determine whether a candidate / employee is in a sober state without any traces of drug in their body. To determine that they take the help of an effective background screening vendor, who conducts drug tests using breath, sweat, blood, urine and hair samples of the person. Drug tests can be conducted prior to employment, under reasonable suspicion, following an incident or on a random basis.

The Need for Employee Drug Screening

According to SHRM, 57% of American organizations need candidates to pass a drug test. In Canada, the number is even lower, approximately 10% and is constrained to businesses where safety is a primary concern.

According to Marijuana Business Daily, roughly 60% of the US population lives in the state of some form of legal Marijuana. Eight states plus the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for adult use. Despite these recent changes, employee drug screening still remains unaddressed from a state or federal level.

Employees who are part of a federally regulated organization still require employee drug testing before getting hired irrespective of whether marijuana is legal within the state or not. They even conduct drug testing regularly throughout the employment tenure in the organization. This policy is quite prevalent in Fortune 500 companies and has even become a state legislature as a requirement for unemployment benefit eligibility.

Benefits of Employee Drug Screening

But, do employers get long term benefits from these tests?

By conducting employee drug tests, employers try their level best to make their workplace drug-free which makes them save lots of insurance amount and decrease in drug-related insurance claims. Industries that indulge in safety-sensitive positions wherein employees operate heavy equipments like manufacturing plants or construction, the risk of having drugs in the employee’s system can be more prominent.

In this guide we take a deep dive into the world of drug testing and understand all its aspects from the drug screening point of view. It is a must have resource for HR managers and policy makers for understanding the nuances of employee drug screening in the US.

What does this eBook cover?

• What is employee drug testing?
• Types of employee drug tests.
• Importance of employee drug screening.
• Best practices to carry out drug screening.
• The usefulness of employee drug testing, employee vs. employer’s perspective
• Misconceptions about drug testing
• Prerequisites for conducting legal random drug screening
• Legal implication for conducting employee drug screening
• Can drug testing results be unreliable
• The prospect of fingerprint employee drug testing

Note:- This article was originally published on - https://www.cfirstcorp.com/employee-drug-screening-definitive-guide/