Why Every Business Should Consider Pre Employment Drug Screening

By Nora Jennings


Employers are placed in difficult situations when workers start using drugs in workplace. It is not easy to detect if workers are taking drugs and other illegal substances, and by the time it is known, already damages have been caused. This is why employers have put in place proactive measures to ensure they curb this behavior. Some of the measures taken include pre employment drug screening, on-job random tests, and behavioral screening of workers.

The employers as well as the employees are affected. Employees do not want to execute their roles in work areas where they feel unsafe. The same workers do not want to be subjected to risks of injuries or even death arising from mistakes caused by effects of drugs. Employees working under the influence of illegal substances could also cause accidents, which injure or even cause death.

Workers may injure themselves or cause injuries to their colleagues when they fail to follow the instruction required to operate machines. The lack of concentration and fatigue are things, which could easily lead to accidents. Businesses that record high number of accidents experience liabilities in form of worker compensation.

Insurance companies will tend to hike the premium rates for the coverage, which strains the finances of a company. With the increased claims, insurers may not be able to bear that cost and mostly probably, it is passed to the employers. There is no need of letting the problem to get to those levels. This is something hat can be prevented by ensuring that only the right candidates are hired for jobs.

Businesses are exposed to liabilities if workers are abusing drugs. Some of the problems, which are experienced in workplace due to use of substances include reduced productivity and accidents. While some employers may think that conducting tests for drugs is an unproductive move, on the other hand, they need to realize that it can harm their businesses to a larger extend.

The regular signs of fatigue mean that workers are not executing their jobs as desired. Poor judgment results to accidents such as machine related injuries. A worker may injure himself or other employee when operating a machine. Missed deadlines of work could lead to loss of productivity as well as loss of loyal customers. Careless also arises where employees do not bother caring for tools and equipments.

Turnover within the workplace is never a bad thing as long as it is aimed at bringing in new productive workers. Every business experiences some turnover as workers willingly exit the workplace. However, when there are circumstances such as consumption of drugs compelling the employers to lay off worker, it means that new workers have to be hired.

One thing with drugs effects in workplace is that they bring in a whole spectrum of problems ranging from absenteeism, increased liability, reduced productivity, loss of reputation, to loss of customers. All these problems could be occurring at a go within workplace as a result of effects of drugs. When workers are screened, many of these issues are prevented from happening in workplace.




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