Is Drug Testing a Waste of Money?
Employers large and small together spend millions upon millions of dollars each year on their drug testing programs. Do the rewards justify the costs?
You could make a very good argument that, yes, they do. Drug activity in the workplace is a major drain on business. It affects productivity, insurance costs, workplace theft, safety, absenteeism and more (click here for some specifics). There are also negative affects on things that can’t be so easily measured such as worker morale, customer service, quality, and damage to a company’s reputation.
A well-crafted drug testing program provides a deterrent to drug use and does help reduce the amount of drug use in the workplace. It also helps employers find the employees who are using drugs and either get them help through some sort of an employee assistance program or get rid of them. Reducing and eliminating drugs from the workplace does make a difference. Many companies have seen great benefits from drug testing and there are studies showing how effective they can be.
However, even with a well-crafted, well-implemented drug testing program there is a tremendous amount of waste. With the traditional urine, hair, and blood testing you are testing a lot more people (through random tests and pre-employment screens) than need be. It's taking a needle in the haystack approach. Essentially you're doing something you don't need 90% of the time (since government statistics indicate about 10% of the workforce uses drugs). If only 10% of your workforce needed to wear hardhats, would you buy a hardhat for everyone in the company? Would you buy the right number of hardhats but then hand them out randomly hoping that the employees who need them, get them? No, of course not. That’s a big waste of time and money!
With DrugWipe, you are finding the people who are actively impaired on the job – not those who use drugs recreationally on the weekends. DrugWipe surface assessments lead you right to the people who have the most impact on your company’s safety, security, and bottom line profits. This way you're basically eliminating the waste of the traditional tests and focusing attention and resources on the problem, not just taking a stab in the dark. It simplifies the process and makes drug testing much more efficient.
How much money could you be wasting on your drug testing program?
Employers large and small together spend millions upon millions of dollars each year on their drug testing programs. Do the rewards justify the costs?
You could make a very good argument that, yes, they do. Drug activity in the workplace is a major drain on business. It affects productivity, insurance costs, workplace theft, safety, absenteeism and more (click here for some specifics). There are also negative affects on things that can’t be so easily measured such as worker morale, customer service, quality, and damage to a company’s reputation.
A well-crafted drug testing program provides a deterrent to drug use and does help reduce the amount of drug use in the workplace. It also helps employers find the employees who are using drugs and either get them help through some sort of an employee assistance program or get rid of them. Reducing and eliminating drugs from the workplace does make a difference. Many companies have seen great benefits from drug testing and there are studies showing how effective they can be.
However, even with a well-crafted, well-implemented drug testing program there is a tremendous amount of waste. With the traditional urine, hair, and blood testing you are testing a lot more people (through random tests and pre-employment screens) than need be. It's taking a needle in the haystack approach. Essentially you're doing something you don't need 90% of the time (since government statistics indicate about 10% of the workforce uses drugs). If only 10% of your workforce needed to wear hardhats, would you buy a hardhat for everyone in the company? Would you buy the right number of hardhats but then hand them out randomly hoping that the employees who need them, get them? No, of course not. That’s a big waste of time and money!
With DrugWipe, you are finding the people who are actively impaired on the job – not those who use drugs recreationally on the weekends. DrugWipe surface assessments lead you right to the people who have the most impact on your company’s safety, security, and bottom line profits. This way you're basically eliminating the waste of the traditional tests and focusing attention and resources on the problem, not just taking a stab in the dark. It simplifies the process and makes drug testing much more efficient.
How much money could you be wasting on your drug testing program?
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