As an employer, you wish your employees to be hard-working, clean, dependable people, with no vice that would distract them from their work. This is why pre employment interviews exist, so that you may select such people. But this may no longer be enough. Unfortunately, more and more Americans are known to use narcotics, habitually or occasionally. This is why employers have plenty of reasons for requiring pre employment drug testing from their potential employees. This is because this type of pre employment test can make a real difference for an employer. Probably the most obvious reason to require pre employment drug testing is that of safety.
Employees that have handling dangerous equipment in their job description or those who drive commercial vehicles, no matter how you put it, are much more prone to accidents. Or, most surely, they have a greater chance of inflicting injury upon themselves or other people if they are under the influence. Employing companies and corporations have a moral obligation to keep only employees that do not take drugs, neither occasionally, but even more if it is a habit. This is why pre employment drug testing is required. However, there is also a legal obligation for employers to ensure that their employees adhere to Federal work-safety laws and guidelines. And if you think it over, pre employment drug screenings can be an effective tool to detect such people.
More reasons why pre employment drug testing should be done are insurance and health-related absences. Statistics show that over 175 million Americans are enrolled in workplace group health and medical insurance. Narcotics users are more likely to require usage of their insurance policies because they are more likely to have any type of accident than non narcotics users. And premiums have increased with an average of 30% in the last three years. Pre employment drug testing may be one way to cut down on costs.
Also, studies reveal that short- and long-term health problems are often linked with drug abuse. Pre employment drug screening thus helps you avoid employing people that are prone to illness. Drug abusers are known to develop respiratory problems more often and yes, they are generally more susceptible to any type of illness. Now those are problems that can't be solved by a pre employment interview. A major problem is related to work absences. Many of these are attributed to drug usage and its after-effects. Employers lose millions of dollars every year because of employee absences. This is why many human resource experts suggest that pre-employment drug testing be implemented to reduce these costs.
On the other hand, some argue that pre employment drug testing is not an accurate way of detecting the use of drugs while at work. This is because drugs, such as marijuana, remain detectable for up to three weeks after their usage. Others, such as cocaine, may only be present for a few days after they enter the body. A pre employment drug test may thus detect drugs in our system even if you've consumed them a while ago. Most times employers choose to make their decisions cautiously about this. They often prefer not to hire someone who even occasionally uses drugs than to risk employing a person that may use them even after working hours.
Statistics from the Small Business Administration Office show that companies lose about $7,000 per drug-using employee per year. Sometimes this figure is enough to make an employer implement a standard pre-employment drug test. And because advances in medical testing have made it a quick, easy and relatively inexpensive process, employers may choose to use this pre employment screening test.
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