Is Pre-Employment Drug Testing Important?
Maintaining a testing policy for drug and alcohol use is essential for the safety, insurability, and reputation of your business. It also protects your business from expensive lawsuits and other litigation. Find out how pre-employment drug testing is important to your business’s bottom line.
Protect Your Reputation
By screening out people with drug or alcohol abuse before you hire them, you protect your company’s good name. An employee who abuses drugs or alcohol may create a liability depending on your industry. Your business could face a lawsuit if an employee who abuses drugs causes an accident that injures another party. This could result in serious financial losses. By avoiding hiring a person with a drug or alcohol issue for a job that requires that they don’t, you avoid these legal and social repercussions. Pre-employment drug screening reduces these business risks.
Save Money
Drug and alcohol use increases the risk of an accident. Your workplace liability and worker’s compensation rates could increase if you hire an employee with a history of drug or alcohol abuse. Screening them out of your applicant pool when appropriate keeps your insurance rates lower. This affects your profitability and productivity. Hiring and training a new employee costs a lot of money, and it’s wise to invest those resources in the best possible applicants while keeping the specific job requirements in mind.
Avoid Litigation
An employee who’s under the influence of alcohol or drugs could cause an accident or injury in the workplace. If they go off-site, they could harm someone else or cause significant property damage. Drug testing lowers the risk of dealing with ongoing, pricey litigation.
Of course, an employee who’s had a drug abuse problem in the past doesn’t mean that they won’t be a wonderful employee in the future. The key is to find out if there is a current drug abuse problem and to always keep in mind the requirements of the job that they are applying for. Having all the facts will help you make a better, more informed, decision for your workplace.
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