Drug Free Work Week
By Laura Bradbury
Toxicology Manager
This week we are participating in National Drug Free Work Week here at ANY LAB TEST NOW®. Waaaaaaiittt, before you stop reading- stay tuned for some information that might surprise you about drug testing. Even if you are not an employer, this can affect you as an employee. So buckle your seat belt and read to the end.
Drug testing is expensive, right? I mean in this economy we are all tightening our belts. We have to make sure every penny that we are spending has a positive return on investment. It takes money to make money, but a penny saved is a penny earned.
So let’s break down a few myths that you may have heard.
The first myth is: I will lose all of my employees if I drug test.
At ANY LAB TEST NOW, we work with the most highly accredited and reliable toxicology labs in the country. They’ve done a lot of research about drug use. In a year of testing tens of thousands of employees, our data shows that less than one in ten employees test positive for drugs. For companies that have a rigorous random drug testing policy in place, the percentage of positive tests drops dramatically to one in twenty or even as low as one in fifty. Did you know that 44% of callers to the cocaine hotline admitted that they have sold drugs at work? Do you really want to employ folks who may be bringing drugs to your place of business?
The second myth is: Drug testing takes a lot of time and it’s a lot of paperwork.
One of the options that ANY LAB TEST NOW is happy to offer is on site testing. We will come to your location to do the collections. That means we can have an employee off line for less than 10 minutes. This is just one of the convenient services your personal drug testing specialists will be able to offer you. We can also help you create a drug testing policy as well as help you qualify for worker’s compensation insurance discounts where applicable. It’s all part of the total package solution that we provide.
The third one is: Drug testing is expensive, I can’t afford it.
Drug testing does come with a fee; however the financial benefits by far outweigh what you will spend in drug testing costs. Have you noticed that health care costs are rising? If you are a small, medium or a large sized business, you may have had to reduce the healthcare benefits you are offering to your employees. The fact is ONE drug or alcohol abuser can cost an employer over $6000 per year! If you have 20 employees, you may spend less than $1000 to drug test all of them. Having a drug free workforce gives you a positive return on your investment in testing.
Secondly, drug and alcohol abusers may not always be under the influence at work, but they most definitely suffer the consequences of drug use in their performance. In a study of admitted cocaine abusers, 67% of them admitted that they under performed on the job. So what does that really mean? That means YOU are paying a drug abuser 100% salary to do two thirds of a job! Think of how much money you could save to fire the underperformer and hire someone able to give 100%.
Last but not least, we are here to help. If you need employee education materials to raise awareness of the impact drug and alcohol abuse, supervisor training or a substance abuse professional, your personal drug testing specialist from ANY LAB TEST NOW will guide you every step of the way. All though this week we are promoting National Drug Free Work Week, every week should be at your place of business.
Congratulations! You’re almost to the end where you get to find out some good news. We are going to give you something for FREE! Would you like to find out how much money you can save by implementing a drug free work place? Contact your personal drug testing specialist at ANY LAB TEST NOW and ask for a consultation. Not only is it free, it may save you money.
