When an employer considers a certain candidate for their vacant job position, the employer might ask the candidate to undergo drug testing before the employment is granted. The aim is to prevent the employees using illegal drugs in the workplace. Since the company strives to provide a safe and healthy work environment and to maintain a high company moral it is necessary that all their staff members are sober and fit for work.
In an era of increasing drug abuse, companies have started making the employee drug testing mandatory for all personnel for the good of both their employees and the customers who benefit from their services. There are various types of drug tests that companies can use:
Pre-employment drug tests
This type of drug testing involves candidates shortlisted for a job taking drug tests before the company officially offers them the job posting. This can be done in a form of drug screens during the hiring process. In cases where the company extends a job offer to a candidate before them taking the drug tests, there is a phase where the employee waits for the test results and if they are positive, the job offer is withdrawn, often without any further discussion.
Random drug tests
This is done by testing a selected number of employees (determined by the client) that are chosen randomly from the total number of employees. This way the employees are constantly reminded of the possibility to be randomly selected for the drug test at any time and without any warning.
Reasonable suspicion drug tests
Also known as “For-Cause Testing” is when the employer has a reason or evidence to suspect that an employee is using drugs or is under the influence of drugs during working time. This evidence can be obtained through direct observation by the supervisor/other employees observing any abnormal behavior of the employee affecting his/her work routine/pattern. To ensure that there is no error in the observation, a careful administration policy for reasonable suspicion drug testing should be followed by the observer.
Post-accident drug tests
It is done when an accident that cannot be described as “mechanical fault” occurs in the workplace. Drug testing is performed as soon as possible after that incident. This testing should be done only if there are indications that the accident was sole to be blamed on the employee’s actions or lack of reactions.
Follow-Up Drug Tests
This type of testing is usually adopted after a case of an accident where it was proven that the drug substance abuse was the cause of the employee’s actions. It consists of several tests over a set period. The follow-up instructions are provided to the employee before implementing the drug test-screening phase.