If you want to prevent work-related injuries in your company, enacting a drug-free workplace policy is an excellent idea. Drug use can impair an employee’s decision-making abilities, coordination, and reaction times — all of which can make them more prone to mistakes and accidents. By vowing to keep your workplace free from substance use and creating a zero-tolerance policy to match, you can keep workers safer overall.
Learn how to develop a bullet-proof policy and implement it effectively. Then, seek help with drug screening in Wichita, KS, from WorkSafe.
Developing an Effective Drug-Free Workplace Policy
A drug-free workplace policy should spell out your workplace’s statutes on alcohol and substance use and ultimately prevent any substance abuse while employees are working for your company. In order for this program to accomplish your goals, it should contain the following elements:
- Purpose statement: Include an opening statement that elucidates why you are implementing this policy, how employees will benefit from it, and how it will impact your workplace safety as a whole.
- Who the policy applies to: List all employees who must adhere to this policy, such as full-time, part-time, seasonal, temporary, volunteer, intern, or subcontractor workers. Specificity prevents confusion and potential pushback from those who unknowingly violate its terms.
- Details of substance use testing: Spell out how you plan to test for drug use. Will you conduct routine or random testing, or will you only test employees if you have reasonable suspicion that they are under the influence? Which methods will you use (urinalysis, blood testing, saliva samples, etc.)? What substances will the test screen for, and how far back can the test trace substance use?
- Confidentiality compliance: Explain how you will protect workers’ confidentiality through substance use screenings. This may involve using a third party to conduct and evaluate test results rather than an internal one.
- Disciplinary actions: What happens if employees violate the drug-free workplace policy? If you want a zero-tolerance approach, even one instance of employee substance abuse may be cause for termination. Harsh disciplinary actions are necessary to create a policy that employees will actually adhere to.
- Specific employee expectations: Be precise about when employees can and cannot use drugs. Is off-duty use permitted? What about when employees are on call?
Take your time to create a thorough, detailed policy that includes all of these elements to prevent confusion.
Rolling Out Your New Policy
If your company previously did not have any policies regarding drug use, being strategic with how you roll out the new policy can promote better employee adherence and satisfaction.
Start by giving employees plenty of notice about when the new program will go into effect. Giving workers time to prepare can help prevent stress and confusion. Also, be clear that you will not test for drug use before the new guidelines go into effect.
Explain why substance abuse prevention is important in your workplace. Perhaps you can give examples of how being under the influence of drugs or alcohol would affect an employee’s ability to safely complete their job duties.
Invest in employee education to ensure workers understand why you are implementing a drug-free workplace policy. This is not a punishment or a way for you to attempt to control workers’ free time. Instead, it is your company’s method of preventing substance abuse to make your work environment safer for everyone.
Give employees space to ask questions or voice concerns about the new policy. Finally, schedule your first testing date and provide details about what this will look like for workers. Explain the:
- Date and time of the drug screening
- Method (urinalysis, blood test, hair follicle sample, etc.)
- Substances the test can identify
- Time frame for identifying these substances
Notifying employees about the first drug screening can further reduce dissatisfaction. However, you may consider incorporating random testing into your drug-free program moving forward. This can encourage employees to refrain from drug use on an ongoing basis rather than only when they know a substance screening is coming up.
Maintain a Safer Work Environment With WorkSafe
Creating and implementing a drug-free workplace policy is one effective method of promoting a safe work environment. At WorkSafe, we help companies like yours reduce workplace injuries, saving you money and hassle. We can help you hire the right employees who are physically capable of performing their jobs, identify risk factors that could lead to injury, and more. Learn more about implementing urine drug test procedures. Then, contact WorkSafe today at 316-262-8800 for a free, no-obligation call.