Regarding workplace safety, drug and alcohol testing gives everyone in the work environment peace of mind and confidence that there are no impairment safety risks. It’s crucial that employers take a proactive approach to testing for drugs and alcohol to prevent misuse, and a drug and alcohol testing policy is the first step!
There are many situations where this testing can be done to help your company manage the risk of workplace substance abuse and incidents. Here are some of the most common:
Pre-Employment Testing
With pre-employment testing, employers test job applicants after an offer of employment has been made but before the person begins working. This helps reduce the risk of offering employment to individuals who may pose a threat in safety-sensitive work environments.
You can read more about pre-employment drug and alcohol testing here.
Pre-Access Testing
Pre-access drug and alcohol testing is carried out to meet the requirements of site owners, as they often have slightly different requirements regarding the substances tested for and timelines for testing. This testing is completed before arriving on location and identifies individuals who could pose a risk in safety-sensitive work environments before giving them access to the work site.
To meet the requirements of site owners quickly and quickly, you can learn more about pre-access testing here.
Post-Incident/Post-Accident Testing
Drug testing after an accident or near-miss at work is post-incident testing. It should only be done when the employee in question is working in a safety-sensitive position and their actions or lack of actions contributed to the cause of the incident.
Whether or not an injury or other loss results from the incident is relevant only if it is included in the company’s drug and alcohol policy; typically, there is also a specific window of time that the testing must take place in that is relative to the time the incident occurred.
You can learn more about the information you need when deciding the cause post-incident here.
Reasonable Cause
Reasonable cause testing is administered to eliminate the possibility of current substance use causing safety risks. Supervisors in organizations are trained to observe behaviours and signs that indicate the employee is not fit to perform duties and maintain workplace safety.
Employers should conduct drug and alcohol testing when there is reasonable cause to suspect impairment on the job, which would be considered a company policy breach.
You can learn more about drug testing in the workplace for reasonable cause.
Random Testing
Random drug and alcohol testing is an effective way to deter substance use and enhance safety policy compliance in the workplace if an employer can demonstrate that there are inherent risks in the workplace and that these risks make the work highly dangerous or could result in the occurrence of workplace accidents, a random testing program can be implemented.
It’s essential to remember that random drug testing should be used in minimal circumstances, and some processes must be followed to ensure that the random drug screening process remains objective.
You can learn more about how random drug and alcohol testing works here.
Unannounced Follow-Up Testing
Following a policy violation, ensuring compliance with the testing program before and after an employee is reinstated to work is vital. Follow-up testing is a series of unannounced drug tests, usually over a year after the employee returns.
These tests ensure that an employee is not abusing drugs or alcohol and must remain negative to continue working within the organization.
Drug and alcohol testing policies were created to help organizations protect their employees and get them one step closer to a safer workplace. Depending on your goals and the requirements you have to meet, you should do testing in all or some of these situations.
If you’re still feeling uneasy about why and when your company should implement drug and alcohol testing, please reach out! Our CannAmm team has years of experience and some of the most skilled people in the workplace drug testing industry. We deliver results you can trust.
