Why pre-employment drug tests may not be enough
June 2, 2009 by Fred HosierPosted in: Alcohol/drugs, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views
New data show that pre-employment drug screenings alone may not be enough of a deterrent for workers.
The random urine test positive rate is 47% higher than the pre-employment rate in general industry, according to Quest Diagnostics.
In jobs where random drug testing is mandated by federal law, the opposite is true. The random rate is 18% lower than the pre-employment rate.
Workers may think they need to be “on good behavior” when applying for jobs. After they’re hired, old habits may come back.
Here are the positive test rates reported by Quest:
- general workforce, pre-hire: 3.6%
- general workforce, random, 5.3%
- federally-mandated, pre-hire: 1.7%, and
- federally-mandated, random: 1.4%.
Overall, Quest says drug use among employees and applicants in the general workforce declined to 3.6% in 2008 from 3.8% in 2007.
Quest is a provider of drug testing services. More data is available here.
Tags: pre-employment drug screenings, Quest diagnostics, random drug testing
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June 3rd, 2009 at 2:47 pm
I guess I didn’t realize this was “new” news.
We know that people are able to “study” for their pre-employment test, that is the very reason we implemented a random quarterly test as well.
June 8th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
I agree with Becky, this isn’t anything “new”, all prospective employees have to realize that there WILL BE a drug test for pre-employment, so if they have half a brain, they’d clean up before going to apply somewhere. And as Becky states above, this is the reason for random testing isn’t it?
June 9th, 2009 at 10:01 am
I don’t believe the point of this is new news but a selling point for the benefits and necessity of “Safe production methods” over production at all costs. This is especially important to those of us new to safety with new safety programs(2 years). Upper management may be on board but getting middle management to buy in can be difficult. Especially if they don’t add the hidden costs. Use these numbers with your companies own and you just might win one more heart and soul and not have to fill out one work comp form. If your looking for earth shattering in safety your not going to find it. Take what you can get and use what you have and you can benefit your employees your employer and hopefully sleep at night.
September 4th, 2009 at 11:57 am
I think when companies use a Professional Employer Organization to administer tests it gives a safer route to go to avoid any lawsuits, etc. For drug testing, I think there should always be a pre-employment drug test so that applicants know that the company is a drug-free environment, and following up with a random drug test while employed by the company. At the company I work for, we have a random computer selected drug test. The only way you know if you are selected is when you clock in. It keeps all the employees on their toes because they never know when or if they will be selected, so it keeps them drug-free if they had any drug habits in the past.