Drug testing of employees

Employees working under the influence of drugs are prone to accidents as drug abuse is known to cause short-term memory problems, impaired thinking, loss of balance and coordination and decreased alertness. They will not only hurt themselves, but also some of their co-workers or other visitors at workplace. Employees under the influence are often aggressive and violent.

They often commit violent crimes to get money to purchase drugs. Hence, in order to ensure safe and healthy work environment, an employer should conduct employee drug testing to detect and eliminate drug abusing employees.

Random drug testing is important as many studies have already proved that substance abusing employees are less productive as they will be mentally and physically impaired due to drug abuse. They are also prone to diseases, injuries and accidents. These factors directly affect the employee’s performance. Drug testing helps the employer to identify and replace drug abusing employees with healthy employees. This ultimately results in increased employee productivity.

Drug or alcohol abusing behaviour of employees damages the reputation of the company, particularly if it is from hospitality or service industry. Drug abusing behaviour of employees shows lack of discipline. It also conveys that the organization is unprofessional. Therefore, an organization should have drug testing kit and conduct regular drug testing programs to filter out drug abusers and save the reputation of the organization.