Establishing a Drug-Free Workplace

An expert in the field explains how to address privacy issues, deal with legal concerns, and get employees' support when implementing drug tests

by Karen E. Klein

In a recent government study, 1 in 12 full-time American workers admitted to using illegal drugs within the last 30 days of participating in the survey. Of those individuals, roughly 30% said they would be less likely to work for an employer who does random drug testing. The study is based on data collected during 2002, 2003, and 2004 from a nationally representative sample of 128,000 persons, ages 18 to 64, who participated in the Health & Human Services Dept's National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The study concluded that smaller employers "may provide a safe haven" for workers seeking to avoid drug testing. Nancy Delogu, an attorney at Littler Mendelson in Washington who is an expert on federal and state drug-free workplace issues, says drug use by employees can be profoundly dangerous to a company and its other employees. She spoke recently with Smart Answers columnist Karen E. Klein about how small-business owners can monitor and discourage illegal drug use. Edited excerpts of their conversation follow:

Why is illegal drug use by employees a particular concern for small business?

The cost of drug-testing programs often makes them something that small-business owners don't put on their priority lists. Yet most drug abusers report that they are employed. The study also shows that 60% of drug users say they would not apply for or accept work at a company that has a drug-free workplace program. So that makes me wonder whether the small-business owners are absorbing the lion's share of illegal drug users as their employees.

Have you worked with smaller firms that do implement drug-testing programs?

Yes, certainly. But they tend to be either in a regulated industry where they must do drug-testing by law or in an industry where their clients and customers expect them to test, say, if they're sending employees into customers' homes. The other motivator is a company that's had a trusted employee go horribly wrong and they feel strongly that they don't want to be in that situation again.

Give me an idea of how badly things can go wrong in these situations.

In a worse-case scenario, a client or employee gets harmed. One of my clients does pre-hire drug tests for cable installers and told me they had something like 70% to 80% positive tests, where the usual number is about 5%. They started doing drug tests before hiring after an installer murdered a customer after going into her home. Other terrible outcomes are things like employees coming to work with a weapon, dealing drugs, or engaging in other illegal activity at your place of business.

One of our clients was a contractor who had a piece of heavy equipment disappear over a weekend at a construction site. The owner wanted us to help him implement drug testing because he got reports that the site was "owned" by the Mexican mafia, who used it to do drug deals because his employees gave them access.

And of course, there is a huge issue around long-term employee health problems, absenteeism, and reduced productivity. Additional problems related to drug abuse include employees' appearing unprofessional, higher turnover rates, higher company insurance rates, accidents at work, and stealing in the workplace.

How do you suggest entrepreneurs get started with a drug-free workplace program?

First, decide what you want to accomplish. Pre-hire testing is easy and relatively inexpensive to implement. "Reasonable suspicion" testing also makes a lot of sense. This is where employees are tested after an accident or report of a problem with their performance, and it's done to clear someone's name. Neither of those things involves a big monetary commitment, but it does take a managerial commitment from the top down in the company.

The advantage that a small-business owner has is that he or she can convey the drug-free workplace message quickly and clearly.