Leadership Briefing

In an era of rising drug use, 4.4% unemployment, and employers crying that there are no applicants who can pass a drug test, it’s time to re-think whether to continue doing pre-employment testing. We may have reached a time when we need people to fill our vacancies at any cost and a drug test seems to be the obvious barrier we can do without.

Or is it?

Testing … It’s part of our safety culture
2:18 minutes

Bottom line, the function of testing is to mitigate risk. Governing authorities who mandate drug testing, such as the Department of Transportation, states requiring it for publicly funded contracts or insurance companies offering discounted rates, do so because of sound research that proves an employee who uses drugs is more likely to cause accidents which risk lives, productivity and dollars. Additionally, OSHA, under its general duty clause, requires employers to provide a safe workplace. Bottom line: Drugs compromise safety.

So although it’s tempting to take the easy route and stop safety testing, it’s fool-hearty. We must find acceptable options on the continuum between having no workers and dropping a reliable safeguard against dangerous work behavior. Perhaps we need to do deeper analysis into the problem.

In a recent Ohio business survey, which collected over 6,000 respondents, failing drug tests was the last of five reasons for a lack of employable workers. Lack of applicants with technical and soft skills were the highest two reasons. So as the picture sharpens, we see we’re in a perfect storm of circumstances: fewer available bodies for work, higher drug use, and less skilled labor.

With this broader perspective, some resourceful Ohio employers are taking a more creative and comprehensive approach to filling vacancies that don’t involve ditching drug-tests. As reported in The New York Times, Warren Fabricating in Hubbard, Ohio set-up an apprentice program to de-emphasize the need for experience and existing skills to enlarge their hiring pool. Regina Mitchell, company co-owner, said, “It takes more time and money to train and evaluate someone, but I can have confidence the person is drug-free, comes to work on time and won’t call in sick.”

Other businesses are relying on third-party organizations to find substance-free employees for them. Thyssenkrupp North America, which has offices in Ohio, is using placement agencies that pre-screen applicants to find individuals for their production line jobs. And Youngstown-based Roof Rite has partnered with a nonprofit that passes along applicants after they’ve passed a drug test and undergone skill development training.

These employers are taking slower, more costly measures to develop and qualify workers while still mitigating risk. Acting on a first-glance, quick-fix manner is a characteristic that helped America get into the drug problems we’re in today. Let’s not take the same problem-solving approach to our shortage of an employable workforce. Finding alternative ways to hiring is possible, it just may take more creative approaches to achieve.

Check out The New York Times article referenced above.