1. How does drug testing effect hiring and testing employees A. Though many feel that drug testing is an invasion of privacy, drug testing enhances the probably to having a successful business. B. The strategy is to obtain the best employees to come in and assure that your company will have a successful production and outcome rate. C. There are different regulations and laws set to insure proper and relevant drug testing that assure the best environment for the workplace (employer and employees) D. In today’s workplace, drug testing has become a debatable matter. Every employer, regardless of industry or profession, must decide on way to position themselves and their business. There are many people that feel drug testing in the workplace is an attack of privacy. On the other side, however, there are those who believe that in today's workplace drug testing may be common but is vibrant to a successful business.
2. The Body of my research A. How do regulated laws play a part in the effect of drug testing? B. How lab testing affect the outcome for the employer and the employee. C. Pros a. Confining to federal and state regulations. b. Weeding out people that will be a liability to the employer, co-workers, and themselves. c. Preventing low productivity from that use drugs as compared to those that don’t. d. Preventing a high rating of work injuries. D. Cons e. Resistance from employers. Violates their privacy. f. Affects costs and productivity when workers are fired and have to hire new employers to replace them. g. Suits from employees for violating privacy that may lead to financial loss.
3. Thesis Statement Personal Conclusion/
It is good that we have drug testing in the workplace. The employer had to be held accountable by the laws of the state and federal government that assure the employees a safe and conducive environment to work in. These test help keep productive worker that will achieve success not only for the company they are working for but success for the individual employees that they are insured a stable work environment – even a chance for a raise and proper benefits allotted to them due to the financial gain of a safe and productive (drug free) work place.
But drug testing can bring along resentment from your workers due to their stance that their privacy is violated. Employee turnovers can lead to financial lost and negative productivity rates. And last, you never know when a suit may occur that a company just maybe in fault and money that the company can benefit from has to pay out the former employee who sued you.
Annotated Bibliography
Biddle Consulting Group. (2013). Uniform Guidelines on employee selection
This guideline for the validity of the workplace is great. It tells about the proper guidelines and procedures used to assure success and productivity in the
workplace. This guideline assures the pros and cons of certain testing policies and critiques used.
This article deals with legal effects of testing for drugs. The types of testing are also discussed, as well as the point of testing and when tests come back
positive.
Testing For Drugs in the Workplace
Human Resource Management
Sylvia Cannon
This paper offers a brief overview of qualitative drug analysis techniques using urine, hair, saliva and sweat specimens. Questions related to collection, analysis and analysis of each specimen as well as their advantages and disadvantages are debated. Urine is the most commonly used specimen in the finding of drugs. Urinalysis offers an in-between window of detection (1-3 days). Hair analysis offers the largest window of detection (7-100+ days). Saliva examination may be useful in determining very recent drug use (1-36 hours). The examination of sweat may be beneficial for continuous monitoring of drug use (1-14 days). Drug testing has become a fast, useful process with the development of point-of-collection drug testing devices( by Dolan K1, Rouen D, and Kimber J. 2004 Jun; 23(2):213-7.)
In today’s workplace, drug testing has become a debatable matter. Every employer, regardless of industry or profession, must decide on way to position themselves and their business. There are many people that feel drug testing in the workplace is an attack of privacy. On the other side, however, there are those who believe that in today's workplace drug testing may be common but is vibrant to a successful business. This essay will show how regulated laws enforce and affect the outcome of drug testing; the pros and cons of drug testing; and last the outcome that drug testing may have on the employee.
Not everyone has experienced all the pre-employment “procedures” that you have to go through to get a job. Many may think all it is to getting a jobs is filling out an application, going for an interview, and then the employer determines if you are hired or not. Yes that’s true, but upon them hiring you, you must perform a drug test where you provide a sample of your urine, hair, or skin to test and see if you are not on drugs which will determine if you are able to perform the assignment that you have been hired for. There are federal laws that determine certain conditions which an employer may require a job applicant or newly hired employee to undergo certain tests before making a decision on whether or not to hire the applicant or before scheduling the new hire for work. Drug testing is the type of specimen to be collected for testing. The most collective type of specimen is urine, Followed by hair, saliva and breathes testing; blood testing is rarely used for employment testing unless a reason is given.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is key responsibility for the implementation of laws prohibiting adverse impact resulting from pre-employment testing or certain procedures. Employment tests or other procedures having an adverse impact on employment of individuals based on the individual’s race, sex or national origin are generally considered to be employment discrimination unless they are job related for the positions in question and consistent with business necessity.
Drug testing is usually not considered discriminating. The validity of using drug testing has been studied and documented the show the significance of the behavior of a person’s work ethic and the fairness of the testing (Biddle Consulting Group 2013). Testing is satisfying to the employee that they feel they can use and depend on the person who has applied to be an employee of their establishment. Labs testing have extensive measures to reconfirm a positive test before reporting it to the worker. Most drug tests use their own physician called a medical review officer to review all test results. In the case of a positive result, the physician will normally contact the candidate to determine if there is a medical clarification. Though the employer and the business sector adhere to drug testing, there are pros and cons that come along with drug testing. Some of the pros are that these tests help validate the laws and requirements set up by state and federal guidelines concerning procedures that you have to go by in hiring. To add to this, Small Business states: “According to the United States Department of Labor, 10 to 20 percent of U.S. workers involved in fatal on-the-job accidents tested positive for illicit drugs and alcohol,” (Gluck 2014). Testing does help eliminate people that will be (due to in the influence and intoxication from drugs) a detriment to the employer, people around you in your work environment, and even themselves. Testing does help eliminate people that will be (due to in the influence and intoxication from drugs) a detriment to the employer, people around you in your work environment, and even themselves. You never know what craziness a person may end up doing from the influence of the drugs that will harm your fellowman around you and can lead to lost in cost of production due to danger done to the product and machinery.
Then being influenced by drugs can cause production rate and productivity to slow down will also be a big cost in revenue. Absenteeism, injuries, health insurance claims, and employee theft can be avoided. Preventions also from fatalities will cause you to have a safe free work environment. Sometimes employers can still utilize their workers that have fail testing by sending them to rehabilitation. When an employer does this, they value the experience worker. They don’t want to go through the saga of a turnover rate, rehiring, and training a new employee. The company also may want to help the valued employee to have a stable life “financially, emotionally, and spiritually” (Gluck, 2014). The cons of testing for drugs are that some employees may build up intolerance and become resistant to their employer(s) because they feel their privacy is violated. When companies test randomly for drug usage, if a person gets fired because of negative testing then you will have to bring in someone new to take their place. This can cause a hindrance in production and a loss of cost in production and a turnover rate that isn’t consistent with keeping a steady and solid production rate. Last, if the company was in the wrong from testing the employee suits can be brought. Money will be loss because you had to pay out money that could have been used for other purposes that will help keep your company running effectively.
The lasting effect is not only do drug testing cause some to feel violated; not only do some come radical and may not want to work as effectively when drug tests are administered, but they may also may be not know their rights concerning testing if they fail a test and want to be retested because you do have a sometimes cases in which tests where not handled legitimately and you may have tested positive for a prescribed drug that you take every day and may have to have you doctor alter the dosage or put you on another type of prescription that will not show up positive if tested again.
A copy of the test results and an explanation should be given to the employee or mailed to them. Information is also supposed to be given unto them on how to go about appealing the test. Many people don’t know their rights and can miss out on being employed by a company that they enjoy working. Many can miss out on lost time of pay and benefits need to take care of them and their and their families. It is good to know your rights when it comes to being tested at the workplace.
Do our society as a hold respect the positive aspect that testing for drugs at the workplace bring, or are many stuck on is that this isn’t necessary because I’m going to do it (taking drugs) any way and I may feel that it has no effect on their cohesiveness, cognitive skills, impairment, and their work productivity. Do companies feel that they will lose out on anything from drug testing? There is a lot you can take from the pros and the cons of testing. This is the beauty of it.
References
Biddle Consulting Group. (2013). Uniform Guidelines on employee selection
procedures. Retrieved from
http://www.uniformguidelines.com/uniformguidelines.html. Dolan, K, Rouen, D, and Kimber J. (2004 June). An overview of the use of urine hair, sweat, and saliva to detect drug use. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed
Gluck, S., Demand Media. (2014). Employee drug testing pros and cons.
