Pre Employment Test? Prepare for a Drug Screening

Drug screenings have become an important part of the pre employment test process for many companies.

The recent Drug Screening Pulse Survey from the Institute for Corporate Productivity found that three-quarters of companies have a drug test policy. Of those companies, 95 percent said that drug screening is the most common type of pre-employment test. Of organizations with at least 10,000 workers, that number increased to 100 percent.

Of the nearly 300 respondents, 70 percent administer drug tests when there is "reasonable suspicion" of drug use, 62 percent require a drug test following an employee accident and 41 percent do random drug testing.

Of the companies that administer pre-employment drug tests, 47 percent require the test to be conducted within four days after the applicant accepts a position, while 30 percent allow the test to be done any tiem before the employee begins working.

“Most companies aren’t messing around anymore with the drug issue,” Jay Jamrog, senior vice president of research at i4cp, said. “They can afford to be picky in the current climate, and one of their demands is applicants who are squeaky clean. Not only is it a legal concern in some cases, there’s also employee health and productivity issues that can’t be ignored by organizations either.”

So how are drug tests done? About 95 percent of companies use urine testing, while 10 percent use breath tests. That number increases to 18 percent at large companies. Only 49 percent of companies allow a re-test following a positive result from a drug test.

When it comes to who should be tested for drug use, 84 percent of respondents said the entire workforce, 13 percent said those who drive as part of their job and 10 percent said those in administrative, clerical and professional roles.

In general, most companies are satisfied with their in-house or vendor-administrated drug screening programs, according to the study. Overall, 61 percent of all companies queried say their program is better than average or excellent. That number increases to 69 percent among large companies.