In many cases, organisations approach alcohol and drug testing as a program primarily in place to “catch” violators. The testing program becomes a tool for punishment rather than a means of promoting workplace safety. Though workplace drug testing programs can certainly identify workers using illicit substances or alcohol, focusing only on catching individual workers can ignore many factors that influence worker substance abuse. By concentrating on detecting violators, a prime opportunity is missed to promote a positive and healthy organisation wide environment.

In other words, instead of viewing the alcohol and drug testing program as punitive, it can become an integral component of a workplace health initiative. This approach promotes a drug and alcohol free workplace, while also helping employees understand that substance abuse is a lifestyle, and not just a workplace, issue. People do not have clear lines between their work and personal lives, meaning they overlap. While prohibiting drugs and alcohol in the workplace is important for workplace safety, it does not educate people on the harm that they cause themselves and others when using the substances.

One Link in the Healthy Living Campaign

An organisation wide improvement program benefits the business and the workers.  Developing an alcohol and drug workplace policy should be one link in a campaign to educate and train workers in best practices for developing and maintaining healthy lifestyles. Instead of focusing only on the impact of drugs on the body or alcohol on the brain, an improvement program will address many lifestyle factors that impact workers. For example, some companies incorporate training on the dangers of alcohol and drug use in a program focused on healthy diets and exercise. People who are concerned with taking care of their bodies through diet and exercise are much less likely to use drugs and alcohol.

Focusing on harm minimisation rather than punishment is also more likely to garner compliance. Employee assistance programs (EAPS) and health promotion programs (HPPs) can include a number of components of which drug and alcohol abuse education is just one. For example, employers may:

• Offer stress management workshops
• Provide employee access to counselling for substance abuse, family issues, stress etc.
• Provide safety training
• Hold supervisor-employee sessions to facilitate conversations about workplace concerns
• Conduct  regular review of workplace factors that may create employee stress, i.e. schedules, production schedules, staffing etc
• Pay for employee memberships at a gym or fitness centre
• Train supervisors on alcohol and drug policy while also giving supervisors a role in the organisation wide health initiative
• Contract with an outside medical agency to provide occupational health services and health screening

Healthy Lifestyles

By developing a companywide culture that promotes healthy lifestyles, the Onsite Drug and Alcohol Screening is not viewed as a way for the employer to catch and punish workers who violate company rules. Instead it is seen as a natural component of a healthy living program. Employers accrue a number of benefits from this approach. These benefits include increased productivity, fewer missed days of work, lower medical expenses, and improved workplace safety.

Today, Drug Testing Australia is part of normal practice, but you are still likely to hear some complaints from your employees for having to do it, either because they occasionally abuse substances themselves, or because they are insecure enough that they believe that drug testing is a threat to their job somehow, even if they could not possible be fired for it. While you may have been implementing employee drug and alcohol testing long enough to know to ignore such complaints, there IS a level of complaining which you should not ignore. It is the social norm to feel put upon and dissension can spread among people rather quickly. Do NOT take someone aside and lecture them about their verbal complaints on the jobsite. Rather, pick out several people publicly, in front of everyone else, and ask them their concerns with the Onsite Drug and Alcohol Screening policies of the business, and most importantly, INTERACT with them on this. Do not keep them from knowing your thoughts or from knowing how open to their ideas you are. Take what they say very seriously and discuss it with them, always interacting, in order to absolutely positively make sure that they understand that they have been heard.

If you have experienced high employee complaining and high employee turnover in the past, you may find it emotionally less taxing to simply put a barrier or space or separation between yourself and your employees, but in the long run this is unwise. Your coworkers and employees work for you, not for themselves. They need to feel that their work has value, and not that they are just another drone worker employed in the line of hard labor. They need to feel that they themselves, as people, are needed, and that you yourself, as a person, are invested in them specifically and in their interests as a whole.

Mediscreen provides onsite drug and alcohol testing services to businesses all overAustralia. Onsite drug testing helps employees feel even further appreciated, because it saves them time and money and effort that they would normally have to take in going to a laboratory.

It is a simple concept, but a tough subject to broach with someone. I mean, how do you ask someone who you obviously believe to be extremely sensitive if maybe…perhaps…they should lighten up a little? Well, there is a reason for their sensitivity and, as with most of our articles, yes; there IS something you can do about it.

The number one (and some would say the only) reason why someone is sensitive is that they feel like they are responsible for the behavior of others, and that those other people are not behaving like they should. It is really a bad position to be in, if you feel that way, and it is worth knowing how to get around it if you or someone you know is feeling ultra sensitive about something or for a noticeable period of time.

If it is someone else who is sensitive, the thing to do is to help them feel in better control of their environment, and that includes all of the people in their environment, which means you. Ask them if they think you are doing something the proper way, listen carefully and respond in a calm, rational, unemotional way when they give you their opinion, put out energy which shows your support of them, and help them to feel better in control of their environment. It matters not whether they are actually in a position of control within your company with Workplace Drug Testing Laws. It only matters that they temporarily feel like all the details are taken care of and in their place, so that they can deal with their own problems. At that point, you can begin separating your space and time from them, and let them deal with their own problems.

If you are the culprit, then get over it! No, actually, we mean that you should recognize that it is because you feel this responsibility for others, whether or not they are obeying the rules, and that recognizing this in yourself is part of the solution in getting rid of those nagging feelings.

In the meantime, follow guidelines, implement employee drug alcohol testing, and be as aware and as observant as you can be.

Many companies are franchises or they have multiple offices all over a country or area. When this is the case, executives must travel from location to location, seeing to matters of importance and making sure that managers and subordinates are doing their jobs in the best possible way. Also, there is a need to update information and modus operandi in order to stay competitive with other businesses which are in the same industry…or even in the same area.

When your executives and other levels of employees are traveling from place to place, it is important to make sure that there is a certain amount of consistency in what they encounter. A business is built by reputation and it is necessary to keep each location operating by a certain standard. Workplace drug testing helps to keep the employees and the level of quality of their work at a minimum standard which you can set. It is the ability of someone in your position to take the clay and mold it a little. Each branch of the company does not have to be cookie cutter identical to all the rest, but it certainly helps to have a minimum standard of quality. When you are implementing drug alcohol testing for your business, remember to take into account differences in areas, populations, number of employees, and potentially dangerous neighborhoods, all of which may contribute to how often you decide to have each franchise tested. While the work itself may be the same, the surrounding neighborhoods and therefore the surrounding influences are very different.

When any of your employees are traveling, they should find a safe haven in other branches of your company. They should find something recognizable. Workplace drug testing helps to eliminate the potential for disparity between employees in different areas. It helps to maintain consistency, and consistency is one thing which many growing businesses have difficulty in maintaining.

Onsite drug and alcohol screening is not just reserved for questionable individuals. It is a standard practice, used by many companies to make sure that their employees are safe and that their assets are protected.

Transition tends to have a negative connotation, simply because some people use it as a nice way of saying “downsizing” or “cutting your budget” or “evaluating your expenses.” Transition is merely a change in a new direction. Now, to visualize this, picture a pinball machine with the ball bouncing off of different bumpers and going in different directions. Transition is NOT when the ball drops below the levers and you lose the game. Transition occurs when the ball hits a wall and flies off in another direction. Even for the better, Drug Testing Australia view transition with caution, and are not sure how to go about thinking of the situation.

In the workplace, employees have transition in their private lives which may or may not have an effect upon their professional lives. When they experience these periods of transition and are stressed out about them, they may resort to alcohol or drug abuse as a way to temporarily escape their problems or just the newness of the situation. Fortunately, Workplace drug testing can help prevent this from happening. Why is this so important?

Many individuals who are hardcore addicts started off abusing drugs or alcohol by not thinking of it as too big of a deal. In fact, many individuals who think of drug abuse as a big deal tend to abuse less and do so with extreme caution. It is the apathetic or lazy mentality which leads to long-term addiction, since the individual does not think of it as any big deal until it is too late and they are almost unable to cope with the withdrawal.

In your workplace, you must be sure to keep your employees safe and away from this risk. While you cannot directly control their actions or lack thereof, you can evaluate them periodically with onsite drug screening to determine if further action on your part is needed. If your company has a multiple strike policy, then you can discuss the strike with your employee and assess if it is really just a temporary situation or something which can lead to further problems.

If you have ever dreamed of fame and fortune, of having power in a crowd, of being the leader of the free world, or of performing on stage in front of millions of people, you have probably wished to become larger than life. Not everyone has this dream. Some individuals prefer a quiet, discreet, subdued and unassuming life. However, for those of you who wish to be more than a name, you must first start small. Why is this?

For any talent, you must practice little, child-size techniques first. This is so that, when you tackle bigger disciplines, your muscles and temperament and technique are already habitually tuned to doing the little things correctly. Many people do not give these beginning steps enough credit, wishing to shoot for the stars right away. Thinking big is a must for this discipline, but first your actions must express the habits of thousands of hours of detail, Workplace Drug Testing on and perfecting the small stuff. Otherwise, you will just end up performing your entire act sloppily. Masters of any discipline do not work on the big idea alone. They are masters because they incorporate all of their beginning years of training, perfecting their talent so that they are ready for bigger responsibilities and tasks.

If you wish to be a millionaire, you must learn how to handle (and retain) ten dollars. If your ten dollars keep disappearing, then clearly something is not being done correctly, and you may need to cut back to a five dollar responsibility. Millionaires who stay millionaires are able to handle, manage, and utilize their money in the best possible way. Anyone can become poor quickly. Many rich individuals do not keep the inheritance within the family by passing hundreds of millions down to their offspring. They keep it in the family by training their children how to utilize that much money.

Just as with any other form of discipline, drug alcohol testing must be practiced as early as possible within your company, so that your experience with it grows at the same time that your company grows.