I am blessed to spend a lot of my time with business leaders around the world.
Whether it is in an Executive MBA program, a corporate training session, or an interview for a new book, I have the distinct pleasure of learning from some very sharp people.
Over the years, despite The Great Recession, an ever-larger number of folks tell me that they face a tremendous challenge in hiring good employees.
The reasons are many, and vary widely across industries.
Yet, an underlying theme keeps coming back time and time again: the inability of many strong candidates to pass a drug test. Or, be willing to submit to one.
When we're talking over coffee in the office, this is rarely discussed.
However, it is often a regular topic of conversation off-site, when the beer or wine starts to flow.
It seems the desire on the part of employers to be sure their current and prospective employees aren't using narcotics is becoming a bigger barrier to hiring new workers.
Am I wrong here? What do you think?
Discuss this Blog Entry 2
I found your comment that drug testing topics were not disussed on sight but maninly offsite in an informal environment. Do you have any thoughts on why this occurs?
Do you think that drug testing is becoming more prevalent in the past 3 years? I wonder because we are considering starting to require all new hires to submit and random for all existing employees (not sure if we do random people or have a random day and test everyone?). Up to now we have only tested if there is an injury.
We are looking to protect ourselves and we see the opportunity to "upgrade". When there are fewer people availble perhaps the tendancy is to turn a blind eye and not ask questions to which you do not want to hear the answer. Maybe with the prolonged high unemployment the idea is that we can take the chance as there is a larger pool to pull from?
Not sure what direction we will go but if I am having these thoughts maybe others are too?
I have been implementing drug testing programs for over 20 years and have experience in narcotics investigation. The unemployment rate does have an impact on drug use. When the unemployment rate is higher and hiring companies have more qualified applicants to choose from the positive drug test rates go down. When the unemployment rate is low and there are less candidates to choose from, there is a higher rate of positive drug tests. Poorer candidates have higher chances of testing positive. I rarely find high quality candidates having problem passing drug tests.
Drug use is increasing year after year for various reasons (medical marijuana, prescription abuse, new drugs, etc.) and it is well advised that you do protect your company from hiring drug users.
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