Employer-Friendly Drug Testing Trends

Jun 1, 2006 12:00 PM, BY MICHAEL FICKES

As the drug testing industry begins to mature, a struggle for market share has broken out. And that may be good news for employers in need of drug testing services.

No one is slashing prices, but companies are seeking out ways to provide better, more convenient customer service. Is it inconvenient to write checks to two different companies for background checks and drug testing? At the early April conference of the National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS), attendees discussed, among other issues, the idea of integrating drug testing and background checking services within one company.

Meanwhile, drug-testing companies have been seeking out ways to offer customers collection services at any time of day. Providers are also beginning to assemble the facts and figures necessary to calculating the return on investment that drug-testing services can provide. Finally, the industry is beginning to organize services around practices proven by years of experience.

Based in Columbus, Ohio, Secure Check Inc. is right in the middle of the customer service trend. A background check company that entered the drug-testing industry four years ago and has studied the industry's emerging trends, Secure Check has more than doubled the number of clients it serves in the last three years, while increasing revenues by more than 75 percent. How? By lashing itself to customer service.

Combining drug testing and background checks in one company

“Traditionally, background screening and drug-testing have been offered by separate companies,” says Tricia Smith, president and chief executive officer of Secure Check, which has combined the two. In addition to full-service background checks, the company administers drug and alcohol testing through nationwide collection services.

“More and more companies are offering these combinations,” adds Suzanne Sorge, client service operations manager with Secure Check. “Many background screeners are announcing drug-testing services, while drug testing services are moving into background screening. Interest is going both ways.”

It's a one-stop shopping idea for employers. For some customers, it also enhances convenience. Employers that use two different services for background screening and drug testing collection might, in some cases, send employees to two different places. For example, if an employer required fingerprint check as part of the background check — which is not unusual for higher security companies — an employee would have to visit a fingerprint firm and a drug collection company. Secure Check and others collect both fingerprints and drug-testing samples, including hair.

Constant testing accessibility

Drug testing companies are also adopting more convenient collection strategies for employers. What happens, for example, if an employer is running three shifts a day, and an employee has an accident requiring a drug test at 3 a.m.? Many clinics close at 7 p.m.

“If an employer is running three shifts, we'll send someone to the company's location 24 hours a day to do on-site collection,” Smith says. “This is becoming a trend as well.”

Another part of the service trend in drug testing covers emergency rooms when necessary. According to Smith, employers expect emergency rooms to collect samples when employees who were injured on the job arrive at the hospital. But emergency room personnel do not like getting involved with drug testing, fearing it might compromise their ability to provide care. Noting the problem, alert drug testing companies have stepped up services to cover emergency room needs.

“We developed a program for the emergency rooms in our area where we are the on-call drug testing collectors for them 24 hours a day,” Smith says.

Return on investment

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, about 9.4 million employees use illegal drugs, and most businesses are likely to employ one or more people with drug problems.

SAMHSA also says that the industries with the highest rates of illicit drug use are food preparation, restaurants, service industries, construction, and transportation and material moving.

Additionally, SAMHSA says that problems related to alcohol and drug abuse cost U.S. businesses about $81 billion per year in lost productivity — because employees that abuse drugs function at approximately 67 percent of their capacity. Worse, up to 40 percent of industrial fatalities and 47 percent of industrial injuries have a link to alcohol.

National figures, of course, do not tell employers much about the risks and problems a business faces when employees use drugs. As a result, drug-testing companies are working on models that will provide return-on-investment figures for drug testing. “We've been talking about a model that would calculate ROI based on how many positives an employer has,” Smith says.

What is the loss of productivity if one person is using illicit drugs? How about five people? What losses can be expected from absenteeism, in higher workers' compensation premiums or health insurance premiums?

Drug testing providers are trying to work out calculations that will show skeptical CFOs just what a certified drug-testing program can do for an employer's financial reports.

Emerging best practices

Other emerging best practices in drug testing include:

• Random testing administration: Employers should not select their own employees for random testing, Smith says, because questions may arise about why an employer chose a particular employee. Was it truly random? Or was there some sort of agenda? When a third party administrator controls the random selections, such questions will not be raised.

• Hair tests: While hair testing costs as much as $50 more than a conventional urine test, some employers want the 90-day historical information about controlled substances such as cocaine that hair tests will reveal.

• Vendor testing: A specialty all its own, vendor testing has become important as more and more service vendors gain access to company facilities — to operate heavy machinery, repair and operate computer systems, and carry out other sensitive tasks.

ABOUT THE COMPANY

For information, circle the Reader Service number (listed below) or visit securitysolutions.com

Secure Check Inc.

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This page offers an opportunity for readers to share management lessons they have learned and to provide other helpful information to their peers in the industry. To offer suggestions, or to contribute to this page, contact Larry Anderson at (770) 618-0118 or e-mail landerson@securitysolutions.com

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