Effective workplace drug and alcohol policy and procedures need to have several components to be considered thorough and complete. They include:
- Clearly written and customised written policy
- Worker training and education program
- Management and supervisor training program
- Employee Assistance Plan (EAP)
- Drug and alcohol testing program
Though you may consider the testing program as the most important component because it detects actual drug or alcohol use, it is last on the list for a reason. A successful, as opposed to technically correct, program begins with a policy that is designed to be preventative rather than simply policing.
The preventative aspect of the drug and alcohol policies encompasses a broad spectrum of workplace issues. These issues include the workplace culture; employee willingness to report co-worker substance abuse before an accident happens; supervisor preparedness to manage an ongoing detection and testing program; and employee acceptance of the zero tolerance workplace. It is the preventative aspect that can make or break a testing program.
The best example of how the prevention aspect works is to consider the workplace environment where suspected drug use by workers is tolerated. The supervisor looks the other way even after witnessing a safety violation by a worker who appears to be inebriated. Perhaps a group of employees are well aware one of their co-workers is bringing drugs into the department but maintain a code of silence because they don’t trust management. When employees work in an environment composed of conditions, traditions, and practices that are not linked to the words in the policies and procedures, the likelihood of drugs and alcohol being present are increased.1
That link between policy and workplace culture is where you find the concept of prevention located. An employer can blanket and randomly test employees for drugs and alcohol using the Oraline drug test or the breathalyser, and that is an important step in a zero tolerance program. On the other hand, if the employer tests employees for illicit substances, but buys a worker a beer during a ‘business lunch’, there is disconnect between traditions and practices and the drug and alcohol policy.
Many employers have designed their health risk prevention programs to encourage staff to self-manage their fitness for duty. This is a broad approach to workplace health and safety in which the drug and alcohol policies and procedures fit quite comfortably. The strategies include helping employees make informed healthy lifestyle choices, increasing health awareness, offering free counselling, and establishing drug and alcohol education programs that are integrated into the larger health management program.2 In this kind of environment, prevention takes a front place position in the drug and alcohol policy and procedures.
In other words, an effective drug and alcohol program involves much more than just dictating rules and enforcing them through surprise testing. The Australian Institute of Employment Rights addressed this very issue in 2009 at the national level, and the same principles apply to the workplace. Indentifying substance abuse is identifying a symptom and not a cause. Employers are not responsible for employee personal behaviour outside the workplace, but are responsible for the workplace culture that promotes rather than prevents substance abuse. Workplace stress, worker-supervisor conflicts, using a drug policy to intimidate workers, ignoring signs of drugs in the workplace, and ignoring signs an employee has other issues influencing a decision to use drugs and alcohol all create a culture that promotes rather than prevents alcoholism, drug addiction, mental health issues, depression, and workplace accidents and fatalities.3
The drug and alcohol program should be one component of a workplace preventative health and safety program. There must be a connection between the conditions and traditions of the workplace and the drug and alcohol policy and procedures. Otherwise, one will work against the other or neither will work effectively.
Mediscreen at http://mediscreen.net.au/ offers efficient drug and alcohol testing equipment that will become an important component of a trusted fitness for work program. Experts can assist employers with incorporating the drug and alcohol policy and procedures within the broader health program.
References
1 Australian Institute of Employment Rights. (2009). Preventative Health and Workplace Culture. Retrieved May 27, 2011, from Australian Institute of Employment Rights: http://www.aierights.com.au/our-work/research/preventative-health/
2 Rauf, B., & Brett Elgar. (2010). Fitness for Duty in the Mining Industry – A Legal Perspective. Retrieved March 19, 2011, from Queensland Resources Council: http://www.qrc.org.au/conference/_dbase_upl/humphreys_Fitness%20for%20Duty.pdf
3 DrugInfo. (2009, September). Prevention of Alcohol-Related Harm in the Workplace. Retrieved May 27, 2011, from Drug Info: http://www.druginfo.adf.org.au/newsletters/newsletters-prevention-of-alcohol-related-harm-in-the-workplace
