Drug Testing Your Workforce: Know Your Options

Many professional environments screen potential new employees to ensure that drug use will not have an impact on the quality of the work they will be doing. With so many options available for your business to choose from, deciding on the right type depends on the kind of work being performed and the flexibility of the business itself. The following are three common types of drug tests, each focusing on a different aspect of drug use, but all revealing the presence of illicit substances.

• Saliva: Saliva tests are usually performed with a swab, and are more focused on revealing use over the last 24 to 48 hours rather than long-term. Most saliva drug tests cover the gamut of common substances — marijuana, cocaine, opiates, amphetamines, and methamphetamine — and can prove very useful in situations where a prompt response is needed, such as when an accident has occurred or in reasonable suspicion circumstances. Additionally, the public acquisition of saliva samples reduces their likelihood to be tampered with.
• Urine: A favorite for years due to its consistent accuracy, urine drug tests can reveal drug use that has occurred within the past three to five days. In addition to being the only method allowed on federal drug tests, it is the most widely accepted and popular method in screening potential applicants for job openings. Some urine drug tests even detect fluids that are designed to try to fool the test into creating a false negative, increasing its accuracy and reliability.
• Hair: Hair follicle drug tests are designed to eliminate the possibility of hiring even the most casual of drug users; by detecting the presence of substances several months in the past, you can guarantee that you haven’t hired someone who simply paused their drug use for a short time in order to pass the test. Cocaine, opiates, and methamphetamine in particular are excreted from the body very quickly, and won’t show up on a urine test 72 hours after use — hair follicle tests remove the risk from that equation.

Now that you have all of the information, you can make an educated decision about the type of drug test your business should implement. With a test to suit every one of your needs, you’ll have a clean and capable workforce to be proud of.