Alcohol breath testing determines how much alcohol is in your blood by measuring your exhaling content. Employers prefer this test for pre-and post-employment screening since it's convenient, faster, and accurate. Upon hiring, experts recommend that the employer inform the employee on the company's policies and guidelines for alcohol testing.
It is essential to ensure that the working environment is safe and free from alcohol abuse. You should lookout for any signs that might help you identify the alcohol use during working hours and conduct frequent tests. Some symptoms include regular sick leave, workplace accidents, theft, and behavior change.
Benefits of Breath Alcohol Tests
Promotes A Safe Working Environment
Employees need to maintain sobriety in the working place to avoid endangering their lives and colleagues. Intoxicated workers are likely to cause more workplace accidents and injure themselves.
A breath alcohol test is critical in maintaining a safe working environment, especially in jobs that involve operating heavy machines, handling hazardous chemicals, or driving vehicles. Employees in these departments need 100% concentration since their mistakes can lead to significant property loss or even death.
In case of accidents at your workplace, your company will be liable even if it resulted from the mistake of a single employee. So, to avoid such scenarios, you can introduce regular breath alcohol tests to ensure that employees don't come to work under the influence of alcohol.
Increases Productivity
Alcohol breath tests lead to increased performance within organizations. All the employees team up towards the same goal and direct all their efforts to succeed.
On the other hand, a company without alcohol testing policies tends to have low productivity. This is because the sober employees are left with heavy workloads due to absenteeism or low productivity from employees who use alcohol. Such behaviors cause slow productivity and create tensions between employees affecting cooperation at the workplace.
Reduce Possibilities of Legal Liability
When you employ a person, you become responsible for their safety while at the workplace. If an employee causes an accident and injures themselves or their colleague, you may face liability issues that could lead to lawsuits.
Companies with strict alcohol and drug use policies often have fewer liability claims resulting from accidents, saving money and resources. Therefore, it may seem expensive to fund random alcohol testing, but you can't compare it with losing millions of money from lawsuits.
You should also consider advanced training for your workers, mainly if your company deals with safety-sensitive industries such as natural gas appliances and servicing gas lines. You should conduct a breath alcohol test on such employees before they are certified to work, as these tasks require a high level of competence and sobriety.
You should consider including random alcohol tests in your company if safety is a primary requirement for your operations. By doing so, you will decrease the probability of experiencing alcohol-related accidents.
Improved Morale
When there is a heavy workload on some employees because some are under the influence of alcohol and cannot deliver, you're likely to experience poor morale. The productive staff may feel unmotivated to carry the extra workload since they feel overworked, yet they get the same salary.
By ensuring your company is a drug-free zone, employees tend to get extra zeal to work towards the company's set goals. This, in turn, increases your revenue.
Helps Maintain Business Reputation
Be on the lookout when hiring new employees to avoid heavy alcohol users. You can conduct screening tests during the hiring process to ensure that you only hire employees that will uphold our company's reputation. You don't want a situation where employees constantly get in trouble, especially with customers, because they are under the influence.
A pre-employment test is an excellent approach that you can adapt to maintain the reputation of your business. Most alcohol users tend to avoid companies that conduct drug testing either during the hiring or while working.
May Help an Employee in the Recovery Process
While many companies tend to fire employees who fail the alcohol tests, you can choose to give your employee a second chance if they are on their recovery journey. You can help them get rehabilitation treatment without discrimination.
The worker can get help, and you don't have to lose an experienced worker at the expense of alcohol. You can grant him paid or unpaid leave until the program is over and bring him back, avoiding the hassle of hiring and training a new employee.
Reduces workplace accidents
Intoxicated workers are highly likely to cause accidents and injuries, especially those that operate heavy machinery. With the proper implementation, you will deal with alcohol abusers before any significant accident happens.
If you fail to run a breath alcohol test for your business, the rate of your worker's claims will be high, which might cost you a lot of money.
Reduce Absenteeism
Over time, it has been proven that alcohol abusers are more likely to take frequent leaves off work to either nurse their hangover or to continue indulging in the habit. They are also expected to fall sick more often; this means that you as an employer will spend more money on their medical insurance claims, therefore losing revenue. In short, the employees will become a liability to your business. Implementing the policy as part of your guidelines will reduce absenteeism by 50%. You must also try 15-Minutes Fried Chicken Breast with Asparagus if you are a chicken lover
Conclusion
Breath alcohol testing has many advantages to every business, irrespective of the industry. Introducing this policy to your business will increase your productivity and ensure your employees are safe. Your employee turnover will also reduce as people who abuse alcohol frequently change their jobs. It might seem expensive, but it will save your hard-earned revenue.
Therefore, it is paramount to develop and integrate alcohol testing as one of the human resource policies to enjoy the above pros.