While urinalysis is a straightforward approach to identifying an
applicant with traces of illegal drugs in his or her system at a given
point in time, it fails to meet the broader goal of identifying people
whose underlying attitude toward substance abuse may be a
legitimate cause for concern. As the head of one drug testing
company put it, "Pre-employment drug testing (urinalysis) is really
nothing more than an intelligence test. If a person who is applying
for a job takes a drug test while he or she is still using drugs, he or
she is going to test positive. How smart is that?"
There's more to the issue of underlying attitudes than that. Actual
drug use that can be detected by urinalysis (or any of the other
detection technologies that are also in use) is only the most obvious
manifestation of an individual's substance abuse problem.
Underlying the actual drug use is a set of attitudes that rationalize
and condone illegal substance abuse that can affect a person's ability
to do the job. A urinalysis will not detect such attitudes. An
applicant may "pass" a urinalysis and still represent a risk of
impaired performance or safety on the job. His urine may be
"clean" but his attitudes about substance abuse aren't.
Why do we care about underlying attitudes? Because, in the
absence of outside constraints, attitudes drive a person's choices
and, therefore, behavior. Let's be very clear that we are talking here
about attitudes that affect job performance: for example, how
willing is the applicant to take personal responsibility to be alert and
aware on the job, to be punctual and reliable, to use a company's
resources and material prudently? These are attitudes that are
extremely useful to know about in advance so that new employees
can be informed and trained about your company's standards and
expectations.
Compared to figuring out a person's attitudes toward on the job
behavior, it's fairly easy to measure the level of drugs in his or her
system at a given point in time. Attitudes are harder to figure out.
For one thing, simply asking a person about an attitude is a tip-off
that you think it's important; sophisticated applicants quickly pick
up on cues like this about how to impress an interviewer. For
another, attitudes are subtle. They absolutely affect behavior, but
not always a straight line. That means that, as an interviewer, you
need to understand that attitudes affect but don't predict behavior.
The most important thing to remember about measuring an
applicant's attitudes – and this is true about their attitudes about
attendance, punctuality, substance abuse on the job, and any other
subject – is that those attitudes should be relevant to the job for
which you are considering the individual. If you are interested in
learning more about measuring attitudes that affect on-the-job
behavior, give me a call (800-886-4356) or send me an email
(khelm@helmtest.com.)
Let's summarize. Physical drug testing is used by companies and
industries that are required to do so, principally for safety reasons, as
well as by many other companies and industries that have a strong
interest in drug-free workplaces. But physical drug testing is only
one part of the picture. Attitudes toward substance abuse on the job
can be measured and certainly contribute to the likelihood that a
person, given no outside constraints, could abuse illegal drugs.
These attitudes are part of an entire range of attitudes that can affect
on the job behavior. Employers can use an understanding of these
attitudes to improve training programs, and communicate standards
and expectations for on-the-job behavior to new employees. In this
scenario, everyone wins.
