The Importance of On Site Alcohol Testing in the Workplace
24 March, 2022
Companies, no matter the industry, needs to maintain and provide adequate workplace safety. Workplace safety plays a vital role in workplace productivity and employee satisfaction. Moreover, the law requires companies to ensure that they have done everything they could to minimise workplace risks. A company’s main procedure to maintain workplace safety should be drug and alcohol tests. These tests can help deter alcohol and drug use before or during working hours. Companies need to prevent alcohol and drug usage within working hours because of their adverse effects. Alcohol and drug consumption can dull your senses, cause memory loss, affect coordination, cause slower reaction times. Furthermore, these specific impairments can drastically affect an employee’s ability to work effectively and safely. These impairments are the main reason companies perform on site alcohol testing and drug tests.
Plenty of industries and officials rely on drug and alcohol testing to adequately help maintain safety. Alcohol testing is done more frequently because of how easy it is to acquire alcohol. Furthermore, breath and urine testing are quick and easy to perform. Police officers and medical professionals heavily rely on breath tests. Breath tests can help law enforcers, and healthcare professionals maintain safer roads and provide medical prescriptions. Breath tests are also accurate enough to allow these professionals to perform their jobs effectively. An effective breath testing device for workplace testing is the BACtrack workplace breathalyser from Breathalysers New Zealand. A workplace breathalyser can also allow you to perform more constant on site alcohol testing.
Benefits of On Site Alcohol Testing
There are plenty of benefits for constantly performing on site alcohol testing. Firstly, employees would no longer need to take a day off to get tested. This can drastically help companies maintain productivity even during a scheduled alcohol test. The on site option can significantly benefit large companies with plenty of employees. Moreover, companies would no longer need to sacrifice a day’s worth of productivity to have their employees tested. Secondly, alcohol and drugs tests can help employees feel safer in the workplace. Employees that feel safe and comfortable in their workplaces are more likely to be satisfied with their job. Happy employees are more likely to stay in the company long-term and are more likely to provide better services. Having improved services can drastically help with improving customer satisfaction, which can enhance customer return rates. Lastly, experienced employees are more likely to stay when the workplace environment is safe.
Aside from employee and customer satisfaction, on site alcohol testing can also drastically help improve a company’s annual expenses. Furthermore, companies does not even need to spend money every time they perform alcohol tests. Companies can purchase a BACtrack workplace breathalyser from Breathalysers New Zealand to help cut costs when performing alcohol tests. Breath tests are quick, easy, and cost-effective. Constant alcohol testing can help cut annual costs reducing the likelihood of accidents. Furthermore, fewer accidents in the workplace can lead to less:
- Healthcare costs (for injured employees)
- Accident compensation costs
- Damaged machinery
- Damaged or faulty products
On site Alcohol Testing: Guidelines
Despite the need for companies to have drug and alcohol tests, employers must still follow the strict guidelines of providing alcohol tests. The law requires companies to abide by a workplace drug and alcohol policy. These policies can help protect an employee’s rights to be tested. Furthermore, companies must have a signed formal agreement between them and their employee regarding workplace policies. Having a formal agreement can allow companies to test their employees legally. When an employee signs the workplace policy, they also provide consent for employers to perform workplace testing. Furthermore, the formal agreement between an employee and employer can allow workplace tests to be valid in a court hearing. This can drastically help companies whenever an unsatisfied employee (due to positive test results and the actions taken) press charges. On site alcohol testing will always require employee consent.
Companies need to follow their guidelines when providing tests. This method ensures that the tests provided remain valid. Companies must also have a good reason for testing their employees. Companies can perform tests under these guidelines:
- Random testing: Tests that are unannounced and can be anytime.
- Blanket testing: Tests all the employees in the company.
- Pre-employment: Tests given to applicants before hiring them.
- Post-accident/incident testing: A test provided to check if alcohol or drugs were involved in a specific workplace accident.
- Post-positive testing: A test required for employees coming back to work after testing positive.
On site Alcohol Testing: Tests available
There are all sorts of alcohol and drug tests available. Testing services can provide all kinds of testing for employees. Companies can use blood, breath, urine, sweat, and saliva sampling when testing employees for drugs and alcohol. Despite being the most accurate, most companies do not prefer blood sampling. This is because this test is also the most costly and intensive amongst all the other tests available. The most common form of on site alcohol testing is urine and breath sampling. Urine and breath tests are both easy to perform and are highly reliable. Nowadays, companies can efficiently perform breath tests even without a certified professional present. Devices like the BACtrack workplace breathalyser from Breathalysers New Zealand allow for highly reliable and accurate workplace testing. Companies would no longer need to spend money every time they perform alcohol testing.
Breath Tests: Reliability
Breath tests are highly reliable and can replace almost any alcohol testing method. Nowadays, even law enforcement and medical professionals rely on breath tests. Breath tests with professional breathalysers allow law enforcers and healthcare professionals to maintain safer roads and provide appropriate medical prescriptions. Furthermore, since breath tests are easy and quick to perform, workplace breathalysers can allow companies to offer more frequent on site alcohol testing. The company would no longer need to wait on testing services to process the samples. Breathalysers can take in the breath sample and process it simultaneously. During a breathalyser test, all an employee needs to do is provide a firm blow into the device’s mouthpiece.
Why Use BACtrack workplace Breathalysers?
Companies should ensure that they are providing reliable and accurate tests. Companies must use devices that pass the New Zealand standards for testing devices. The BACtrack workplace breathalysers from Breathalysers NZ have FDA and DOT approval to be an effective testing device. These breathalysers also use fuel cell sensors, the same sensors you would find in a police officer’s breathalyser. Furthermore, fuel cell sensors are only sensitive to ethyl alcohol, making them less likely to produce false-positive results. Moreover, breath tests with a BACtrack breathalyser are quick and easy. These devices have one-button operations so that you can start your breath test with a push of a button. It only takes 10 to 15 seconds for a BACtrack device to process your BAC results. BACtrack devices make it easy for companies to provide on site alcohol testing.