The way your organization deals with workplace substance abuse can quickly spread among your industry and derail or disrupt your recruitment and marketing efforts. If there’s one thing employees can be counted on to do, it’s talking to other employees and other professionals in their industries.

It’s only a matter of time before patience and understanding among the rest of your staff grows thinner and completely erodes for good. Employees with SUD are three times as likely to take sick days and are far less productive. Behind these numbers are scores of affected and beleaguered workers who are forced to deal with the fallout of substance use in their ranks.

Data from the CDC published in The American Journal of Preventative Medicine indicates that an estimated $74 billion is lost every year in reduced work productivity due to excessive alcohol consumption from absences, reduced output, premature retirement or death, or reduced earning potential. Drug and alcohol use leads to markedly increased rates of absenteeism, leaving your other employees to have to absorb the duties of their afflicted co-worker. If drug and alcohol use in the workplace doesn’t kill, maim or injure your staff, it can completely demoralize them and cripple their enthusiasm for their jobs. Alcohol and marijuana remain among the most common substances associated with serious workplace injury. In addition to drug abuse causing employees to pay the ultimate price on the job, it also puts your other employees at risk for the same fate or other types of serious injury. This was the fifth consecutive year in which unintentional workplace overdose deaths increased by at least 25 percent. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published by the RAND Corporation’s Center for Health and Safety in the Workplace indicates that almost half of all fatal occupational injuries are transportation incidents, and the remainder are generally grouped into being struck by an object, falling to a lower level, or being the victim of a homicide substance use disorder is a major factor in many of these incidents.ĭata from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics reveals that there were 5,147 fatal workplace injuries in the United States in 2017 while Occupational Health and Safety reports that unintentional overdoses due to non-medical use of drugs or alcohol while at work increased 25 percent from the previous year. It’s no secret that some jobs and industries are more dangerous than others, and these decidedly more dangerous vocations are not at all immune to drug and alcohol issues among personnel. There are numerous ways in which substance use disorder can impact your place of business. As time goes on, however, and it becomes clear that addiction is affecting your ranks, the damage may already be done and getting worse each day. There is no crystal ball that can tell you that the pressures of the job, their relationships or any other aspect of their lives will drive them to drinking or drugs. The reality is that there are many ways to get around drug screenings, and it’s also common for candidates to stay clean just enough to avoid detection. You’re not expecting them to develop or to be nursing a substance abuse issue, as they enter your ranks. When you’re interviewing, hiring and onboarding new employees, you’re undoubtedly focused on their skill sets, their experience, and their energy, and how those assets translate to the furtherance of your organization’s goals and bottom line.

Recovery unplugged jobs