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Buy follicle test from your drug testing business and get highly accurate results

Experts claim that you should buy hair follicle drug tests from a drug testing business if you plan on gathering specimens on your own. First, it is difficult to cover up positive results with drugs or herbs, a practice becoming all too frequent. Secondly, the turnaround time for results is typically only one to two days. Additionally, they can test any drug activity in the 90 days before the test is performed.

I recommend: Medimpex sells hair follicle tests in bulk for company-wide testing. Home Health Testing also offers hair follicle drug testing delivered to your business via Federal Express.

Look for saliva drug tests as an alternative

Lab experts are using saliva to not only test for drugs, but also to conduct DNA testing to determine paternity. The testing can be uncomfortable but usually not painful. And, it can be as accurate as hair follicle testing as long as the specimen is taken with care. Another advantage of saliva testing, unlike that of urine tests, is that it does not have to be conducted behind closed doors.

I recommend: Personalized Lab Services sells saliva tests with easy-to-read results as well as instructional videos. Rapid Detect sells saliva screens in boxes of 24 or more. Vitrodiagnostic.com sells saliva tests in bulk that test for up to six different drugs.

Get standard employment drug tests online to test urine

Urine tests are the employee drug test basics, the standard in employment drug screens. The drug and alcohol test is minimally invasive, unlike saliva and hair follicle testing, and is capable of detecting more than ten substances at a time. Pre- employment drug testing with urine specimens can be conducted with droplet cards or with larger amounts of urine submitted in cups. Either way, you'll want to be sure your employees are submitting their own specimens and not those of someone else.

I recommend: Xlar.com sells urine drug testing kits in cup form. Arham International features urine collection cards for employee drug testing.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Want to know if the drug screenings tests hold up in court? Often employers rely on drug screening to prove that a firing was justified. Check with your local enforcement agency to see which types of drug screenings are court-approved.

Guide to Employee Drug Testing

How to do it right to comply with laws and keep your business safe

By Sheila Callahan, Freelance Journalist

It comes down to three things:

1. Decide on the best type of program for your business.
2. Determine who will administer it.
3. Know the limitations of drug testing.

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Drug test results are only as good as the tests administered

It's important to conduct tests that yield reliable results. Use a laboratory with a track record for accuracy.

I recommend: WolfeData.com provides kits and a listing of 7,000 collection sites nationwide.

Offsite testing establishes a healthy boundary

It helps to put some distance between what employees see as an uncomfortable test and the workplace.

I recommend: Disa.com, a leading provider of full-service employee screening services, administers drug and alcohol testing policies for U.S. Department of Transportation among others.

Institute policies and procedures

Develop a company policy that outlines drug-testing procedures

I recommend: HRPolicyAnswers.com can help you set up an employee drug-testing policy. Drugsaware.com provides software to help manage your drug-testing process.

Get compliant

Federal regulations, contract or insurance requirements count as some of the reasons why employers conduct drug tests.

I recommend: Expomed.com outlines some of the reasons.

Consider costs

Generally the employer pays, although occasionally the employee pays and receives reimbursement when the test results prove negative. Some employers have dropped drug-testing programs due to high overall costs.

I recommend: Drugwarfacts.org cites recent trends and costs in employee drug testing.

Weed out drug users before hiring

Pre-employment drug testing will eliminate candidates unfit due to substance abuse.

I recommend: Preemploymentdrugtests.com has developed technology to analyze hair to test for drug abuse, a test considered much less invasive than others.

Know what to look for

There are generally five categories of substances for which people are commonly tested .

I recommend: Drugdetection.net gives you more information on these substances. Uritoxmedicaltesting.com provides an easy-to-read table that shows the types of commonly abused drugs, the timetable for their detection and the urine tests used to pinpoint them.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  A drug-testing program can deter your employees from coming to work unfit for duty.
• •  Having a policy in place discourages drug abusers from applying to your organization in the first place.

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Get employee drug tests news and trends from professionals in the industry

Following key drug testing legislation is easy on the Web. There are plenty of organizations that archive the latest in employee drug testing trends and legal issues and make them available to you via company websites. Many of these sites address local as well as global concerns.

I recommend: WPA offers employee drug testing news from several industries and areas. The Office of National Drug Control Policy features a news site addressing employee drug testing concerns, or sign up for the ONDCP podcast RSS feed for real-time updates on national drug policy news. The National Institute of Corrections lists articles by topic including articles on employee drug testing.

Check out state-specific pre-employment drug testing laws

Before you implement any drug testing program or hire a professional drug testing business, make sure you do it in a way that protects your business from legal action. The last thing you want is to make decisions based on a positive drug test without making sure that decision will hold up in court. Government sources usually have the most up-to-date information posted on their websites.

I recommend: The U.S. Department of Labor offers a state-by-state breakdown of drug and alcohol test laws. Institute for a Drug-Free Workplace offers legal, legislative and regulatory updates surrounding employment drug tests.

Put pre-employment drug testing blogs and forums on your reading list

Employee drug testing is surely one of the most controversial topics confronting employers today. On one hand, there are groups who feel that some forms of employee drug testing can violate basic human rights. On the other hand, employers feel they should be able to test employees to ensure the safety of not only their business practices but their staff as a whole. Seek help from expert blogs and forums posting thoughts from each side.

I recommend: The Labor and Employment Law Blog discusses applicant drug tests versus employment drug screens. Employment Background Investigations offers a blog featuring the pros and cons of drug employment testing in light of recent global employment news.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  One advantage of letting a professional drug testing business handle testing your staff is that they often have referrals counseling services on hand should one of your employees test positive. Local drug screening companies are also a great resource for the latest employee drug tests news and trends in your state.

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Random drug testing

From trucking to medical fields, random drug testing is a common strategy of large employers that want to truly discover drug users on the payroll.

I recommend: See details on a random drug testing program from the U.S. Dept. of Transportation at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration site. The U.S. DOT Best Practices for DOT Random Drug and Alcohol Testing page has additional information.

Hair follicle testing

The hair follicle is a part of a strand of human hair that holds residual amounts of substances from the body. Hair follicle testing has its own pros and cons, and is often used as part of a holistic drug testing program.

I recommend: Learn about hair follicle drug testing at Hair Confirm.

Saliva drug testing

Another option is to test for drugs using saliva. One main advantage of saliva testing is that, unlike testing through urine, it can be done in full view of testing staff.

I recommend: See saliva drug testing explained at this Health Blog.

Drug detection periods

Drug detection periods refer to the amount of time that various drugs generally stay in the body after use. Testers and others take advantage of scientific research to conduct drug testing.

I recommend: See details on drug detection times at CraigMedical.

Screening and confirmatory urine tests

These kinds of urinalysis tests represent a very common method within the drug testing industry. Screening tests look for a 'parent drug' while confirmatory tests use chemical processes to confirm a drug in the system.

I recommend: See more on screening and confirmatory urine drug testing at the End of Life and Palliative Research Center. Medline Plus offers more information on a urine drug screening.

Toxicological screening

Toxicological screening refers to the general kind of drug tests that are used to check for drug elements in a bodily system.

I recommend: See more on toxicological testing and how it is often used at Advameg.