There are powerful reasons for doing so, and they are all a win-win for employees and employers.
There is no government mandate for most industries to do employee awareness training in substance abuse (railroads have had such a mandate since 1986.) but I want to give you several reasons why you should consider it no matter what industry your associated with.
Employees deserve it. There is a terrible opioid crisis going on right now, alcoholism is never going away, pot use is increasing, and employees and their families are terribly affected by these problems.
You may not hear about the brother of your lead supervisor who is addicted to heroin or the sister of your secretary who moved into a homeless shelter last month, but these issues are pervasive in every company.
Employees may see TV commercials, or even hear the President of the United States talk about drug problems, but they aren't getting education about these issues from any source at home or in the community. Workplace wellness programming that you can easily provide is really the only way they can get it.
They can't get it anywhere. Employees aren't getting information about substance and prevention from TV shows or newspapers. They aren't learning about alcohol abuse, dealing with teens, stimulants, opioids, depressants, marijuana dangers, enabling, getting help, helping someone who doesn't want help, self-diagnosis, dispelling myths, and many more topics. (We cover all these things in our training program for employee drug and alcohol awareness.)
Employees have drug problems. Right now, there are employees on your payroll with drug and alcohol addiction problems. Most are in early or middle stage addiction. Very late stage addiction is obvious, and you may have seen these problems in the past. More problems are coming. It is only a matter of time.
Problems on staff. Statistically, about 5-7% of employees have drug and/or alcohol problems. But about 12-17% of your employees have family members at home or dependents with substance abuse problems....read the rest of this post on my blog at WorkExcel.com
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