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         Running          head: PRE-EMPLOYMENT DRUG TESTING: REDUCING TURNOVER OR VIOLATING          RIGHTS?                    1

Pre-Employment Drug Testing: Reducing Turnover or Violating Rights?

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Pre-Employment Drug Testing: Reducing Turnover or Violating Rights?

With an increasing frequency of the use of recreational drugs in many countries, the need to maintain a safe workplace environment has been a major concern for many employers. Moreover, many employers seek to have a litigious environment for their business while at the same time maintains an efficient and productive workforce. Since recreational drug use is a major risk to the safety of workplace environment as well as a major cause of reduced workforce performance, one of the most used strategies to reduce these risks is pre-employment testing for recreational drugs. According to Woods, Johanson, and Sciarini (2012), in the United States alone, pre-employment drug testing costs companies billions of dollars per year and the cost is still rising. While the practice has helped companies to retain a safety workplace and a productive workforce, it has equally been a subject of debate, especially because it is considered an unethical and illegal action as it violates the potential employees' privacy rights (Olbina, Hinze, & Arduengo, 2011). Arguably, pre-employment is ethical but only when done on potential employees already granted job offers and not before the interview process.
Ethically and morally, pre-employment testing is wrong as it exposes the confidential information about a person and can lead to stigma. Indeed, it violates a person's fundamental right to privacy, especially when recording is not relevant to the specific job (DesJardins & Duska, 2011). In addition, only the company benefits and not the employees who are turned away if found with traces of drug use. Thus, this practice is not morally and ethically good if there are other alternatives.
Legally, pre-employment drug testing violates the human rights as indicated under General Assembly of the United Nations, 1948. But it is legal if done in the public sector for special need jobs such as safety-sensitive and high risk jobs. Moreover, it should be considered legal for those candidates who have been hired after an interview process, otherwise it is illegal for companies to profile potential employees based on the test outcomes (Levine & Rennie, 2004).
Proponents of pre-employment drug testing argue that the practice improves job performance and prevents employee turnover. While this is economically true and beneficial, it should also be noted that there are no evidence-based studies that show any significant differences between employee turnover and performance amongst workplaces with and without pre-employment drug testing (Cook, 2009). Therefore, the practice does not necessarily reduce turnover or benefit the company.
Based on these findings, it is important for companies to avoid violation of employee rights and act unethically, but at the same time, they should reduce turnover and increase performance. To achieve a balance between these aspects, companies should only test for drugs on those who have already been hired and not before interviews (Verstraete & Verstraete, 2011). In addition, those found to have had some history of drug use should be subjected to effective rehabilitation meant for the employees.

References

Cook, M. (2009). Personnel selection: Adding value through people. Hoboke, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Limited.
DesJardins, J., & Duska, R. (2001). Drug testing in employment. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
General Assembly of the United Nations. (1948). Universal declaration of human rights. Retrieved November 11, 2017, from http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
Kitterlin, M., & Erdem, M. (2009). A qualitative assessment of employee attitudes towards pre-employment drug-testing in the full-service restaurant industry. Consortium Journal of Hospitality & Tourism, 14(1).
Levine, M. R., & Rennie, W. P. (2004). Pre-employment urine drug testing of hospital employees: future questions and review of current literature. Occupational and environmental medicine, 61(4), 318-324.
Olbina, S., Hinze, J., & Arduengo, C. (2011). Drug testing practices in the US construction industry in 2008. Construction Management & Economics, 29(10), 1043-1057.
Verstraete, A., & Verstraete, A. G. (2011). Workplace drug testing. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
Woods, R., Johanson, M., & Sciarini, M. (2012). Managing hospitality human resources. Lansing, MI: American Hotel & Lodging Institute.