A well-written policy will inform and educate your employees to make good choices and to comply with your company’s policy.
A
s the person tasked with developing or revising your company or department’s drug
and alcohol policy, you have an important job ahead of you. A well-writen policy can benefit your employees, your management team and your company. A well-written policy will inform
and educate your employees to make good choices and to comply with your company’s policy. Your management team needs to understand company policy in order to support and enforce it. Finally, your company policy is a written document demonstrating your company’s philosophy and commitment to a drug and alcohol free workplace. Before you start developing your
policy, be sure you identify all of the possible stakeholders who should be consulted or considered. Be sure you involve or consider: • Company Leadership • Human Resources • Legal • Communications Department • Organized Labor • Operational Management
18 datia focus
• Safety (or Health, Safety, Environmental) • Customers • City, State, Federal or International Laws • Industry Standards Underlying your policy is your company
or agency philosophy. Your company leadership will drive some policy maters but overall, most companies explicitly and publicly subscribe to a goal of an alcohol and drug free workplace.
To Rehabilitate Or Not To Rehabilitate Your company may take an approach of offering rehabilitation aſter a policy violation. On the other hand, the approach may be a strict “zero tolerance” policy of termination with no second chance at re-employment. Be sure that you understand your company’s approach and, in turn, that it is clearly explained in the policy for management and employees to understand. If your company offers rehabilitation, your management team needs to understand who will control the process from evaluation to return to duty requirements to any possible follow up testing or other requirements for the violator.
Whose Policy Is This Anyway? Your company may have employees under different jurisdictions; some may be defined by regulation as safety- sensitive employees (pilots, Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) drivers) and some not (office workers). Your company has a decision to make. Your company may choose to publish distinct policies for different employee groups, or you may choose to write a blended policy. If employees seldom move from one
jurisdiction to the other, separate policies may be a good choice. If, however, the workforce could easily move between a job function covered by, say, Department of Defense (DOD) to one covered by DOT, or from a non-covered position as oilfield worker to an oilfield worker who drives CMVs, you may choose to write a blended policy. A blended policy will be a bit
more complicated but will cover all employee groups. It is important to identify which pieces of the policy apply to the covered group and which portions apply to all employees.
Winter 2016
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