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September 29, 2022

3 Reasons It’s Time to Think About On-Site Oral Drug Screening

With over 90% of employers screening for drug use and abuse, staying on top of trends is imperative. The best way to handle processes last year may not be the best way to conduct them today.

Since drug screening is an integral part of an employer’s background screening process (as well as part of monitoring current employees) understanding your options is essential. After all, you want to ensure your drug screening program is protecting your company and helping you hire the best candidates, but without spending more than you need to.

The most popular way to screen for drug use is still lab-based urine testing. However, oral, or saliva, testing is gaining steam for good reasons. If you’re looking for ways to streamline your drug screening policy without hindering its effectiveness, here are 3 reasons it’s time for you to consider on-site oral drug testing.

1. You Can Hire Faster

Top talent gets scarfed up quickly. Keeping your recruiting process competitive hinges on your company’s ability to make decisions and offers quickly. If you spend days waiting around for a drug test to return, another company could swoop in and hire the candidate out from under you. Missing your chance to fill open roles can cause many negative, costly issues within your company.

With on-site oral testing, you can get an answer about a candidate’s drug use within minutes instead of days. A clear screening result allows you to move forward with the hiring process more quickly than when you send your candidates to a lab for urine testing. Around 9 out of 10 drug tests come back negative (according to Quest Diagnostics), so oral testing will often let you progress with your top candidates once you rule out drug abuse.

2. It’s Cost-Effective

Inflation is driving up the prices of almost everything, including your background screening costs. Lab-based testing continues to be one of the most expensive forms of drug screening.

While some industries (such as DOT) are heavily regulated and require employees to submit to lab-based urine tests, many industries aren’t governed by those requirements. For these organizations, instant oral testing is a valuable option to keep costs down.

Your company can use oral drug tests to keep your hiring costs in line and avoid hits to your budget caused by inflation. The more candidates you screen, the more you will save.

3. Easier to Administer

Requiring a job applicant to make an appointment, travel to a lab, and submit to urine testing is cumbersome. The lab may be miles away from the candidate residence, causing a significant inconvenience.

Instant oral testing eliminates this issue. Some companies seamlessly administer the test during the job interview. A company needs to designate which employee will give and read the test and when the testing will be administered. The candidate must agree to take the test. Discuss the test, getting consent, giving it, and reviewing the results will only take several minutes.

Other Advantages of Using Instant Oral Drug Testing to Screen Candidates

In addition to returning results faster, being more cost-effective, and easier to administer than its lab-based urine testing counterpart, there are other positive aspects of using instant oral testing in your drug screening process.

Detects recent use. Oral tests pick up drug use as recent as one hour before, whereas urine testing doesn’t. This insight gives employees a better chance of identifying recent drug users.

Tamper-resistant. Oral tests are administered in front of the administrator and can be given in a public place. This oversight minimizes the chances of the candidate tampering with the specimen.

No “ick” factor. While sharing a urine specimen isn’t the end of the world, there are many more enjoyable ways to spend one’s time. Instant oral tests aren’t as invasive and awkward as their urine testing counterparts.

The hot hiring market and rising inflation are driving employers to figure out ways to speed up their hiring time while simultaneously cutting costs. Instant oral tests are perfect tools to decrease a candidate’s background screening time while still gathering the needed information to reach a good hiring decision.

Want to know more about how Data Facts can assist you with building and maintaining a compliant, effective drug screening process? Contact us today for more information.

Tammy Henry

Tammy Henry is the Vice President of Client Success for Data Facts.

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