NCJ Number
161678
Journal
Personnel Dated: (July 1990) Pages: 26-29
Date Published
1990
Length
4 pages
Annotation
The results of the American Management Association's (AMA) fourth annual employee drug testing survey unexpectedly revealed no significant increase in the number of companies testing for drugs in 1989 and indicated instead that far more companies engaged in other antidrug initiatives.
Abstract
The survey was mailed in December 1989 and received responses from 1,021 companies. Results revealed that 51.5 percent performed workplace drug testing, compared with 48 percent in 1988. That increase of 3.5 percent fell just outside the sample's 3.2 percent margin of error. However, more companies were involved in education and awareness programs for employees, in supervisory training to recognize behavior that might indicate a drug problem, and in employee assistance programs to counsel and treat drug abusers. Only 3.4 percent of the companies use random selection as a basis for drug testing. Thirteen companies test only at random; 7.3 percent of the 1,055 employees so tested at these companies had positive results. This figure was similar to the 8.1 percent positive test rate of all employees tested for any reason in 1989 and was not significantly below the 11.7 percent rate reported by 104 companies that test only for cause. Table, figure, and discussion of costs and HIV test results