We practice good management. We always say that people are our most important asset, and at Drexelbrook, we try to put that idea into practice.
We begin by trying to create a positive atmosphere. We want every employee to give us 100% every day. And we want each of them to make every decision with the best interests of the company at heart. By and large, we get that. But that kind of commitment doesn't come easily. We have to earn it.
One way we earn it is by treating our employees as adults. We trust them to do their jobs right and don't subject them to a lot of unnecessary rules. We trust our employees to know what working hours and style of dress are required for them to get their jobs done. Another way we earn that commitment is by respecting their rights. We scrupulously avoid prying into our employees' private lives. Finally, we care about them.
When they have problems at work or outside the workplace, we try to help. Sometimes we help by having our financial people arrange a personal loan at our bank. Sometimes we help by having our legal department straighten out a problem with an employee's landlord. Mostly we help just by listening and caring.
This approach to employee relations is not philanthropy -- it's good business. Our employees routinely go above and beyond the call of duty to help our customers. Our service manager, for example, installed a ship-to-shore radio in his sailboat at his own expense, so he could keep in touch with the company -- and any problems -- while he was on his vacation.
We are also very selective in our hiring. Even with applicants for entry-level jobs, we conduct at least two in-depth interviews with different interviewers. We check references -- thoroughly. And often not with the personnel department -- all they ever give us is name, rank, and serial number -- but with the candidate's previous supervisors. And we try to screen out the drug abusers. Not by anyone telling us directly, of course, but by learning about which applicants had chronic absenteeism, inconsistent quality, and bad work habits at their former jobs. And we find out with much more accuracy than we could with a hit-or-miss drug test.
After we hire people, we tell them what performance we expect from them -- and then pay attention to their results. Most of our supervisors have taken a 36-week, intensive management-training course to help them in this. If an employee's performance consistently falls short of our expectations, then the supervisor sits down with him or her and discusses the problem. When employees are open with supervisors -- as is often the case -- and the problem is drugs or alcohol, we help get them into a treatment program.
That's our program -- and it works. By doing good interviewing and reference checking, we almost never hire an employee with a drug or alcohol problem. We have had employees who developed such problems, but our supervisors noticed their declining job performance, confronted them, and got them into treatment.
Overall, I estimate the rate of abuse at our company to be only about 1%. We have installed more than a quarter of a million systems around the world, handling some of the most hazardous materials known, and have never been involved in an industrial accident.
Our experience is confirmed by a recent American Management Association survey of 1,000 companies that found the most effective program to fight workplace drug abuse combines employee education with trained supervisors who know how to identify and constructively confront employees who fail to meet performance standards.
The fact is, most companies don't to drug testing. And, according to the American Management Association study, a third of those who do think there is no value in it.
Why, then, is there so much talk about drug testing? The answer, I believe, lies largely in politics and the power of the media. Despite the fact that workplace drug abuse is far less prevalent than alcohol abuse -- which industry has survived, if not solved, for years -- the media have portrayed it as an epidemic that is sweeping the country and will destroy our economy unless immediate emergency measures are taken. In this emotional climate, is it any wonder that a manager who is already beleaguered, as we all are, can be convinced by a good salesperson who promises instant solutions with a simple, inexpensive test?
The truth, of course, is that managing people is never easy. Experienced managers for years have recognized that handling people is the most challenging part of their jobs, and that there are no shortcuts. And this, ultimately, is what drug testing is -- a seductive gimmick that prmises instant relief from the awesome responsibilities of management. The testing itself becomes a drug.
This is the choice managers face. They can fight workplace drug abuse with drug testing. It's easy, it's simple, and it's cheap. But it just doesn't work. Drug testing provides inaccurate and irrelevant information and alienates the vast majority of good employees, who resent being subjected to a strip search to keep their jobs. Or, they can fight substance abuse by choosing their people carefully, watching their performance, and getting involved when performance starts to slip. It's difficult, it's time-consuming, and it's expensive. But it does work. And not just in preventing workplace drug abuse, but in creating a safe and productive workplace.
