Certain safety-sensitive positions require employers to have a designed SAP, like those that are under Department of Transportation regulation. However, it is considered best practice for all employers to have their own designated Substance Abuse Professional, especially if they desire to maintain a drug-free workplace.

SAPs are responsible for evaluating employees who have violated a drug or alcohol regulation and making recommendations concerning education, treatment, follow-up testing, and aftercare. These professionals can help your employees overcome these addictions and keep your work environment safe.

Who can be an SAP?

According to DOT regulations, a qualified SAP should have a basic knowledge of the following areas:

-The diagnosis and treatment of alcohol and controlled substance-related disorders with some clinical experience
-The SAP role and function in relation to employer interests and safety-sensitive duties
-DOT agency regulations and DOT SAP guidelines

An SAP must also have at least one of the following qualifications: a licensed physician, a licensed or certified social worker, a licensed or certified psychologist, a licensed or certified Employee Assistance Professional, a state-licensed or certified marriage and family therapist, or be drug and alcohol certified by the NAADAC, ICRC, or NBCC.

What will our SAP do?

If an accident, report, or cause for reasonable suspicion comes to a supervisor’s attention, that individual should be tested as soon as possible for drugs and/or alcohol. (If you have questions about how to set up reasonable suspicion or post-accident testing, let us know!) If the employee in question has tested positive, the SAP must have two face-to-face evaluations with the individual (according to DOT regulations).

The first initial evaluation is for the SAP to determine the depth of the problem and what assistance or steps will be required to help the employee. The SAP will then send a letter/email to the employer with the employee’s details along with their recommendations for treatment/education.

After the education or treatment has been approved and the employee has completed all of the recommendations made by the SAP, the SAP will conduct a follow-up evaluation. After the follow-up, the SAP can help recommend follow-up testing requirements for the employer to have the employee in question complete. These requirements can often include:

-A minimum of 6 drug or alcohol test in the first 12 months (continuing for up to 5 years)
-No advance notice of testing dates
-Testing to be done under direct observation
-Inability to substitute other tests in lieu of follow-up testing
-Cancelled follow-up tests must be recollected

A qualified and compliant SAP can help keep your workplace environment safe and protect you as an employer, even if you are not a DOT regulated company.

If you need help understanding how to begin drug testing or other services that could potentially benefit your drug testing program, please reach out to our drug testing department. We’re always happy to help!

The post What Exactly Is A Substance Abuse Professional? appeared first on Blueline.

We thought that these statistics might be useful to consider as you strive to make or update your own workplace drug policies.

This NSC survey was taken by over 500 individuals that make decisions about workplace drug and alcohol programs for their companies. While 86% of the respondents agreed that opioids (even while taken as prescribed) impact job performance, only half (50%) of respondents felt confident about their company’s substance abuse policies and procedures.

Some other interesting statistics from the survey included:

-75% of employers have been directly affected by opioid use
-79% of employers are not very confident that individual employees can spot warning signs of opioid misuse
-One-third of employers have experienced an overdose, arrest, or injury/near-miss
-38% of employers have experienced absenteeism or impaired worker performance
–Despite widespread impact, only 17% of employers feel extremely well prepared to deal with this issue

Nick Smith, interim president and CEO of NSC said, “The opioid crisis is truly encompassing nearly every aspect of American lives. Today’s survey confirms that the No. 1 cause of preventable death is not just taking its toll on our home lives but companies across the country are also grappling with the impact of this epidemic.”

If you have questions about reasonable suspicion training or how you can help get your supervisors trained to handle drug and alcohol abuse within the workplace, please contact us! We’ll help you get it figured out. All Blueline Service clients have access to our FREE reasonable suspicion training materials.

You can contact our drug testing department at mail@blueline-services.com. Please feel free to take a look at NSC’s drug use guide as well here.

The post Employers Speak Up About Illicit Opioid Use At Work appeared first on Blueline.

Although it seems that this employee probably didn’t mean any harm and was just goofing off… it certainly has caused some backlash for Wendy’s and cost this young man his job. Mixed reviews have been popping up all over social media about the viral video of a Milton Florida Wendy’s employee bathing in their restaurant sink. A few of the responses have even gotten a bit frosty.

The 90-second video was originally posted to Snapchat last month, then later reposted to Facebook with the comment, “I don’t suggest anyone eating at the Milton Wendy’s again.” The video currently has over 1 million views.

In the video, you can see a young man hopping into the large kitchen sink that is filled with soap and water. His fellow co-workers stand around laughing and filming the scene.

Mike Johnson, who owns this Wendy’s franchise, gave a statement to Pensacola News Journal, “We are taking this incident seriously and it is obviously totally unacceptable. This was a prank by a person who no longer works at this restaurant, and who clearly did not use good judgement. We are taking this opportunity to reinforce our very strict quality procedures with our restaurant team.”

This prank follows a similar video that was posted in 2008 on MySpace of a Burger King employee in Ohio doing the exact same stunt.

Both inspectors from the Department of Business and Professional Regulation visited this Wendy’s location after the incident. The Wendy’s restaurant was able to pass the inspection.

Social media users have been born between being outraged and defending the young man in the video.

“At least he had a pair of shorts on and it is a kitchen skin. I washed my babies in my kitchen skin. I don’t eat out of the sink. So what is the problem,” one Facebook user commented in defense of the incident.

Another more frosty comment stated, “This makes you wonder what else is going on at that restaurant, someone needs to get fired, the sink needs to be sanitized!”

The post Wendy’s Employee Takes A Bath In Restaurant’s Sink appeared first on Blueline.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is a federal law that was enacted in 1970 to help consumers deal with inaccuracies in their credit reports. In 1996, the law was expanded to include other reports including background reports for employment screening purposes. Today, FCRA compliance is mandatory for any employer using a third party to conduct background checks.

Among it provisions, the FCRA includes the following to protect consumers:

-Consumers have the right to be informed and provide consent when an employment background check is going to be performed
-Consumers have the right to review any information complied on them from these checks and correct any inaccuracies that it may contain
-Consumers have the right to know when their personal data is used in decisions that will affect them
-Consumers have the right to appeal those decisions if they feel that they were made unfairly

As an employer, when you are choosing a background check provider you need to ensure that your provider is a certified FCRA-compliant Credit Reporting Agency (CRA). Aside from choosing a quality, certified CRA, employers also play a critical role within several steps of the background check process.

Your FCRA responsibilities as an employer include:

–FCRA-permitted purpose: The Fair Credit Reporting Act states that employers are only allowed to conduct background checks on employees or potential hires with the purpose of determining fitness for a position. This includes routine background checks to ensure that new charges or findings have not occurred for current employees or employees that are being considered for a promotion or new role within the company.
(Make sure that your purposes for running a background check fall within these guidelines. You should not run a background check on employees for personal reasons or reasons that fall outside of determining fitness for employment.)

-Disclosure & Consent: In order for a background check to be legal, the employer must provide all candidates (including current employees) with a written disclosure of their plans to conduct the background check. This disclosure must be presented on its own—not handed over in an orientation packet or with a collection of other papers. For employers wishing to run a background check on a potential job candidate under review, they must also obtain a signed consent form from the candidate before instructing a CRA to conduct a background check.
(Please ensure that your screening candidate is aware that a background check will be performed on them in order to avoid any liability issues.)

-Share results with the candidate: Upon completion of a background check and before making a final hiring decision, employers must inform candidates of their rights under the FCRA and offer them to opportunity to review (and dispute if necessary) any information within their report. (We always include this information in our authorization forms and offer to send a consumer copy electronically if requested.)

-Consider Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rules to findings review: Under the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), employers are banned from excluding potential hires based purely on past arrests or criminal records (unless directed otherwise by state or federal regulations) if the offense is not relevant to an applicants ability to perform their job. Employers should also remember to pay heed to various states “ban the box” regulations which can forbid them from asking about criminal records until after serious hiring consideration.
(Be sure to take each applicant on a case-by-case basis. Consider what the job requirements are, their personal character, if they have completed any rehabilitation programs, or if they have performed well in similar roles before.)

-Follow proper 2-step adverse-action procedures: If a background check does contribute to a decision against hiring, retaining, or promoting a candidate, an employer must issue the candidate written notice. This notice is knows as a pre-adverse action notification and gives the candidate a chance to refute or explain any findings before a hiring decision is final.
(Blueline Services is happy to provide guidance on this process. Our state of the art platform will also help create pre-adverse notifications for you to help streamline your process.)

-Finalize the hire: Once background checks have been conducted, any disputed facts have been corrected as needed, and candidates have been notified of any adverse actions (and given the chance to respond), an employer can then make the final hiring decision and notify all candidates of their final decision.

Here at Blueline Services we always work to stay up-to-date on all of the latest industry changes and updates to keep our clients on top of things. If you have any questions on how to stay FCRA compliant, please feel free to reach out to 888-919-8378 or backgrounds@blueline-services.com.

The post What Does It Mean To Be FCRA Compliant? appeared first on Blueline.

Let us help make it easier with a few simple steps.

First of all, figure out what is going wrong with your current relationship.

What is going well and what isn’t? Because background checks do play such a vital role in your business’s success, your background screening provider becomes crucial as well.

There can be many different reasons for wanting to “break up” with your current provider:

• They aren’t legally compliant. Working with an FCRA-compliant background screening provider is so important to save yourself a lot of time, money and headaches.
• You just want different things. You have different needs.
• Their customer service was dismal. This may be much more important than you think. New employees are going to work with your employment screener often long before they really get to know your company. You want that provider to give a good overall impression of your company.
• Difficult to use their services. HR reps are busy and if your providers services aren’t simple and straightforward it could create a serious slowdown in your hiring process.
• Unreliable service. Worrying about your screening provider’s reliability is the last thing you need. You need accurate and detailed results fast.

Step two: Find the right background screening provider for you.

Well you’ve figured out what you don’t want in a background check, so now it’s time to figure out what you do want.

To make things as easy and efficient as possible for you and your HR team you’ll want to make sure that you get a provider that can provide the best solutions for your company as quickly, accurately and in-depth as possible.

Our National Plus Search here at Blueline Services is largely favored by many of our customers because it is the most powerful and comprehensive multi-jurisdictional search available. It is virtually instant, provides you with millions of accessible records, and is very cost effective. All necessary qualities to save you and your HR team from a serious headache.

Step three: Break up with your current provider.

As with any break up, it is important to try to execute the break up as cordially as possible while still being clear about your intentions and making sure there aren’t any questions or loose ends left.

• Your termination terms should be clearly defined in the contract. Read over your vendor contract. They should provide a clear process for termination including advance notice requirements, penalties, and managing data transfer. If not, contact your provider to clearly understand all of these terms.
• Invite your legal department into the process to make sure that everything runs as smoothly as possible and protect both parties. Your legal department should read and reform any legal documents beginning for your new background screening provider and help with the old provider termination process.
• Set up a clear timeline with both parties. Clearly plan out when data and information will be transferred to the new background screening provider from your current provider to insure easy integration. Make sure both parties understand and consent to this timeline.

Step four: Transition into working with your new provider.

• Promote the new provider. Make sure your HR team helps support the integration of the new background screening provider internally. Helping employees understand the benefits of the new provider will ease the transition.
• Talk to your new provider. You should have clearly laid out your expectations as well as researched your new provider in earlier steps. But speaking with someone on your new team can help make sure that everything flows as smoothly as possible.

We understand the importance of having a truly reliable, efficient and accessible screening provider. And we want to help make your life as easy as possible. Breaking up with your screening provider may be just the thing to do if you’re not getting what you need.

Give us a call at 888-919-8378 to learn more.

The post Why breaking up with your screening provider may be the thing to do appeared first on Blueline.