Drug testing
The British Retail Consortium web site reports that shrinkage is equivalent to 24.1% of retail profit. Some 16% is due to administrative error, while that due to theft by employees varied from 20% for small retailers to 36% for large multiples. While much of the remainder of crime against retailers can be directly linked to drug and alcohol dependency – society’s problem - retailers are very aware that they need to be sure that the same dependency problems are not contributing to their internal causes of shrinkage. Pre-employment testing for drugs sends out a clear message about the standards of the organisation while random testing has the same deterrent effect as random searching. Employee Assistance Programmes are very much part of the prevention of problems, as well as providing a route to help for those who need it. Medscreen can also help with policy advice and drug education sessions.
