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Fifteen applicants at Cardinal Employment Services in Roseburg were drug tested prior to being placed at a production job last week.
Three of them tested positive for methamphetamine.
It’s a problem many local employers are facing on a daily basis — finding employees who can pass a drug test, and also remain sober while they’re on the clock. Finding both is the goal of a proposed new program that was discussed at Monday’s Roseburg Area Chamber of Commerce Noon Forum.
“They’re showing up under the influence more and more often,” said Dan Strasser, program director for ADAPT in Roseburg, about employees today.
ADAPT, Cardinal Employment Services and the chamber are working on a program that would certify potential employees as drug and alcohol free. The goal is make them clean and able to enter the work force, then place them in a job.
Strasser said the program will give confidence to employers doing the hiring.
The plan is for participants to stay off drugs and alcohol for 30 days.
Those people will be in support groups and go through education about abuse.
They would then earn a certificate stating their accomplishment.
After they are certified, ADAPT could continue working with them for three months to a year or “until they’ve completely gotten onto that road to recovery where they’re not using anymore,” Strasser said.
Employers could hire those who are certified through an employment agency on a temporary basis.
Though Cardinal Employment Services is involved with launching the program, Colleen Puryear, Cardinal branch manager in Roseburg,
said it will benefit all agencies.
Puryear said the problem of hiring drug-free applicants isn’t new, it’s just magnified because there are a lot of jobs currently available that can’t be filled.
Some companies aren’t requiring any kind of testing, Puryear said.
“They are so desperate, they are hiring just anybody,” she said.
The problem, then, she said, is that employee might not last a week.
“It’s getting uncontrollable,” Puryear said.
The idea for the new program came from the chamber’s Workforce Collaborative, a group of representatives from area businesses and organizations that came together to discuss improving work force conditions.
The new program is still in a research stage.
Strasser said a survey has been sent to chamber members, asking them questions about the proposed program. Organizers want to know if employers would support it by hiring a certified worker, even if that person had previously failed a drug test with the business.
Often service agencies wait for a disaster, Strasser said, and then work to meet the needs afterward. When dealing with businesses and drugs, a new approach is needed.
“It’s not really productive, the way business works” dealing with the problem, he said.
• You can reach reporter Paul Craig at 957-4211 or by e-mail at pcraig@newsreview.info.
Three of them tested positive for methamphetamine.
It’s a problem many local employers are facing on a daily basis — finding employees who can pass a drug test, and also remain sober while they’re on the clock. Finding both is the goal of a proposed new program that was discussed at Monday’s Roseburg Area Chamber of Commerce Noon Forum.
“They’re showing up under the influence more and more often,” said Dan Strasser, program director for ADAPT in Roseburg, about employees today.
ADAPT, Cardinal Employment Services and the chamber are working on a program that would certify potential employees as drug and alcohol free. The goal is make them clean and able to enter the work force, then place them in a job.
Strasser said the program will give confidence to employers doing the hiring.
The plan is for participants to stay off drugs and alcohol for 30 days.
Those people will be in support groups and go through education about abuse.
They would then earn a certificate stating their accomplishment.
After they are certified, ADAPT could continue working with them for three months to a year or “until they’ve completely gotten onto that road to recovery where they’re not using anymore,” Strasser said.
Employers could hire those who are certified through an employment agency on a temporary basis.
Though Cardinal Employment Services is involved with launching the program, Colleen Puryear, Cardinal branch manager in Roseburg,
said it will benefit all agencies.
Puryear said the problem of hiring drug-free applicants isn’t new, it’s just magnified because there are a lot of jobs currently available that can’t be filled.
Some companies aren’t requiring any kind of testing, Puryear said.
“They are so desperate, they are hiring just anybody,” she said.
The problem, then, she said, is that employee might not last a week.
“It’s getting uncontrollable,” Puryear said.
The idea for the new program came from the chamber’s Workforce Collaborative, a group of representatives from area businesses and organizations that came together to discuss improving work force conditions.
The new program is still in a research stage.
Strasser said a survey has been sent to chamber members, asking them questions about the proposed program. Organizers want to know if employers would support it by hiring a certified worker, even if that person had previously failed a drug test with the business.
Often service agencies wait for a disaster, Strasser said, and then work to meet the needs afterward. When dealing with businesses and drugs, a new approach is needed.
“It’s not really productive, the way business works” dealing with the problem, he said.
• You can reach reporter Paul Craig at 957-4211 or by e-mail at pcraig@newsreview.info.
