How do you identify an employee under the influence?

How do you identify an employee under the influence?

When an employee is under the influence of drugs or alcohol within the workplace, this creates a number of risks and puts not only themselves, but also their colleagues, your clients and visitors in danger.

This is why it is vital that you are able to identify an employee who is under the influence, so you can mitigate these risks and get them the help they may be in need of.

There are several signs and symptoms that can easily indicate that someone is under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol. These can be physical, behavioural or psychological signs:

• Physical signs can include shakes, tremors, eyes that are bloodshot or pupils that are larger than normal.
• Behavioral signs can include drop in attendance and performance at work and sudden changes in relationships with colleagues.
• Psychological signs can include an unexplained change in personality or attitude, sudden mood changes and/or lack of motivation.

These are just a handful of the signs that can indicate whether an employee is under the influence.

In order to understand everything to look for and how to handle a situation where you suspect an employee is under the influence, it is vital that your staff, especially at management level, have received training around this topic.

Training will help to maximise the effectiveness of being able to spot and respond to employees being under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol. It provides managers and other members of staff with the knowledge of the options available to them should they need to take action, including support avenues to help the individual effectively.

Eurofins Workplace Drug Testing can offer training to help you and your staff pick up on the indications that someone is under the influence, as well as the signs of an employee who is regularly misusing alcohol and substances.