Case Study 2

A hair test is also an integrity test
A Government agency has an extensive graduate recruitment programme where the successful candidates are quickly able to access quite sensitive information during their training and probation. "We use the hair test partly as an integrity test - in this day and age we are not expecting our graduate intake to be drug virgins, indeed far from it. But not surprisingly we'd like our future employees to be honest and up front with us. A hair test that can go back in time for 3 months or more helps very much to validate people's own accounts of drug use. It has been very useful for this - we believe we've achieved a far higher level of openness about drug use than we would ever have done with just a '3 day' urine test. Secondly it helps to reduce the risk significantly of bringing into our employment someone with a serious drug issue - that would definitely be crossing the line for us. Having the test also allows us the opportunity to explain our policy about drugs and alcohol and raises the awareness of the issues and risks we see associated with drug misuse."