Presence of drug screening and employee assistance programs: Exclusive and inclusive human resource management practices

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Abstract
Drug screening and employee assistance programs (EAPs) are human resource management practices for addressing substance abuse among employees. The two practices reflect different human resource management strategies and lead to different outcomes for employees and applicants. Drug screening is designed to exclude drug users from the workplace whereas EAPs offer them ‘rehabilitation’. Characteristics of worksites and their surrounding labor market may influence the presence or absence of these personnel practices. The results suggest that, when controlling for number of employees, economic sector, industry, and union presence, worksites with low turnover and in areas with high unemployment rates are more likely to engage in pre‐employment drug screening, while worksites with low turnover more often provide an EAP.