Research highlights workplace impact of alcohol and drug abuse

A recent survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development indicates that a significant minority of UK employers consider alcohol and drug misuse to be a key cause of absenteeism and lower productivity among workers. However, even among organisations with policies on these issues, a significant proportion place little emphasis on communicating these policies effectively or on training key staff to ensure that they are properly implemented.

A recent report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), published in September 2007, examines drug and alcohol misuse and management practices in UK workplaces. The analysis is based on survey responses from 505 UK-based human resources (HR) professionals in organisations employing a total of over 1.1 million people. The overall response rate was just over 5%, with 274 responses to a paper-based survey and 229 responses to an online questionnaire.

Survey findings

Disciplinary action

Two fifths of employers consider alcohol misuse to be a significant cause of absenteeism and lower productivity, while a third believe that drug misuse has similarly negative effects. The seriousness of the problem is reflected by the following findings in relation to the last two years:

• almost a third (31%) of employers have dismissed employees as a result of alcohol misuse and 15% have dismissed employees as a result of drug misuse;

• half of employers surveyed have disciplined employees in relation to alcohol misuse at work and a quarter have disciplined individuals for drug misuse.

Policies and procedures

The survey also reveals that:

• the most common approach used by employers for managing alcohol or drug-related problems is the use of disciplinary procedures (62%);

• six out of 10 health and safety policies refer to alcohol and/or drug problems in the workplace;

• 59% of organisations have rules in place about the possession of drugs and alcohol on the work premises, while a similar proportion has a combined policy for drug and alcohol problems and rules about alcohol consumption during work time;

Despite these efforts, only 33% of employers train managers as part of attempts to communicate policies on drug and alcohol misuse at work, while just 22% train employees generally in the organisation’s policies, procedures and approach to tackling these issues.

A higher percentage of manufacturing and production organisations (70%) and private services organisations (64%) are more likely than non-profit (56%) and public services (57%) employers to have a range of policies and procedures on drug and alcohol problems at work. Organisation size is also relevant in this case. Less than half of all organisations with up to 50 employees have a health and safety policy in place that refers to drug and alcohol problems, compared with a survey average of 60%.

The table below shows that the most common organisational support to help prevent employees from developing drug and alcohol problems includes: access to occupational health services (58%), flexible working time (46%), counselling services (45%) and assistance programmes (40%). These measures are more common in non-profit and public services organisations. Although, overall, less emphasis is placed on stress risk assessments (25%), management training (24%) and improving management practices (22%), non-profit and public services organisations provide more support in relation to these aspects of working life than manufacturing and services and private organisations.