The Employment Pool Increases, As Does Drug Use

The pandemic has forced unemployment on much of America and this leaves many holes in the employment market. There is a greater need for workers and a greater pool of applicants. The applicants can be chosen from a variety of criteria, and drug testing, and background checks add another layer of protection for prospecting employers.

Help Needed in Healthcare

With a greater need of employment applicants in health and human services, especially considering the state of the pandemic in America, proper screening is crucial to provide safe and reliable candidates for the positions available. When lives hang in the balance within the hours a worker is clocked in, trust and reliability is key to provide the care that is needed throughout this strange time in history.

Don’t Just Fill a Chair

There will be the temptation in employment to simply staff a workforce to fulfill the needs of the company or work, but productivity and results reflect the workers you hire.

If the trend of the pandemic continues to change the way we work, much of the workforce will be working from home or virtually. Working from home comes with benefits and shortcomings, and from an employers’ standpoint, trust is an important aspect of the relationship with their employees.

Productivity at Home

In many ways hiring employees to work remotely has one large benefit—productivity has increased significantly for most workforces that work remotely. According to a large study conducted on remote workers, “remote employees work 1.4 more days per month than their office-based counterparts, resulting in more than three additional weeks of work per year.”

Pandemic Stress

However, productivity is not everything. The stress of the pandemic wears on all of us in different ways. Some have found positive outlets to destress throughout the quarantine, but the numbers say something else. As found in the study, “54% of remote workers and 49% of office workers said they felt overly stressed during the workday.”

 This stress has turned many people to cope with drugs and alcohol. According to a survey of 1,000 Americans, 55% of people reported an increase in alcohol consumption, and 36% reported an increase in illicit drug use.

Know Who You are Hiring, Not What

It is necessary to make sure that employees and potential employees are not destressing in a destructive way. The better you know your field of applicants, in the wide field that is available, the better informed you and your company will be, and trust can be established and built upon to better the experience of all. You choose the criteria by which you hire applicants—ESS is here to help you understand who you are hiring, not just the job you are hiring for. Give us a call with any questions, or leave your contact information here and we will get you the answers you need.