Member Article

Stub out smoking, alcohol and drug abuse in your business

With Business Link

With the new smoking law taking effect next month, employers will have started to take measures to ensure that all business premises and vehicles become and remain smokefree. Those in charge of smoke-free premises and vehicles will be required to display ‘no smoking’ signs, remove any existing indoor smoking rooms and to ensure that the new law is adhered to. A business and employers checklist in relation to the new smoke-free law is available via the Business Link website www.businesslinknortheast.co.uk.

Many employers will have drawn up smokefree policies to help explain and introduce the new law to staff and this might also be a good time to put policies in place to help protect your business from the effects of drug and alcohol abuse amongst staff, which can significantly undermine your business’ performance and damage workplace morale.

Employees with a drug or alcohol problem can have many negative effects on a business and can pose a serious risk to workplace safety, particularly for workers whose role involves operating machinery or driving a vehicle. Employers need to be able to identify and deal with problems of substance abuse by putting in place support and disciplinary procedures to ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of all employees.

While they usually include a disciplinary element, a clear policy will stress that prevention is better than a cure and that support will be offered to any employee with problems in this area.

For effective smoking, drug and alcohol abuse policies, you should:

• make one individual clearly responsible for each policy
• make it clear that people should not smoke at your premises or in company vehicles, but also indicate where they can smoke
• explain the policies to all managers and supervisors and make sure they follow them
• communicate policies to all employees
• tell employees what support services are available if they have a problem
• explain the consequences of rule breaking
• write a clear and reasonable disciplinary procedure
• apply your disciplinary procedure consistently and fairly
• encourage feedback from employees and others about your policies

With a policy in place, employers need to look out for tell-tale signs of abuse such as above average time off sick, reduced productivity and disciplinary problems.

Once a problem has been identified, offering support to employees with such problems is usually the best approach and being aware of specialist advice and support services is helpful. A number of useful contacts are detailed under the Counselling and support section of the website guide.

For Business Link services in your local area, call 0845 600 9006 or visit the website www.businesslinknortheast.co.uk. This service is brought to you by Business Link North East, funded by: One NorthEast, European Regional Development Fund and Learning and Skills Council.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .