Drug and alcohol programs are quickly going beyond being workplace health and safety initiatives.

1. A Social Enterprise Perspective of D&A Programs
Drug and alcohol programs are quickly going beyond being workplace health and
safety initiatives. As Australia battles the growing use of illicit drugs and increasing
numbers of dangerous binge drinking episodes, all eyes are looking to employers as
frontline intervention points because approximately 80 percent of the people who
use these substances are employed. The implication is that workplace influences
can have a very real social impact. In this sense, all Australian businesses are social
enterprises, and it is a common mistake to view the drug and alcohol as only
having relevance within the workplace.
A business social enterprise is one which operates in the marketplace to generate
profits, but does so by fulfilling a cultural, social, or environmental purpose.1
Maintaining operations to benefit society encompasses a variety of efforts, activities,
and goals. For example, the company may be committed to hiring the long-term
unemployed or hiring those living in poverty and paying the employees a living
wage. However, it might also brand itself as selling high quality sustainable
products, free of defects and produced by a drug and alcohol free workforce. Social
enterprises could include a branding component based on offering employees
opportunities to voluntarily participate in Employee Assistance Plans to overcome
addictions and working with local organisations to ensure workers have access to
resources outside the workplace when needing help staying off drugs and alcohol.
Taking Social Responsibility to a New Level
Employers failing to develop a written drug and alcohol policy that complies with
federal, state, or territory laws and regulations are inadvertently harming society.
Even when they exist, it is common to view the drug and alcohol programs as
standalone initiatives, taking them out of the broader social context. The truth is
that society benefits from each worker able to end illicit drug use or who stops
binge drinking because of employer-delivered workforce training.
Social enterprises are traditionally focused on funding or supporting some type of
social cause like reducing unemployment, increasing social inclusion of marginalised
people, producing Fair Trade products, increasing access to healthcare, and so on.
Though drug and alcohol programs are not normally mentioned in context of social
enterprise, they do play an important role in a society where illicit drugs and alcohol
abuse harm communities and force governments to redirect scarce resources.
It is not just the business that benefits from building a social enterprise perspective,
even if it is not following a social enterprise model. Companies that brand
themselves as having a zero tolerance for workplace substance use are more likely
to attract responsible people who support a drug and alcohol free culture. In
addition, employers with strong drug and alcohol policies and employee support
systems are often partnering with local services that can provide guidance and help
as needed. This helps the support services achieve their goals as well.

2. In This Together
Though a drug and alcohol policy alone does not make a social enterprise, the
resources put into helping employees get off and stay off drugs and alcohol
contributes to the well-being of Australian society. In other words, helping workers
live substance free lives through an investment of business resources might be one
component of the larger work of the organisation.2
It is not necessary to strictly
follow a social enterprise model to do good things for Australia. It is only necessary
to have a social enterprise component that drives quality business performance.
An important component of successful drug and alcohol programs is the quality of
testing supplies and equipment used by the employer. CMM Technology has what
employers need to administer the drug and alcohol test program, including high
quality products like the DDS2 Saliva Drug Test System and the Alcosense Precision
Breathalyser.
This article has been taken from: http://www.cmm.com.au/articles/a-social-
enterprise-perspective-of-da-programs/