By Bill Current, President & Founder

What Can Employers Learn About the Effectiveness of Drug Testing from Current Consulting Group’s 2025 Employer Survey

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Drug testing works! At least that’s what a growing percentage of employers say in Current Consulting Group’s (CCG) 2025 Employer Drug Testing Survey.

When asked, “Speaking for yourself, do you consider drug testing effective?” 70% said “yes, very effective,” which was up from 66% in CCG’s 2024 survey. Another 18% said that drug testing is effective but not highly so, and 8% said they believed drug testing was effective but admitted they weren’t sure how.

Of course, why a company conducts drug testing will have a significant impact on whether the program is considered successful. For instance, when asked, “Why establish and maintain a drug testing program?” the responses were as follows:

• Promote a safe workplace — 85%
• Comply with DOT requirements — 54%
• Hire the best possible job candidates — 51%
• Minimize legal risks — 49%
• Comply with other federal requirements — 45%
• Comply with state laws — 36%
• Reduce employee turnover — 28%
• Reduce overall costs — 26%

And when employers were asked, “What benefits does your company realize from drug testing?” this is how they responded:

• Improved safety in the workplace — 84%
• Able to hire better quality employees — 62%
• Better company reputation — 55%
• Improved productivity — 47%
• Better morale among workers — 27%
• Cost of business savings — 24%
• Fewer confrontations in the workplace — 22%
• Less employee theft — 17%

Hence, most employers test to promote a safe workplace, and most also believe drug testing helps them accomplish that objective. As well, a majority test to help them hire good, quality workers, which also contributes to a safer workplace, and most believe drug testing helps them achieve that objective also.

It is also important to note that one out of four employers say they test to reduce overall costs, and one out of four believe it’s helping them do that. Of course, safe workplaces are less costly workplaces. Consider the following:

1. Substance users are 3.6 times more likely to be involved in an accident than their non-drug using co-workers.[i]
2. Substance users are 5 times more likely to file a workers’ compensation claim.[ii]
3. The average cost of a workers’ compensation claim is $44,179, though it is much higher for certain types of claims such as motor vehicle crashes, which average $90,914.[iii]

Therefore, reducing the number of substance abusers on the payroll reduces costs.

Maintaining safer workplaces, hiring better quality workers, and reducing costs—as well as other objectives—are achieved when drug testing deters drug use. The deterrent effect of drug testing depends a lot on when a company conducts drug testing. For example, pre-employment and random testing are deterrent testing circumstances because the test precedes any suspicion of drug use or an event that could involve drugs; however, both send a deterring message that workplace drug use will not be tolerated. On the other hand, reasonable suspicion and post-accident testing are reactionary tests that occur when drug use is suspected or after an accident has already occurred, which also send messages that workplace drug use comes with consequences.

When asked, “When does your company conduct drug testing?” the results were as follows:

1. Pre-employment — 94%
2. Reasonable suspicion — 84%
3. Post-accident — 80%
4. Random — 78%
5. Return-to-duty — 57%
6. Follow-up — 53%
7. Pre-access — 26%
8. Periodic — 26%

Then, when asked, “Have positive drug test results increased over the past year?” 38% said yes (up slightly from 36% in 2024’s survey), while 54% said no (up from 53% the previous year). On the surface, these responses may indicate that drug test positives are heading in the right direction because those saying positives are increasing were fewer than those who said positives did not go up. Two things to consider, however:

• Nearly 4 out of 10 employers said positive results are on the rise, which is not a good trend—it’s actually a very bad trend, and it’s consistent with the last two years when 36% and 40%, respectively, said positives had increased over the past year; and
• When 54% said positives did not go up, they weren’t saying they had gone down—they just had not increased.

Additionally, 15% said post-accident positives were up in 2025 (an increase from 13% in 2023), compared to 67% who said they were the same and 8% who said they had decreased.

According to the 2025 Quest Diagnostics Drug Testing Index, for the general U.S. workforce, post-accident testing positivity was basically unchanged at 10.4% compared to 10.2% the previous year. Of course, any kind of decline is good news, though it continues to be elevated when compared to federally mandated post-accident positivity, which was 4.5% in 2025’s report and 4.6% the previous year.[iv]

According to Quest’s official press release: “The overall drug positivity rate continues to reflect persistent trends,” said Sam Sphar, Vice President and General Manager of Workforce Health Solutions at Quest Diagnostics. “When we talk to employers, they tell us the same thing the Quest data tells us – that drug abuse is an ongoing issue among the American workforce. Many also realize that permissive attitudes around drug use can put their non-substance using employees, not to mention the general public, at risk.”[v]

The need for drug testing continues to exist, and many employers believe it works at achieving specific objectives like promoting workplace safety and enabling companies to hire better quality workers. However, not all employers make an effort to actually measure their return on investment from drug testing.

When asked, “How does your company measure the success or return on investment (ROI) of its drug testing program?” 46% said they “don’t formally measure ROI.” This is a surprising response given the financial constraints the current economy has imposed on many industries the past several years and the fact that measuring the ROI of drug testing can be a fairly simple process involving answering a few questions:

• How many of your employees are drug abusers? (The national average is 15%[vi])
• What is the average cost of each drug-abusing employee annually? (About $8,800[vii])
• How much does drug testing cost your company each year?

Now do the math. Subtract the cost of drug testing from the cost of substance abuse, and the difference is your savings from conducting drug testing. For example, if by conducting pre-employment testing you avoid hiring 15 substance abusers who would cost your company an average of $8,800 each per year, or a total of $132,000, and you spent $25,000 on drug testing, your savings is $107,000 ($132,000 minus $25,000).

Of course, measuring your drug testing ROI can get more complicated when you factor in the soft-dollar costs of one drug testing method versus another (lab-based testing vs. rapid-result testing, urine vs. oral fluid testing, on-site collections vs. off-site collections), but the ROI of drug testing always comes out in the employer’s favor.

Conclusion

When everything is taken into consideration, the true measure of the effectiveness of drug testing is its impact on a company’s bottom line. Drug testing works because it deters drug use, which saves money. It works because it helps companies avoid hiring drug users, deters employees from being impaired by drugs while on the job, and makes it possible for employers to identify valuable employees who need help. And all of that has a direct positive impact on a company’s bottom line.

And according to Current Consulting Group’s 2025 Employer Drug Testing Survey, the vast majority of employers agree that drug testing is effective.

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[i] Why Drug Testing. Current Consulting Group. William F. Current. Page 10.

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] Workers’ Compensation Costs. National Safety Council from data from the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI). https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/work/costs/workers-compensation-costs/

[iv] Fentanyl Positivity Is More Than Seven Times Higher in Random Tests vs. Pre-Employment Drug Screening, Finds 2025 Quest Diagnostics Drug Testing Index. Quest Diagnostics. Sept. 2025. https://newsroom.questdiagnostics.com/2025-09-02-Fentanyl-Positivity-Is-More-Than-Seven-Times-Higher-in-Random-Tests-vs-Pre-Employment-Drug-Screening,-Finds-2025-Quest-Diagnostics-Drug-Testing-Index

[v] Ibid.

[vi] Facts and Figures. Working Partners. https://www.workingpartners.com/resources/facts-and-figures/

[vii] New Analysis: Employers Stand to Save an Average of $8,500 for Supporting Each Employee in Recovery from a Substance Use Disorder. NSC and NORC at the University of Chicago. https://www.norc.org/research/library/new-analysis–employers-stand-to-save-an-average-of–8-500-for-s.html