Top Use Cases for Impairment Detection Technology

Here’s where we’re seeing the biggest impact on workplace safety, culture and cost savings.

Over the last several years, we’ve accumulated an extremely impressive customer list. From some of the top construction general contractors to top manufacturing operations, food companies, logistics, mining, energy and even insurance companies, Gaize is revolutionizing how drug free workplace policies are implemented.

Since it’s a brand new way to think about Drug Free Workplaces, we often get questions about how Gaize can be most effectively deployed and what impacts we see. While there are quite a few use cases, falling loosely into the categories of proactive and reactive impairment testing, a few specific use cases have risen to the top.

Here are a few of the most impactful ways to deploy Impairment Detection Technology:

1

Allow for safe, off-duty cannabis use by employees with verifiable fitness for duty at work.

This is by far our top use case, and it makes a massive difference for our customers in numerous ways. To frame the issue, the challenge confronting employers is the need to safely employ legal cannabis users. In states with legal access to THC, employers have historically had no way to differentiate between at work impairment and safe, off-duty cannabis use. This matters deeply when the issue of fairness, and the cost of firing, hiring and training are considered. Gaize is the solution.

The employees of the workplaces that have deployed Gaize now have a fair policy to operate within - one that allows for safe and responsible personal use of a legal substance. This has a massive impact on employee satisfaction and retention. Next, it opens up a huge portion of the population (at least 23%) to employment. This allows for easier hiring of workers and fewer vacant positions - in a tight labor market, this is a must. Employers tell us every day that they don’t care what their employees do on the weekend, they just want them to show up safe and ready to work. Gaize facilitates that.

The ROI to be found here is massive. In one deployment, Gaize saved an employer over $70,000 on the first day by saving several jobs from termination. Basically, a large random drug screening was done and several employees were positive for THC. Under the old policy, those employees would have been terminated. Gaize was able to show that they were not impaired, and saved their jobs.

2

Deterrence against workplace drug use.

One of the most powerful effects that we consistently see, and that surprises our customers, is the massive deterrent effect that Gaize brings to bear. Simply put, when Gaize is deployed, employees simply stop showing up to work while impaired. It’s common for our customers to deploy Gaize into problematic sites first, only to find that once the technology has launched, the problems simply stop.

This indicates that employees are opportunistically using substances at work, and that when they can be caught, the behavior stops. This is a great outcome, and one that we often compare to the effect of a security camera on theft. It just stops happening.

3

Fit for duty test before operating heavy machinery or other equipment

Similar to site entrance screening, workers operating dangerous machinery or equipment are in a significant amount of inherent risk with their employment. Not a week goes by where there’s not a major accident involving heavy equipment in the US. Consider how many of those accidents could be prevented by a rapid test for impairment before the worker starts operating that machinery.

This proactive thinking can certainly reduce accident rates, thereby making the workplace safer. Additionally, many insurance companies are also now offering cost sharing or rate reductions for impairment detection technology deployments.

4

Post-incident or reasonable suspicion impairment assessment

Accidents and reasonable suspicion incidents are stressful, dynamic situations in which evidence needs to be captured, now. There’s little room for subjective guesses from people with limited training and no concrete evidence to back up their assertions. Gaize shores that up with clear, objective video evidence of ocular impairment resulting from drug use. The tests performed are the same ones done by law enforcement Drug Recognition Experts, and are the only government recognized impairment standard that exists.

One of the biggest perks of impairment testing over traditional drug testing is in required post-incident testing. Gaize is often used in this context for minor accidents that would typically cause an employee to be on the sidelines for a week or more while drug test results are obtained. Gaize can test the employee and, assuming they’re sober, get them back to work in 10 minutes or less. A single incident like this can produce positive ROI on an annual deployment.

5

Construction job site entrance screening for impairment.

Construction sites are some of the most dangerous workplaces in the country. Workers are in inherent danger every day they’re at work due to heavy equipment, heavy building materials at height, unstable loads, and more. These workers also have some of the highest rates of substance abuse of any employed population. Anyone who works in construction has seen worker impairment, and often, directly witness substance abuse on the job. The costs of the combination of the two are high accident rates, high insurance costs, work quality problems and much more. Now, leading firms are starting to require impairment screening for workers coming on-site and after leaving for breaks. This has had enormous impacts on site safety, even when screening just a randomly selected small percentage of total workers.

6

Reduce or eliminate risk of drug test cheating

Cheating on drug tests is rampant. From fake urine, shampoos designed to strip evidence of drug use from hair, and mouthwashes designed to help you pass an oral fluid test, there’s little certainty to be found in chemical test results. What cannot be faked are the ocular characteristics of drug impairment, as measured by Gaize.

7

Detection of impairment from novel substances

The limitations of drug tests is that they’re only effective at looking back in time, and only for the specific chemicals they were designed to look for. Gaize is much more broad in scope and can detect impairment from thousands of individual drugs falling within drug categories like cannabinoids, depressants, stimulants, opioids, dissociative anesthetics, and more. While a 5, 10 or 12 panel test may be useful to prevent use of the most common substances, it’s not going to catch everything. An enterprising drug user can easily avoid detection by simply knowing what drugs are tested for and using something else.