New Franchise Focuses on Reducing Substance Abuse in the Workplace

The National Drug and Alcohol Testing Association states the rate of occurrence drops to 5% – or less – if your company puts a drug and alcohol testing program in place. But without a dedicated Human Resources department reliable testing programs can seem difficult or impossible for an employer to put in place.
 

That’s where ARCPoint, a company offering a significant franchise opportunity in the medical/testing industry, is focusing their energy. 
 

In addition to drug and alcohol testing ARCPoint provides individual and corporate wellness programs. ARCPoint franchisees provide customized, cost-effective drug and alcohol testing to mandated and non-mandated markets. There are companies that are required, by law, to pre-screen prospective employees and perform ongoing, regular testing of current employees. These businesses are considered mandated testing markets. Non-mandated markets are companies not required to perform testing by law, but more and more have recognized the tangible and intangible benefits of putting a formal testing program in place and long term believe it is the smart choice.
 

Since ARCPoint is considered a third-party testing providers, which not only avoids any wrongful claims of bias, but ensures objective, accurate and reliable results. After all, would you ask Olympic athletes to perform their own drug tests? Results are incredibly reliable and completely confidential. Samples yielding non-negative results are sent to a certified lab for a second screening and independent confirmation. ARCpoint can even perform, where the law permits, instant screening using FDA-approved testing kits that yield results in minutes rather than days, allowing employers to make fast, informed decisions.

Here is how the process works. Say you run a medium-sized company. Your goal is to recruit and retain great people and you decide you want to implement an effective, reliable drug and alcohol testing program. An ARCPoint franchise owner will evaluate your company’s testing needs and then create a customized program to meet those needs, which is rarely if ever done by our competition. Once the program is initiated, we provide ongoing support and documentation and a history of all the testing ever conducted for a customer.

The non-mandated market is growing at an exponential rate. The drug and alcohol testing industry has doubled in size over the last five years, outpacing the growth of the medical industry as a whole, and is expected to double in size over the next decade. By implementing a drug/alcohol program, companies are beginning to realize it doesn’t cost them money, but rather makes them more productive.

The reasons for the industry growth are simple: When the economy falters, drug and alcohol abuse increases dramatically. Second, more and more health insurance companies are pushing policyholders to implement testing programs in order to reduce the number of insurance claims. And third, healthcare reform is likely to increase the cost of healthcare benefits for employers; one way companies can control their costs is by implementing drug and alcohol testing programs.

ARCPoint does not stop with drug and alcohol testing programs. As a company, our owners also offer wellness programs that include testing for diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc. For example, employees sign up for a one-year wellness program. After initial blood testing, employees find out their results and then are provided guidance on diet, exercise, and other steps they can take to improve their overall health. The employees benefit because they can take steps to improve their health based on reliable testing; the employer benefits because insurance rates will be set based on the actual health of employees and not on a blanket policy basis. (In short, as insurance reform occurs, the healthier the employees, the lower rates the insurance rates will become.)

With locations in fourteen states, ARCPoint has grown steadily since its inception in 2007 and expects to have fifty franchises in place by the end of 2010 and as many as one hundred by the end of 2011. 

Franchisees have a choice regarding the way they enter a market. ARCPoint offers a lab-based business model as well as a mobile model. In the lab-based model, a fixed location is required where testing is conducted in the franchisee’s lab. In the mobile model, franchise owner’s offer the added convenience of on-site testing. Here they work out of the home until they need to make the transition into lab. 

Randy Loeb says the ideal franchisee is a person seeking a business-to-business opportunity with solid people and networking skills. Our franchisees have a variety of backgrounds including pharmaceutical sales, medical equipment sales, Human Resources and plant management. However, anyone with a proven B2B background can, as Randy says, “Can be very successful with this concept.”

“Great franchisees are friendly, social, and like to build relationships and look to be an active part of their community,” Randy says. “On an ongoing basis, seventy percent of a franchisee’s time is spent on business development and the balance is on administrative tasks. We aren’t looking for people who want to go out and conduct the testing themselves; our franchisees hire qualified people to perform the testing function. We are looking for franchise owners who want to work on, build, and grow their business, but not work in the business day-to-day.”

A key benefit of implementing a drug and alcohol testing program, is our owner’s ability to help most small and medium-sized companies reduce their overall workman’s compensation insurance costs by 5 and 20%. 

“Companies tend to save more than they spend on our testing program,” Randy says. “Once our franchisees present the facts and figures to their customers – as well as the benefits to employees of our wellness programs – it doesn’t take a rocket scientist or a mathematician to figure out implementation of a comprehensive drug/alcohol program makes great financial and business sense. Saving money and improving employee wellness – who doesn’t want that?”

This article is written for information purposes only. Any individual, who desires to buy a franchise should consult a knowledgeable and experienced professional.