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Insight for safer, fairer workplaces
Plain-English guidance on drug and alcohol testing, impairment and keeping your people safe at work.
Latest articles
2 November 2026
Workplace Drug Testing and Employee Rights: What Employers Need to Know
Can an employee refuse a workplace drug test—and does a positive result mean dismissal? Discover the rights, responsibilities and fair procedures employers need to understand, and how First Cohort can help you get them right.
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20 July 2026
Is Workplace Drug Testing Really What Your Business Needs?
When a business first contacts us, the conversation almost always starts in the same way. "We're looking for workplace drug testing." It's a perfectly reasonable request, but we find that it's worth asking another…
6 July 2026
The Impairment Scene is Changing. Change with it, or Face the Cost.
Five years ago, workplace impairment management was straightforward. It was clinical, transactional, and absolute. The rulebook dictated a simple mechanism: Fail and Fire. If an employee tested positive, they were…
Previous articles
- Detection vs Impairment: Why They Are Not The Same Thing.29 June 2026
- Medical Cannabis in the Workplace: The Question Employers Are Still Struggling to Answer22 June 2026
- Detection vs Impairment: The Question Every Employer Should Be Asking8 June 2026
- Managing Medical Cannabis and Prescription Medication. What You Need to Know.1 June 2026
- THC Vape Oils and Workplace Drug Testing: What Employers and Employees Need to Know27 May 2026
- Why Training May Be The Most Important Part of Your Whole Impairment Program.25 May 2026
- Medical Cannabis in the Workplace: What Employers Need to Know27 April 2026
- Workplace Impairment: Why Training Your Staff Matters9 March 2026
- Conducting a Medical Risk Assessment for Prescribed Cannabis in the Workplace.2 March 2026
- Detection vs Impairment in Workplace Drug and Alcohol Testing: What Employers Must Understand16 February 2026
- What is Better Testing and how does it work for you?15 December 2025
- If Your Staff Aren’t Properly Trained, Your Drug & Alcohol Programme WILL Fail8 December 2025
- What’s more dangerous than the office Christmas party? The morning after — when one lapse in judgement can cost an employee their job, or your business a tribunal.1 December 2025
- mpairment Testing: The Smart Shift Every Forward-Thinking Business Must Make13 October 2025
- LEGALITY, CONSENT AND HUMAN RIGHTS.6 October 2025
- Why Tribunals Are Overturning Workplace Substance Misuse Dismissals and How Better Testing Protects Your Business15 September 2025
- Breaking the Taboo: How to Tackle Workplace Substance Misuse and Support Your People10 September 2025
- Vaping in the Workplace: The Hidden Risks Employers Can’t Ignore8 September 2025