If you think morale in the workplace and drug-testing have nothing to do with one another, you might want to speak to someone at Butterfield & Vallis.The food distribution company, which has made The Bottom Lines’s Top 10 Employers in Bermuda list for the past several years and was the top employer for 2010, is also a drug-free workplace — one of the first and most successful on the Island.For 12 years, Butterfield & Vallis has implemented a drug-free workplace policy and in doing so, has improved business performance by reducing absenteeism, turnover and accident rates. It’s also had a few unexpected effects — improving morale and giving some employees a new lease on life.Senior management and entry level employees alike say the drug-testing programme has made for healthier, happier employees who take pride in their work.“It’s a dual benefit, naturally,” said Vaughn Mosher, the managing director of Benedict Associates, Ltd who runs the drug testing programme.“It’s good for the company to know that their employees are not using drugs and it’s good for the individual who, when it is discovered there is drug use, is given attention and treatment, rather than being terminated.”Butterfield & Vallis CEO Jim Butterfield said when they first started talking about implementing a drug testing programme, they had no idea just how high the drug use rate would be, they just knew there were problems.“One guy, when I confronted him about missing a lot of Fridays said, ‘Mr. Butterfield, I’m an alcoholic and you pay on Thursdays, of course I can’t get to work on Fridays’. There were enough things like that to make us think we should do this.“We had a truck driver’s helper who asked to be reassigned because as they were in the truck and driving along, the driver was rolling a joint,” said Ed Souza, President of the company’s consumer products division. “So the concern for us is having a driver who gets in an accident and someone is maimed or killed.”“A heavy truck is a dangerous piece of equipment in the wrong hands,” said Alun Hughes, President and general manager of Butterfield & Vallis’s food service division.“From a health and safety aspect, we’ve got trucks on the road, we’ve got heavy machinery in the warehouse and for people to be on drugs or drinking alcohol or recovering from a heavy night, it doesn’t bode well for a safe environment,” said Spencer Butterfield, vice-president and chief operating officer.“They were very concerned that there was a lot of drug use and the decision-makers were really in a quandary as to what to do about that,” Mr Mosher said. “They were a bit reluctant to deal with it head-on for fear of what the fallout might be. Would they in a few months lose half of their employees? They just didn’t know. ”Management at Butterfield & Vallis recall encountering quite a lot of resistance to the idea of drug testing.“When the directors heard about this, they said guys, what people do after five o’clock is their business. And they weren’t that keen on it,” said Jim Butterfield. “But our point was — yeah, but when they don’t show up for work the next morning at eight, that’s our business. And so we stuck to it and we put it in place.“Some staff were threatening us, saying — you’re going to have an empty warehouse. You managers are going to be unloading trucks now because you’re going to lose you’re your staff. So there was a real fear-factor.”But they went forward anyway, giving their employees notice and time to clean up their acts before testing began in 2001. They tested everyone in the company over a three-month period and initially, 20 percent tested positive.“Subsequently, in all the years since, we do somewhere between 220 and 260 screens a year and the rate has dropped each year,” Mr Mosher said. “In the last three years, the rates have been outrageously low — unbelievably low.”In 2009, there were 256 random screenings and only one person tested positive. In 2010, three out of 259 tested positive and in 2011, there was only one out of 267 screenings. So the average over the last three years has been 0.6 percent.“The good news for us was, we had several what I call champions in our working environment at the time who were like, guys, this is a cool think that you’re doing. But it took a lot of refining — no one could give us a handbook for this,” Jim Butterfield said.It’s a “three strikes you’re out” policy, so staff are given three chances to receive counselling end their drug use. But the drug-testing isn’t about “busting” people, it’s about creating a healthy workplace and getting employees help if they need it.“People initially think, ‘Why are you doing this? Why are you checking on me?’” said Mr Hughes. “Whereas now, it’s part of the culture. It’s just understood that it’s a part of the deal and everybody benefits from it.”Some more than others, like Keith Steede who works in the company’s food services warehouse. “This job, it’s my everything. It’s like a new life to me.”Mr Steede is a recovering drug addict — one that Butterfield & Vallis took a chance on. The company is one of only a few employers in Bermuda willing to hire ex-offenders and recovering drug addicts. The drug-testing programme has helped them do that and has given many of their recovering employees a second chance.“This job is what a recovering addict needs when he comes out of treatment. I came here after I got out of treatment and it’s everything that I need,” Mr Steede said. “Part of my job description is being randomly drug tested and that’s like money in the bank to me. My job’s very important to me. Today, I’m more responsible, I have my own apartment, money and things I really didn’t have basically all my life. I’ve been an addict for 40 years and this is the longest job I’ve been on in my 60 years of living on the face of this earth.“Today, I’m trying to live a Christian life and everything fits in right here. Butterfield and Vallis — it just does something for me. You look around the job here and you see the signs that say, commitment, honesty, dedication — all those sort of things — even if I just make the attempt to take on one of those words, just the word alone keeps me going on the right track.”Mr Steede says the testing keeps him on track too.“It keeps me focused — it really, really, really keeps me focused. I don’t know where I would be now if I weren’t here. I don’t know where I would be if they hadn’t given me the chances that they have.“The majority of the guys that work here are recovering addicts. Some I’ve been in treatment with some I haven’t but it’s a day-to-day process. This is a good part of my recovery programme. It helps me day to day. Before I do anything, I think about what affect it’s going to put on me as far as my job is concerned because that’s my all in all. That’s where I start from.”The company is able to provide these men with the lifeline they need to rebuild their self-esteem and re-created their lives.“This place is not only a place where I work, it’s my family,” said Ralph Tucker, another recovering addict who works for Butterfield & Vallis. “Butterfield and Vallis has been great in that, they saw that something was happening and I was offered to go to Benedict and they’ve been very, very crucial in me recovering.“The random testing is also very important because it makes me more accountable. If I come to work high, or I come to work drunk, somebody’s life’s at stake because I could be on a heavy piece of equipment or a forklift — I could do all sorts of damage. So I have to take care of myself on a day-to-day basis,” said Mr Tucker. “This job is very important to me. I’m not just a worker at the company, I am the company.”Other employees appreciate the testing too. One staffer who tested positive in a random drug test told her managers she was relieved because it gave her reason to tell her husband, who frequently pressured her to use drugs with him, that she had to stop or she’d lose her job.The testing is handled by Benedict Associates as a cost of $10,000-$15,000 a year. That covers pre-employment screening, random monthly testing, target testing for high-risk staff and cause testing if someone comes in with visible signs of usage. All employees from senior management down to container workers are tested.“I would say the quality of our workforce has improved tremendously, which far outweighs the cost. The cost is certainly justified,” said Mr Souza.In the last five years, 20 percent of the staff or more has clocked in with perfect attendance and more than 25 percent of the staff have been with the company for ten or more years.“Some people say, it’s expensive, it’s disruptive, I’m going to lose some good staff members, but at the end of the day, you’ve just got to weigh it up. I think it’s worth it. The benefits are huge.“We pay either way — that’s what I always say. To me, we either hire these people, create an environment that’s healthy for them to work in or I go home tonight and find out my house has been robbed or one of our driver’s is going to cause an accident. The community’s going to pay one way or another.”“An addict can’t afford to live off his wage alone, so he’s got to find another means, and usually that’s to steal,” said Harley Hayward, the warehouse manager at the food services division in Hamilton. “Because of this programme, morale is up, absenteeism’s down, the changes are just amazing.”Butterfield & Vallis’s success in creating a drug-free workplace now has other businesses on the Island looking to them for advice.“Recently we’ve spoken to businesses who have had theft issues and absentee problems that we just don’t have and we credit that largely to our drug and alcohol policy,” said Spencer Butterfield. “Now there are businesses who have come to us and used our model and they’ve been successful too.”