Excessive alcohol use costs U.S. employers billions in lost productivity and additional health-care costs every year.  Ensuring Solutions to Alcohol Problems at The George Washington University Medical Center’s report, Workplace Screening & Brief Intervention: What Employers Can and Should Do about Excessive Alcohol Use says further that alcohol-related problems are disproportionately represented in American business, especially in such industries as hospitality, construction and wholesale.

The recent report promotes the adoption of Screening and Brief Intervention (SBI), a practice which has been shown to reduce excessive alcohol use when administered to people in a variety of settings, including hospitals and universities.  Research shows that a brief, non-judgmental intervention by a trained health-care professional can have a positive, long-term impact on risky alcohol use.  The workplace is one setting where SBI may have an impact on reducing the number of problem drinkers.

Alcohol SBI includes a structured set of questions and a brief follow-up discussion between an employee and a health-care provider, such as an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) professional, designed to address alcohol use problems. Screening instruments are used to ask employees how much and how often they drink. Then, EAP professionals or other workplace health providers evaluate answers to see if there is any indication of an alcohol misuse or abuse problem.  If the employee screens positively, the EAP or health professional can share the screening results and their significance with the employee through brief interventions, short 10-to-15-minute motivational interviews that encourage individuals to create a plan of action--from reducing their drinking to seeking substance abuse treatment--based on their willingness to change their drinking behavior. 

Brief intervention can motivate risky drinkers to seek help. Its goal is to help reduce risky alcohol use before a person needs treatment and motivate those with alcoholism to engage in more intensive, long-term treatment.  SBI is not designed to treat alcoholism. 

Ensuring Solutions believes that if SBI were to become a widespread practice in primary care, workplace wellness programs and employee assistance programs, the prevalence of workplace alcohol problems would be significantly reduced. 

“Alcohol problems affect every workplace, with some industries paying a tremendous price,” said Eric Goplerud, PhD, director of Ensuring Solutions to Alcohol Problems and lead researcher.  “It’s in the interest of every employer to do something.  Screening and brief intervention is a proven approach that promises to effectively reduce workplace alcohol problems.”

For a copy of Workplace Screening & Brief Intervention: What Employers Can and Should Do about Excessive Alcohol Use, visit Ensuring Solutions to Alcohol Problems.  For more information about drug-free workplace programs, including employee assistance programs and screening and assessment tools, visit DOL’s Working Partners for an Alcohol- and Drug-Free Workplace Web site.