September 3rd, 2024 | Sterling

Offload Your Drug & Health Screening Program with Sterling’s Concierge Services

Key Takeaways 

• There are many challenges that can arise from manually managing pre- and post-employment drug and health screening programs.
• Sterling’s Concierge services for clinical services and random program offload these programs from TA and HR teams by having their drug and health testing overseen and managed by Sterling’s dedicated concierge team.
• By implementing Clinical Concierge, one large not-for-profit acute health system’s average background check and drug and health screening turnaround time went from 22 days to just 3.3 days.
• The success and growth of Clinical Concierge has led Sterling to introduce a new Random Program Concierge service for random drug and alcohol screening. 

In a recent Sterling Live episode, Sterling’s Director of Concierge Operations, Christina Johansen, shared how our concierge services have enabled organizations to offload their drug and health screening programs to speed up the onboarding process while empowering HR and TA teams to refocus their time on other business areas.

Managing Your Drug & Health Screening Program May Be Costing You Candidates

Today’s job market is tough, and every candidate matters in the hiring process. Having a positive candidate experience can make a big difference in preventing candidates from dropping out, especially during the drug and health screening process. From candidates missing appointments to delays in clinics delivering results, there are many hiccups that can influence whether a candidate decides to stay or drop out.

Christina further explains why candidates would drop out during the drug and health screening process: “What we would often hear from our clients is that Candidates wouldn’t be completely clear on all the next steps that were required to complete their drug and health screening. Either they couldn’t locate a qualified and convenient location to complete the testing, or they just couldn’t wait for the estimated time anticipated at a testing facility to be able to go in and get their required testing completed. Candidates already have the stress and the pressures of looking for their next job opportunity. The last thing you want to do is make things more complicated for them to onboard.”

What Is Concierge and What Services Are Available?

Sterling is one of the very few background screening organizations who have integrations directly with labs for blood testing services, including Labcorp and Quest Diagnostics. This allows us to perform their drug and blood tests through us, creating an environment supporting an end-to-end drug and health testing process.

What does that mean for HR and TA teams? Less manual processes to manage, better candidate and employee engagement, and faster onboarding.

There are two different concierge services available for both pre- and post-employment testing: Clinical Concierge and Random Program Concierge.

Clinical Concierge

Our Clinical Concierge services help oversee the clinical testing process, based on the organization’s unique clinical program requirements. This includes welcoming and guiding the candidate, identifying a convenient and qualified testing facility, scheduling the visit, and ensuring clinic readiness.

Christina covers the key functions and offerings available with Clinical Concierge:

• Registration of Services: We register the candidate for all drug and clinical services required by the organization at a convenient testing location. With Sterling’s acquisition of Vault Workforce Screening, we now have an expansive network of over 17,000 clinics across the US, making it easy to find a convenient tsteing location.
• Open Order Management: We monitor and manage all open orders of the candidate’s registered services to completion. This involves proactively communicating with the candidate to complete their services, checking results of services performed by our providers, and escalating to vendors/clinics for delayed results.
• Document Review of Prior Results and Lab Results: We evaluate and review medical records and documentation provided to determine if any services required for employment have already been performed, therefore eliminating the need for them. We also review lab results to identify if secondary services are needed based on lab results and the client’s requirements.
• Dedicated Customer Support: We have a dedicated concierge team that helps and provides guidance to both candidates and clients with general inquiries and escalations through email and phone support.
• Client Performance Management: We continue to partner with our clients to optimize their clinical testing programs based on their growing needs and program performance. This includes identifying trends, gaps, and improvement opportunities.

Random Program Concierge

Many organizations, specifically those with DOT positions, have employee requirements related to drug screenings for their existing employees. This is managed through a random program, where employees are randomly selected throughout the year for a random drug and/or alcohol screening.

Similar to Clinical Concierge, Sterling’s Random Program Concierge takes on the oversight and management of the administration that comes with a client’s random program. This applies to both on-site and off-site events that a client may require.

Christina shares more on Random Program Concierge in the clip below:

What Successes Have Our Clients Seen Using Concierge Services?

Sterling’s Concierge services have continued to see growth amongst our clients year-over-year. So what kind of success have we seen? In the Sterling Live episode, Christina shared how Clinical Concierge helped a large not-for-profit acute health system: 

• Reduced their candidates’ start-to-work time from 22 business days after accepting their offer to just under 2 weeks.
• Maintain strong compliance with federal and state laws by creating clinical and non-clinical packages for each state and job role to configure with their Applicant Tracking System (ATS), reducing the potential for human error.
• Provided an overall better candidate experience by having our dedicated Clinical Concierge team guide the candidate through each step of the drug and health screening process.
• Read the full customer story here. 

Although Random Program Concierge is a relatively newer service that Sterling began offering in early 2024, we’ve already received great feedback from this program, including: 

• Offloading the many steps it takes to oversee a random program and all of its moving parts, including oversight of the selections and coordination of the tests.
• Better visibility into test progresssion and completion.
• Identifying gaps in communication between random program owners and their managers and supervisors, thus improving their training and education to ensure everyone had a clear understanding of the process. 

Start Onboarding Your Candidates with Ease

Christina closed out our Sterling Live episode by revealing common misconceptions of how simple the drug and health screening process is: “Unless you’re in the nitty-gritty of the drug and health screening process, the complexities, the unforeseen items that can arise, they’re just unknown. It may seem so simple and straightforward. But you go for your annual physical and your doctor says you have to get this, this, and this done. They give you a piece of paper and you go in. It really seems so simple, but there’s just so much more to it than meets the eye. And Concierge helps to fill any of these gaps and unknowns while keeping a close eye on the progress of your candidate’s journey and keeping you informed and up-to-date along the way.”

Learn more about Sterling’s Clinical Concierge services and Random Program Concierge services.

Watch the Concierge Sterling Live episode here.

Sterling is not a law firm. This publication is for informational purposes only and nothing contained in it should be construed as legal advice. We expressly disclaim any warranty or responsibility for damages arising out this information. We encourage you to consult with legal counsel regarding your specific needs. We do not undertake any duty to update previously posted materials.