Hyderabad: Human resource departments of some IT and ITES companies have shot off emails to their employees on drug awareness, indirectly alerting them to repercussions if an employee is found to be involved with narcotics. Two companies are known to have collected blood and urine samples from some employees after the drug bust.
Within the IT and IT-enabled services industry, it is mandatory for candidates to undertake the dope test before they go on rolls. However, it is only done during the course of the recruitment interview. There is no regular testing done once the employees have joined. Following the drug bust, companies have begun to include drug awareness modules in their personality development sessions.
Mr Sundeep Kumar Makthala, Founder of Telangana IT Association explained, “In the IT services, there is a mandatory drug test that candidates have to und-ergo. A third-party verification is done and the sample report is submitted to the company. However, this is only done during recruitment or induction. But most companies have this strict clause in the appointment letter, stating the company can terminate the employee in case he or she is found to be a drug addict.”
Mr Kiran Kulkalluri, senior IT professional, explained why regular testing is not done, “A majority of the companies have zero alcohol, drug tolerance policies. Also, big companies do a background verification and checks on previous history before recruiting these professionals. They don’t conduct a regular drug test if there are no immediate suspicions or triggers for it. So far no large scale substance abuse has been detected.”
The two sectors mostly established in Hyderabad are: IT Services: Database and Windows admin, Storage admin. In ITES: Business Process outsourcing & Knowledge Process Outsourcing.
Companies have begun to include drug awareness modules in their personality development sessions.
1183 Information Technology Services (ITS ) and Information Technology enabled Services (ITES) in Hyderabad.
4.25 lakh Head count of ITS & ITES total employees
