Sometimes it takes a shocking incident to accelerate progress. Such was the case at Capitol Nissan (now Capitol Ford), an auto dealership in Washington, D.C. Fifteen years ago, when substance abuse policies were not yet in place, a body shop employee slammed a car into a wall, pinning a coworker to the wall and crushing both his legs in the process. Fifteen years later, the victim still cannot walk unassisted. The employee who caused the injury was later found to be high on PCP.

Every employee at the dealership realized it could have been any one of them. "We had to do something," said the dealer, Ed Friedson. He convened his top managers at the dealership and set up a drug testing and treatment program that covered each of the company's 85 employees for up to $1,500 worth of treatment. "The policy said that if someone had a drug or alcohol problem, they would not lose their job as long as they got into a treatment program and stuck with it," he said.

In the wake of the PCP incident, most of Friedson's employees accepted the new policy with enthusiasm. Some, however, did not. "We had a few employees who quit after refusing to be tested," he recalled. "We also had seven or eight who tested positive." The good news, Friedson said, was that all but two who tested positive sought treatment and remain productive citizens today.

"We decided when we started the program that we weren't going to fire anybody," Friedson said. "After investing so much money and time in them, why get rid of them? To do it all over again? It makes sense to try to assist an employee if you can salvage, him or her. Everyone wins, the employee and the company."

Capitol Ford's policy has created better employees, a first-year insurance savings of $75,000, and a better bottom line. "We used to have accidents every week," Friedson said. "Now it's rare for us to have any at all."