More U.S. workers are testing positive for marijuana while the number testing positive for opioids continues to decline, according to the annual Quest Diagnostics Drug Testing Index. Based on an analysis of nine million drug tests conducted in 2018, Quest determined that 5.1 percent of the general workforce tested positive for drugs and another 2.7…
When small cannabis businesses navigate a growth spurt, their Human Resources (or HR) practitioners have an opportunity to demonstrate exactly how they can contribute to the business. For instance, they can influence and take responsibility for many aspects of talent acquisition, compensation planning and workforce management that had been the domain of hiring managers. But…
Employee referral programs can be an effective way to hire talented people in the cannabis industry, and they can also be invaluable in the current talent acquisition environment, in which open jobs outnumber qualified candidates. How many of you have a close-knit group of friends that you think are the bomb? We all believe that…
Working in HR and managing people in the cannabis industry offers many different challenges, but there are some that come back again and again – and they usually aren’t the hassles that arise when writing policies or complying with government cannabis regulations or compliance. Here, seasoned HR professionals share their hard-won leadership wisdom to help…
Could you imagine an employer telling employees they can’t laugh while working in a cannabis dispensary? In today’s world, successful businesses have a strong focus on keeping their employees happy, because happiness is synonymous with job satisfaction in the cannabis industry. Individual happiness directly affects employee engagement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. If you already…
As we all know, in order to work in the cannabis industry, it requires a criminal background check before anyone can seek employment most of the time at a retail dispensary (or even own businesses in most cases). Yet, most respondents to a recent survey said they’d feel comfortable working with or buying goods or…
How To Help Your Team w/ Dispensary Burnout As a manager in the cannabis industry, you want to do right by your dispensary employees and support them through intense work periods so they don’t get burned out. But this can be a challenge when you’re feeling overly stressed yourself. How can you take care of…
As more jurisdictions legalize medical and recreational marijuana use, HR continues to struggle with the challenges presented by applicants and employees who use the drug. Here are some eye-opening statistics: U.S. marijuana production has increased tenfold (10x) over the last 25 years. Next, to alcohol, marijuana is the second most frequently found substance in drivers…
Many cannabis companies practice progressive discipline to correct bad behavior by employees: A verbal warning, written warning and then a final written warning are the usual steps. Using progressive discipline can help employers show they treat employees fairly, and it can help them defeat discrimination and retaliation claims. But there are cases when it is…
The power of the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements has transformed the sexual harassment discussion from tabloid gossip about the rich and famous into a mainstream cannabis dispensary workplace issue. The overriding concerns for employers in the cannabis industry are: What does harassment look like? Is there a solution to this dispensary workplace problem? What…
Making Work Meaningful in the Cannabis Industry Cannabis industry employees value salary, benefits and company leadership, but meaningful work drives job satisfaction more than ever. What the cannabis dispensary decision-maker may be missing, however, is an understanding of what really energizes staffers: the ability to spend their time doing meaningful work. Data show that while…
A majority of states now permit medical marijuana use, and federal law may not always pre-empt state laws when it comes to their impact on the employment relationship. As employees increasingly turn to cannabis as a treatment option for various health conditions, employers must examine whether their policies – which are no doubt aimed at…
As U.S. support for the legalization of cannabis grows and more states approve cannabis’ medical and recreational use, employers must understand the relevant legal developments and how they affect the workplace. About 62 percent of U.S. respondents to a 2018 Pew Research Center survey said cannabis use should be legal, compared to 31 percent who…
As recreational cannabis into a legitimate billion-dollar business from its seedy past, human resources professionals are encountering business challenges that are both familiar and new. Dispensaries must tackle the same problem any new business faces: how to get started. In states with legalized recreational cannabis, business is blooming. With that much green, the recreational cannabis industry…
Employers in the cannabis industry need to shift their focus from reactive hiring to thinking of themselves as builders of talent. With new assessments, big data and predictive performance, we have the best training tools to identify adjacent skills, help people shift into emerging roles and create clear career paths. For individuals, the appetite for…
The exit interview can be a useful way for cannabis industry employers to protect their property, identify any morale or culture problems, and limit the risk of lawsuits being filed later. Here are some of the benefits of conducting a meaningful exit interview with dispensary employees. The exit interview is a perfect time to retrieve…
