A Few Questions For Regina Jones-Accurate C&S Services
Recently, Aurorah Dey spent some time a I with Regina Jones, president and CEO of Accurate C&S Services, Inc. Jones has taken the growing demand for drug screening and background checks and turned it into a successful, woman-owned enterprise based in Oakland, California.
Q: What does Accurate C&S Services Inc. do?
A: We create safer and healthier workplaces through drug screening, background checks, employee wellness services such as onsite flu vaccinations and paramedical services for the insurance industry.
Q: What is your role in the company Regina?
A: I’m the president and CEO of Accurate C&S Services. I founded the company in 2006 in Oakland, California and have been the managing founder.
Q: What was your motivation behind creating this company?
A: My background is in healthcare and I worked in various hospitals in the ICU (intensive care unit). Then I began working in clinical research with some of the biotech and pharmaceutical companies in south San Francisco which is a hub for biotech. After doing an opiate addiction trial, I really became excited and interested in drug and alcohol testing. This drug and alcohol testing was a component of the trial. From there I did research and partnered with another individual that was currently in the business. That’s how I started. I had help from an associate in Los Angeles who had the experience and know-how. That afforded me the opportunity and provided me with the knowledge to start my own business.
“After doing an opiate addiction trial, I really became excited and interested in drug and alcohol testing. This drug and alcohol testing was a component of the trial.
Q: This drug screening and testing that is being done, is it being done for companies to screen employees?
A: Yes, we actually work with corporations and we have government contracts. We have locations in Tennessee and Texas because we were awarded a government contract back in 2010. We were re-awarded the contract for 5 years a few years ago due to our excellent performance on the first contract.
So, we currently perform about 10,000 drug and alcohol tests for the Department of Energy in Tennessee and Texas locations. And of course we support any company—large companies to a one-man trucking company. We service any client that requires testing per DOT (Department of Transportation) regulations. There are some jobs where you must be tested for drugs and alcohol such as truck drivers, people who work in the airline industry and public transit agencies. Mostly safety sensitive employees…coupling that with our background screening services.
You can be located anyplace in the world because background screens are all electronic. For drug testing, we partner with nationwide laboratories to perform testing. In addition to that, we have mobile units. We keep several mobile testing units where we are able to go out to our clients and test a group of individuals at places such as job sites, construciton sites, etc.
Q: When you say background screening, are you referring to criminal background screening?
A: Yes, criminal background checks. Checks that you would do on employees to understand the person you are hiring.
Q: Would this criminal background check include fingerprinting?
A: We do have the ability to fingerprint however, for the most part, the screening consists of a criminal background check, an education verification and reference checks. These are the basic components of a background screening.
Q: How do you feel that your company is going to do in the future? What does 2020 look like for Accurate C&S Services Inc.?
A: I think utilizing and leveraging technology is extremely important for Accurate. There’s a lot of facial recognition and that can be controversial in some circles. We will leverage this technology along with international requirements such as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) because many corporations are global.
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