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As a business most likely you started with paper documents in your workflow process. This is highly likely if you started your business over ten years ago. As the company expands and more staff are employed, more departments are also created. This means the workflow process is more profound.
This will come in with the creation of more and more paper documents for example invoices, receipts, contracts and others. This leads to more paper documents in store.
For how long should you store your paper documents? If you have a proper classification and retention schedule then disposing of your paper documents would be made easy. This is because you are able to know when you no longer need a document thus processing the disposal.
This will help in minimizing the pile up of unnecessary documents that you have in store. It is also appropriate for keeping your information confidential because you are able to track which document is still valid and which document has been disposed of.
To create a proper disposal process first you have to have a policy and a schedule in place.
These are the six steps that can help you in creating a proper paper document disposal process.
1.Create a document disposal schedule:
Having a proper document disposal schedule ensures that paper documents are shredded immediately they reach the end of their retention period. This will ensure that paper documents that are no longer required are not kept for long periods reducing document pile ups.
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Sign up2.Training of staff
Staff can be trained to adhere to the document disposal schedule and policy. This is to ensure adherence to the document disposal policy and that documents are disposed accordingly. This should be embedded into the company’s culture to create consistency.
3.Complete shredding
Documents should be completely shredded and recycled to ensure that all the information is completely destroyed. An office shredder cannot completely destroy the paper documents.
If you outsource your shredding to a reputable shredding company then this would be possible. And this is made even better by them recycling the shredded waste.
4.Delivery safety
If you opt to outsource your shredding needs and the shredding is being done off site.
This should be done using safely secured containers and it is also good for you to be there when the shredding of your confidential documents is being done.
5.Paper recycling
When the shredding has been done then it is even safer to have the paper waste recycled.
This ensures that your information is completely destroyed and the recycled paper can be used for a commercially viable product. This would also give you peace of mind that your information is completely destroyed.
6.Going paperless
What if you can opt to produce all your documents digitally? This would mean you will use minimal paper documents reducing for you the cost of buying paper and printing consumables like cartridges and toners.
This means you will have more office space to use productively instead of for storing paper documents. Have your papers stored digitally on the cloud.
This also has an additional advantage of accessing the documents from anywhere with no specificity to just within the office space.
Conclusion
Having your documents shredded is environmentally friendly. This is the best option instead of burning which is degrading to the environment and also the possibility of your information not being completely destroyed is high.
An office shredder will not cut the paper completely thus this can enable retrieval of information from your paper documents.
My advice is to outsource this service to a reputable shredding company who will then recycle the shredded waste to be used for another purpose.