Why Do I Need Document Shredding?

All paper documents, at some point, outlive their useful purpose. When you dispose of them, they need to be securely shredded. There are a number of reasons that holding onto paper documents for too long is a poor business practice.

Your Information is at Risk

Let’s face it. The longer you keep business records past their retention requirement, the more likely they are to be seen by someone who shouldn’t have access to them. An effective document shredding program reduces this risk.

The Cost of Discovery

Unfortunately, in business litigation, the cost of discovery is something you have to deal with. All businesses are involved in legal actions at some point, some businesses more than others. One of the components of a lawsuit is “Discovery.” Discovery is the formal process of exchanging information between the parties about witnesses and the evidence they’ll present at trial. A major part of discovery is the exchange of documents. That can be a very costly and time-consuming process. If you have a document retention and shredding policy that you follow then you will dramatically reduce this cost.

Wasted Office Space

You know how expensive it is to rent office space. You also understand that maintaining the space you need has a direct effect on your bottom line. An average file cabinet requires nine square feet of your office. When you let documents accumulate you need more and more office space to store them. The more office space you use, the more rent you pay. Instituting a document destruction policy will help you maintain just the office space you need. This helps you control the cost of rent for your office.

Reduce Offsite Document Storage Costs

It’s much cheaper to store your less active business records offsite than keep them in your office. Even though it is more cost effective, it is still an expense, and it will continue to get more costly if it isn’t controlled. The best way to do that is to have a document retention policy that includes shredding the documents when they have reached the end of their retention period. This way you are only paying for the storage of the business records you need to keep.

Compliant With Privacy Laws

Federal and state privacy laws require you to protect private information even when you’re disposing of documents and files. Having a “Shred All” policy will help your organization be compliant. When the documents you use in business are going to be disposed they need to be shredded. Half of the documents have information in them that privacy laws require they be shredded before they are thrown away. Don’t waste time or expose your business to the chance of someone making a mistake shred everything. To do this, hire a shredding service. They will provide you with locked containers to dispose of all documents in. Then they come on a regular schedule to destroy them.

Document Shredding a Sound Business Practice

There are countless valuable documents within your business. Everything from pricing sheets, financial records, business plans, customer lists, customer files, and proprietary business secrets that could be of interest to competitors and identity thieves. Document destruction helps to reduce the risk of this information from getting into the wrong hands.

Outsource your Shredding to a Professional

Outsourcing your document shredding may seem like an additional cost, but it’s really more cost-effective. When you add the time and cost of an employee to shred documents in-house and compare it with the nominal cost of a professional shredding service you’ll see it makes good economic sense. It’s also a more effective way to protect your business’s information.

FileShred is a local onsite document shredding service that will assist you with all your document destruction needs. Give us a call or visit our website for more information at www.fileshred.net.