The spring season is fondly paired with the idea of spring cleaning, but for business professionals, it’s more likely a call-to-arms to review your document management system. April is National Records and Information Management Month, which inspires many entrepreneurs to take a closer look at the way that they’re currently handling documents and find ways to improve their process. Even if you think your system is fine the way it is, there’s an excellent chance that you’re wrong – and it’s the things that slip through the cracks that cost you.
69% of organizations say that inaccurate information gets in the way of their business strategy, and when there are multiple copies of documents and outdated versions of papers scattered throughout your filing system, it’s easy to see how that happens. And when information is lost or misfiled, it can come with a hefty price tag. The USGS within the US Department of Interior estimates that 15-25% of a company’s operating budget can be lost as a direct result of redundant, lost, or poor-quality information.
No matter what kind of business you run or the industry you operate in, document shredding services are an invaluable tool to immediately streamline your document management strategy. Read on to discover how specialized shredding services work and which one is precisely what you’re looking for.
One-Time Paper Shredding for Quick Cleanouts
To start things off, let’s assume that you’re not really looking for a big commitment. You have some documents to get rid of (and maybe a few filing cabinets that should be emptied), but once you’ve cleaned out the office one time, it should stay that way for a while. Ordinarily, what would this process look like for you?
You’d need to assign an employee or two to go through all the papers, removing staples and rubber bands from the ones that are no longer needed. After that, the employee would need to manually feed the papers, one by one, through an off-the-rack shredder that might not shred as thoroughly as mandated by federal and state law. When they’re all shredded, you’re left with the task of securely transporting them for recycling, being careful not to lose so much as a single scrap.
Now, how long would all of this take you? How much would it cost?
With one-time paper shredding, you can do it in a single afternoon for a fraction of the price. You’d make a call, and the shredding truck would be dispatched to your location at the time you requested. All your company would have to do is hand over the papers that need to be destroyed. The shredding technician would deposit them into the shredding machine, securely cross-cut the documents, and remove them immediately after for recycling. You’d even be provided with a Certificate of Destruction to prove that your papers were safely destroyed at your one-time shredding appointment.
Which scenario would you rather choose for your business?
Off-Site Paper Shredding for Convenience
Let’s look at the same problem, but on a smaller scale. Suppose your office only has a few boxes of documents to discard. Or perhaps you’re working from home, and every month or so, you’ve filled up some binders with papers that need to be shredded. A one-time paper shredding service might seem like overkill, so what are your other options?
Off-site shredding services are a convenient alternative to one-time paper shredding. Your papers will still go through precisely the same high-quality shredding process, but instead of arranging for a shredding truck to come to your location, you can quickly swing by ours. Simply bring along your boxes of documents and hand them over to the care of one of our shredding technicians at our secure facility. You’ll be provided with a Certificate of Destruction, and you can immediately get back to the rest of your day. It’s as easy as picking up the mail.
Secure Shredding & Recycling for Your Documents
Unless your documents are properly processed, there’s always a chance that they’ll be lost on the way to the dump – or worse, retrieved after they’ve been left there. Secure Shredding & Recycling eliminates that possibility by keeping private information out of the public trash system and processing it in full accordance with the latest state and federal privacy regulations. Secure Shredding & Recycling is an AAA Certified member of the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID), which means you can be confident that the security standards of our shredding services meet the guidelines laid in place by all known data privacy laws.
If you’d like to learn more about our shredding services, including both on-site and off-site shredding, give us a call at (225) 751-8535. You can also send us a message online.