Whether you shred your expired and defunct papers in-house or secure the help of a professional service, you are likely saving your business money. Both options — buying a shredder and paying an employee to destroy papers or allocating some of your budget to a monthly shredding service — might seem financially counterintuitive at first. But the costs are minimal compared to the other fees your company may encounter by holding on to old paperwork.
Here is how shredding expired papers can save your business money, but before we begin, remember this top tip: a secure document destruction service from a professional shredding company is, without question, the safer option.
You Don’t Need To Factor Excess Paperwork Into Your Office Space
Square footage costs money. It is a prized commodity in some cases, especially as rental spaces shrink in size while monthly leasing costs increase. By shredding paperwork that is no longer required, you won't need to allocate room for shelves, boxes, filing cabinets and other storage solutions, significantly reducing your spatial requirements.
You Are Saving Employees Time
Sifting through old, unnecessary files to find the one paper that is required costs employees precious time. By removing the fluff and keeping only pertinent documents on hand, there’s less need to search high and low through filing cabinets and rummage through boxes.
You Are Reducing The Potential Of A Data Breach
Keeping papers that are surplus to requirement heightens the potential of a dangerous data breach. Depending on your location, it is likely a legal requirement to securely destroy defunct or expired papers, too.
Failing to proactively counter malicious attacks may see you on the wrong side of compliance, leaving you on the hook for costly legal consequences. This is especially important in the European Union as their GDPR compliant requirements are very strict. You could be fined or found liable if you don't protect files with personal data on them in the EU.
Data Breaches Will Cost You
In addition to facing potential legal repercussions, a company exposed to a data breach will likely lose money paying for public relations to smooth the situation over. As a result, you may lose customers or clients — directly impacting revenue, and your team will likely need to spend many hours, on company time, trying to save face and rebuild trust.
Deciding Between In-House Shredding vs Securing Professional Help
However you choose to shred your papers, you’re saving your company money. That said, you can go one step further and save even more cash by hiring a professional shredding service to process your old documents. Here is how professional shredders can save you money.
• Invest in a quality shredder. Generally the shredders you can buy in big box stores will shred in a strip formation. Papers should be processed in a crisscross formation to be destroyed securely. This will come with an upfront cost and will need routine maintenance to ensure the blades are sharp, and the paper is being processed as it should.
• Paying an employee to remove staples, bindings, folders, and paperclips, then to physically shred paper, obviously costs you money, whether they’re salaried or paid per the hour.
• Further, the bags of shredded papers will need to be disposed of — which may come at a cost.
• And last, generally speaking, professional shredders will guarantee the safe and complete destruction of your papers — providing you with a certificate of destruction once the task is done. Carelessness at the hands of a team member can make your in-house shredding efforts redundant.
Takeaway
While some options are better than others, whatever route you take, shredding your old papers or files and those surplus to requirement will save your company money and your employees precious time. Start shredding documents today to save money and avoid security issues.
