All companies face the dangers of leaking sensitive information. Customer information, employee information, and confidential business related information all require care and attention, especially when being disposed of.
Federal laws like FACTA are in place to hold businesses responsible for the safety of the private information they handle. And with more data breach cases making headlines each year, a tarnished reputation can result in the loss of millions.
Creating a document shredding policy is one of the best ways to combat the risk associated with a potential data breach.
Creating a Document Disposal Program
A successful document disposal policy requires forethought, organization, and consistent monitoring. Use this infographic as a guide to create a strong shredding policy for your office files:
Shredding is one of the best ways to ensure the safety of private information held on physical files. As mentioned in the infographic, always plan, provide training on, and maintain your official procedure.
Two key takeaways that will greatly influence the cost and design of your project are:
Decide Who Will Perform the Shredding
Shredding can be done in-house by employees or via a professional shredding service provider.
In-House Shredding
Shredding done in-house can be structured several ways—employees can shred files the minute they decide to trash them, or collect documents over time and perform the shredding at the end of every week.
Having internal employees shred their own files may work for a small or mainly digital workplace, but once the amount of paper that needs to be shredded increases, the costs increase dramatically. An office shredder capable of handling large quantities can be quite expensive. Plus, workers are diverted from their normal tasks and may end up spending hours a week shredding papers.
Shredding Services
Shredding services are designed to handle documents from all different industries, including medical and legal, at all different volumes.
There are several service options, such as mobile shredding where the work is done in the back of a truck at your location, and offsite shredding which tends to be more affordable as the work is completed at a secure offsite facility along with thousands of other papers.
The cons of shredding services are typically attributed to costs. While different levels and frequencies of service can be requested, smaller companies may not be able to afford a shredding service provider.
Determine What Should be Shredded and What Should be Recycled
When it comes to determining what needs to be shredded, decide if you want to implement a “Shred All” policy or a selective shredding procedure.
Shred All Policy
A “Shred All” procedure is simple and easy for employees to remember as every single paper is shredded before it’s tossed.
The downfalls of this type of procedure are that if you have your own employees shredding your files it can eat up their time, and if you use a shredding service it may increase the cost as most providers determine the price by weight or volume
Selective Shredding Policy
The alternative to a “Shred All” policy is a selective shredding procedure. This type of policy allows management to predetermine which documents require shredding and which do not.
This entails extensive planning, and clear instructions should be handed out to all employees. This policy may end up reducing costs of shredding services, but it may cause confusion among employees and risks sensitive information being thrown in the trash receptacle.
Start Your Shredding Program with Help from Professionals!
At Shred Nations, we are dedicated to matching businesses with a shredding service provider who can meet their project and budget needs.
We understand the pressures businesses are under to keep private information secure and believe affordable shredding options are an excellent way to prevent data breaches and keep your organization safe.
Let us help you find a solution to your document destruction needs. Call us at (800) 747-3365 or fill out the form on the right and we will get you several quotes from local service providers for free.
