When it comes to shredding your organization’s sensitive documents, you have two options: perform the work in-house, or hire a professional shredder to stop by and shred your files for you. Shredding documents in-house has its advantages, but so does renting a professional’s industrial shredder for an afternoon.
Smaller companies with just a few employees and limited physical documents can typically get by with purchasing an office shredder. But for growing companies, it’s important to conduct a cost-benefit analysis to determine if purchasing a shredder is better for your business than renting one.
In this blog, we’ll take a look at a few common misconceptions about shredding yourself versus hiring a professional. With this information, you can make a more informed decision about how to handle your shredding needs.
Misconception: Shredding Documents In-house Is More Secure
Federal and state laws, like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), require all organizations to protect confidential and personal information from unauthorized access and disclosure. If you don’t have authorized employees shredding your documents, you’re putting your organization in a precarious situation.
Statistics vary, but it is widely accepted that a large percentage of data breaches stem from internal employees. This can look like malicious insiders seeking retribution, or simple mistakes due to carelessness.
On one hand, if you assign shredding duties to an existing employee, they will often see it as a low priority. On the other hand, hiring an internal employee whose primary focus is shredding is expensive. Renting a professional mobile shredder — meaning the equipment and the AAA NAID certified expert — ensures the shredding is done properly and information is kept safe.
Misconception: Shredding Documents In-house Will Save Money
EveEvery part of running a business either makes or costs you money. Aside from the cost of purchasing a shredder, consider the other costs associated with shredding your documents internally.
The hourly rate of the employee doing the shredding matters. Even if you use your lowest paid employee who does a minimal amount of shredding, the odds are that, over the course of the month, you’re paying close to or more than the cost of one on-site visit from a professional mobile shredding truck.
The cost of ongoing maintenance and replacement with shredders is another factor. Because regular shredding causes wear and tear on your shredder, you will need to regularly lubricate the shredder’s teeth and purchase replacement parts (or even the entire machine) as the shredder degrades over time.
Time spent shredding is also important to consider. If you purchase a cheaper office shredder to save money upfront, it will handle fewer sheets of paper at a time and overheat quickly, forcing pauses and breaks in the shredding process. Industrial shredders can easily devour hundreds of pounds of paper per hour so the shredding process is quick, easy, and effective.
Individually, each of these costs may not seem very high. But over the course of a year, they add up.
Misconception: Shredding Documents In-house Is Easier
If you’re trying to find a shredder who provides the services you need at a reasonable price, it might sound like a tough assignment. For some it makes shredding in-house sound like an appealing option. While the initial freedom of purchasing a shredder for your office may seem like an efficient way to handle your shredding needs, you might find shredding your documents yourself to cause more issues over time.
For one, you’ll have to find a way to safely store expired documents until you have time to shred them. You’ll also have to deal with the loud noises of the shredder during every use. Shredders can get messy, too. Depending on how much paper you have to shred, you might have to bring out a vacuum after each use. And if you want to recycle the shredded paper, most recycling facilities don’t accept loose paper shreds from individual businesses.
When you rent a professional mobile shred truck, the shredding company will supply you with locked bins to store your files in. They will also park in front of your office, pick up the bins, carry them out the mobile shredder truck, destroy the contents for you, and return the empty bins to be refilled until their next visit. All this can happen while you carry on with normal business activities.
While organizations can certainly purchase their own shredder, there are plenty of benefits to hiring a professional shredding provider and renting their mobile shredding trucks. Outsourcing to the experts can save you time and money while increasing the security of your documents during the destruction process. You may even receive a certificate of destruction from the provider as proof of secure, compliant destruction. Professional solutions ultimately provide the peace of mind you need when it comes to your information.
Professional Shredding Services via Shred Nations
When it comes to efficient document destruction for organizations, Shred Nations has more than 20 years of experience. We’ve helped companies in San Francisco, Boston, and everywhere in between with our nationwide network of certified shredding professionals. From on-site mobile shredding and off-site destruction to recurring service, one-time purges, and convenient drop-off locations, you can securely destroy your documents while staying compliant with all relevant laws and regulations.
Call us at (800) 747-3365, fill out the form on the page, or contact us directly using our live chat for free quotes from shredding professionals near you.
