5 Reasons to Shred your Documents

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Technological advancements have made it possible for businesses to handle documents in an electronic format. This is because it’s much easier to manage such documents with the use of technology. If you want to destroy a bunch of files, all you have to do is select them and click the delete button. However, there are still a considerable number of businesses that are still handling documents in print format. The problem is that the documents can be abused if they are accessed by unauthorized persons. In fact, the documents should be destroyed when they are no longer needed to protect the interests of the business, customers and employees. Here is a list of reasons why you should shred your documents regularly.

  1. Protect Against Identity Theft

Keeping documents that will not be needed in future puts your business at risk. The documents can be used by identity thieves in their fraudulent activities. Keep in mind that the majority of the papers contain crucial details such as credit card details and national social security number. In fact, identity thieves hunt for such documents because they know they can use them without getting caught. And even if they are caught, the blame will solely rest on the business that created a loophole in the first place. Destroying such papers is the surest way of ensuring that they are not used by the wrong people. If you have a tight schedule or your shredder doesn’t have the capacity to handle huge piles of papers, you can subscribe to a commercial paper destruction service at recordstorage.com.

  1. Create More Space in the Office

Having too many documents makes your office look congested. This is because the papers occupy the space that you can use to store other things such as stationery and equipment. Besides that, the clutter that results from such documents makes your office look disorganized. In this day and age, people expect an office to be free from paper files because they can be stored in hard drives. By shredding all unnecessary papers, you will create a positive impression to anyone that will walk into your office and you will also more space for accommodating more stuff.

  1. Helps in Conserving the Environment

Hard copy documents contribute towards the degradation of the environment. This is because more trees have to be cut to manufacture papers. Trees help in preventing soil erosion and reducing the impact of greenhouse gasses. When papers are shredded, they can be recycled to create papers. This eliminates the need of cutting down trees. The good thing is that there is no limit to the number of times that papers can be recycled.

4.It’s the Law

The law is very clear on the management of documents. Whether it’s a hospital, bank or any other type of business, the documents should be destroyed after they have been stored for a specified number of days. However, the shelf life seems to vary from one industry to another. Any business that doesn’t comply with law risks being slapped with a heavy fine.

  1. Protect Customer and Employees Confidentiality

When employees and customers share personal details with your business, they believe that they will not be shared with any other entity. In case such documents are accessed by the wrong people, your customers and employees would feel betrayed for failing to protect their privacy, which return would cause them to lose confidence in your business. That’s why businesses are encouraged to adopt a document destruction policy because it helps in winning the trust of all the stakeholders, including their employees and customers.