10 reasons why shredding is important for your business

Shredding provides a secure and efficient way to dispose of documents that are no longer required and which could leave your business vulnerable to a data breach. It is a simple operational process but one that is important for every business for a number of reasons.

  1. Shredding will save you time. Manually disposing of documents is not effective and can be incredibly time consuming. Shredding is a much more efficient alternative to ripping up or destroying documents by hand.
  2. Implementing shredding will ensure compliance. Data protection is going up a gear with the introduction of the GDPR and the penalties for not properly handling data – especially sensitive and personal data – are significant. Regular shredding ensures that data protection obligations that relate to destruction of key information are properly discharged.
  3. A great way to improve green credentials. Shredding makes the process of recycling much easier and introducing it into the business will show customers that your business values environmental concerns.
  4. Protecting against identify and information theft is becoming increasingly crucial. The average business generates a vast volume of data on paper and this can make it – and the subjects of that data – incredibly vulnerable. All it takes is for one bag of documents to fall into the wrong hands to enable theft of key business information or identity to take place. Shredding ensures that no document leaves the premises in a form that could be used in this way.
  5. Revealing even basic business data could undermine your business. It’s amazing what kind of basic data can be used to obtain a competitive advantage – something as simple as meeting notes, for example, could reveal a lot about internal processes or strategy. Regular shredding of all business documents ensures that you’re not simply giving away the kind of information that could give someone else the opportunity to gain an advantage without even trying.
  6. Shredding supports health and safety concerns. Large piles of paper and boxes full of files are a serious fire hazard, whether they are blocking fire doors or just piled up waiting to be ignited. Shredding ensures that these potential hazards are efficiently removed.
  7. If you want your business to be more space efficient, shredding is key. Documents gathering dust are never an efficient use of space in an office, especially a small one. Shredding frees up key space for more value adding use and ensures that everything is properly disposed of.
  8. An essential protection against corporate espionage. From future product plans to investor documents, shredding ensures that key information that could empower a competitor won’t fall into the wrong hands.
  9. Shredding also protects customer data. If you want your customers to trust you then you need to be able to demonstrate that their data is being safely handled.
  10. Ensuring the right people see the right documents. Information such as staff reviews or potential redundancies can cause a lot of tension in a business and should only be shared with the right people. Shredding these key documents will make sure that they won’t be viewed by those who could get upset by them.

On-site shredding is the most effective way to use shredding services – contact us to find out how we could help you.  

Author: Mark Coombes, Follow me on Google+

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Shred-on-Site is a can-do organisation that believes in providing excellent service through exceptional people. We take care of all your shredding needs whilst delivering outstanding value for money.