Getting rid of old bank statements, contracts and client documents can be a chore – especially if you’re having to deal with dozens of them every single day. But as companies begin to understand the risks associated with leaving their documents intact, they look to businesses like Greenaway to help protect their data. As an external shredding company, we can help businesses protect their confidential data, meet their data protection obligations and keep their offices free of excess paperwork clutter. But why should your business use an external shredding company?
Data Protection
The first and most important reason to remember to do your shredding – it’s a legal requirement. We don’t even need to talk benefits at this stage, it’s simply something you have to do. The Data Protection Act states that every business has a legal obligation to protect the confidential information of its customers and employees. As a sub clause of this act, organisations must routinely employ a data destruction service to destroy redundant confidential information, whatever format it is held in. As if that wasn’t enough, the Information Commissioner’s Office now has the power to fine your business up to £500,000 if you lose someone’s confidential information. But keeping on top of this in house is not an easy task. But with an outsourced shredding company, it’s a simple, hassle free process. We can install a simple secure shredding console in your offices that you use as a ‘bin’ for documents. At a time that suits you, our operators will empty the console and take the paperwork to be shredded, providing you with a certificate of destruction for the batch of paperwork. So you can be sure you are complying with your data protection obligations at all times.
Time And Money
If you’ve decided that it’s time to your monthly shred, your next step is actually doing it. This is where a lot of businesses fall down, and where our confidential document destruction services come in handy. To illustrate, let’s look at your options:
- Give one of your employees the job of putting down their normal work and have them remove staples and paperclips from your shredding pile, sort card from paper and finally spend hours stood over the office shredder to get rid of it.
- Make a phone call to your certified confidential shredder, who will shred all of your documents in a matter of minutes using industrial machinery.
Be honest, you picked number 2 didn’t you? That’s because it makes no sense for you to spend time and money shredding materials instead of just making a phone call. For every 8 hours your poor employee spends shredding, our industrial machines can tackle the same volume of paper in just minutes, with no need to prepare the paper by removing staples or sorting. So instead have your staff doing the job you pay them for, and leave the shredding to the professionals.
Doing Your Bit For The Planet
Of course, we couldn’t give you reasons for shredding without mentioning the environment. If you went with option 1 earlier, what does your employee do with that paper when they’re finished? Many businesses would simply throw it away with the normal rubbish. But by using a certified shredder, we can protect your business and the environment at the same time. We recycle 99% of the paper we shred, promoting reuse and cutting down the need for new products to be made. For every tonne of paper, we recycle, 7000 gallons of water is saved, between 17 and 31 trees aren’t cut down, 4000 KWh of electricity is saved and 60 pounds of airborne pollutants are prevented from being released. How’s that for saving the environment?
It’s Common Sense!
No matter what type of business you run, you will be storing confidential data of some sort. Even everyday activates like creating invoices, providing your service to confidential clients or just writing up some meeting notes can generate a huge amount of data that needs to be protected. Just think about how disastrous it would be if one of your competitors got hold of your customer lists or quotes. Or worse, if a criminal found your financial records or employee data. All it takes is one smart criminal or one disgruntled employee and your business is at risk. But if you are routinely shredding sensitive documents, you are reducing the risk of this type of loss occurring.
At Greenaway, we have made it our mission to help business owners manage their shredding more effectively, by outsourcing the hard work. This means you can get on with running your business and making it successful, while being safe in the knowledge that your data is completely safe. For more information about outsourcing your shredding, get in touch with us today and book your free consultation.
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