Keeping confidential information secure is critical to the overall health of your business ––especially if you have client, personal, financial or medical data on file. Secure destruction of sensitive documents and media is no longer optional – it’s the law. A data breach, no matter how small, could put your organization at risk, expose you to heavy penalties and fines, and tarnish your business reputation.
While recent years have seen a decline in do-it-yourself shredding, some organizations continue to manage document destruction and disposal internally. In-house shredding programs, however, are costly, and more importantly, pose a significant number of security and safety risks, all of which can be avoided by outsourcing a qualified certified shred vendor.
Here are 10 reasons why your company should use an outside shredding vendor:
- When your own employees shred documents, you run the risk of exposing proprietary company records to personnel who may not be privy to that information, and you have no guarantee they are following your internal destruction policy.
- It can take hours for an employee to prep documents (removing clips, bands, binders, etc.) and shred all your documents with a home or office shredder, not to mention the expense of purchasing, maintaining, repairing and replacing equipment.
- Employees are taken away from the job they were hired to do when shredding documents. It is not only a distraction from your core business, it puts your company at serious risk if it is not done right.
- Shredders, both small office and larger industrial-size, are noisy and produce paper dust particles into the environment that are unhealthy and highly flammable.
- In-house shredding does not support a green environment as shredded material typically is put into the trash and headed to the landfill.
- Whether the shredded material is thrown away or put out to be “recycled” it can end up in the wrong hands, including dumpster divers.
- By disposing documents efficiently and promptly, a third-party vendor can meet your retention schedule, freeing up space and lowering storage costs.
- Partnering with a vendor that possess expertise and infrastructure creates a defensible document destruction program. It exhibits due diligence on your part by implementing disposal practices that meet your legal obligations and ensure compliance with pertinent regulations and industry standards.
- An experienced trusted vendor can provide the all-important documented chain of custody — from pick up to destruction to disposal — it is trackable and auditable and can stand up to the scrutiny of auditors and regulatory entities.
- A professional service can also provide a certificate of destruction. One with the AAA certification from the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) must follow mandated and rigorous regulations, pass annual and random audits, and follow a stringent security protocol.
Outsourcing a secure document destruction plan to a professional service is not only the easiest and quickest way to implement an effective shred program, it is the most secure, safe, green and economical way to operate. Explore the options Shred One KC, a division of Job One, offers for the ultimate business peace of mind by calling at 816.257.0690 or request a quote here today!