3 min read

Paperwork is scattered around your desk and your filing cabinet is about to burst. Some of your documents may be recent but a lot of them date back to a year ago or further. This is a huge paper shredding mistake.

Anyone from interns, cleaning staff, or other employees can access your office and see all sorts of confidential information that you’ve neglected to do away with. This is a pretty common mistake too and one that business owners make when it comes to shredding paper.

There are plenty of other mistakes that you need to avoid. Keep reading to see what they are so you can keep your business information secure.

1. Not Having a Document Shredding Policy

Have you told all of your employees what they should be doing with old, outdated documents? Have you written up a document destruction policy of any kind? Old documents can’t be done away with if your workers don’t know what to do with them.

For every minute your confidential documents sit around you’re risking identity theft and business fraud. Write up a policy and give each of your employees a copy or hold a business meeting and go over it with them. Need help? Our professional document shredders can help you develop your Document Destruction Policy and help train your staff.

2. Hoarding Old Documents

How many expired documents do you have sitting around in your office or filing cabinet? If the answer is more than a handful you need to sort through them and do away with them immediately.

Hoarding documents has its share of security risks. Anyone can break-in and if they do then they now have access to confidential information.

3. Shredding With Your Office Shredder

Yes, you need to get rid of your documents but you shouldn’t do so with your personal office shredder. Personal paper shredders have their limits. As it says in the manual, they need to “rest after 30 minutes of us.” So while you’re waiting you’re not only wasting your time, but that’s even more time that you’re confidential documents are left laying around.

Plus, most store-bought paper shredders can only shred around 10-15 sheets of paper at a time. Any more and you’re dealing with a paper jam.

Also, storebought shredders don’t shred the paper fine meaning that although it won’t be easy, anyone can pull shreds of paper out of the trash bin and piece them back together.

Time is money, stop wasting it by spending countless hours shredding your confidential documents.

4. You Have Bad Paper Recycling Habits

We know that you want to try to help the environment, but throwing your confidential documents, shredded or not, in the recycling bin is a bad idea. Any thief worth their salt can grab documents out of the recycling bin. Again, even if you shred them someone who is seriously dedicated can piece them back together and read them.

5. Not Using a Certified Shredding Provider

All of the examples above can be solved if you use a certified shredding provider to do the job. They can shred, and recycle your old documents in the most confidential manner possible.

When shredded, your documents are combined with documents from other companies. There’s no chance that anyone would be able to piece together finely shredded material from multiple sources.

Make sure that whatever company you go through for this service is NAID AAA Certified.

It’s Possible to Mess Up Shredding Paper

It is possible for you to mess up when shredding paper in your small business. If you use an office shredder and toss the pieces in the bin,  thieves can get in and get access to your confidential information. Protect your company by following these tips and using a certified shredding provider instead. For a small monthly fee, you can keep your documents safe and not have to spend hours shredding them yourself.

Do you need the pile of documents on your desk shredded? Contact us to get a free estimate on our document shredding services.