April Fool’s Day doesn’t need to leave you feeling the fool. Make sure you are doing your due diligence and making sure that your secure documents are destroyed properly. Whether it’s medical film, client data, human resources documentation, or other critical documentation, you need to make sure that you are following the right standards of practice to ensure your business is protected in the long term. Here are three reasons why it’s a smart idea to partner with document management experts to destroy your secure documentation.
Compliance
Privacy laws, both in the US and abroad, are not something you can ignore. Governments are becoming increasingly aware of the opportunity for the misuse of personal and business information. That’s why they have put the burden on businesses to protect the documents and the information they contain for those who have provided that information. This means that when a large retailer has a massive data breach that results in exposure of financial and personal information, the merchants are the one left holding the bill and often a hefty fine to boot.
As it relates to healthcare, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (or HIPAA) states that any business that is responsible for keeping any medical records or transferring medical information must protect the privacy of the individuals who the records document. Failure to protect that information can have serious legal consequences, so proper records disposal is critical. To ensure that you are complying with all necessary legal requirements when it comes to records disposal, working with a professional can make a world of difference.
Client and Employee Security
It’s not enough to recycle or trash old business documents. You put your business, your customers, and your employees at serious risk by doing this. Even seemingly harmless documentation can be used against you by competitors or criminals out to make an easy buck. Internal memos, draft documents, quotes, financial printouts, pay stubs, meeting notes, and especially records with employee data should all be considered worthy of proper disposal for security reasons. Shredding helps maintain your business and individual security by making information provided in hard copy formats illegible and irretrievable.
It might seem logical to just buy a shredder and managing disposal yourself, but you might be surprised how some consumer shredders fail to protect the data, not to mention the manpower it often takes to dispose of the high volume of business documents most companies produce. The smart solution is to outsource your records management and disposal so that you can be confident your information is secure.
Convenience
Businesses naturally create a large amount of documentation. It’s essentially the way business is done. But that documentation takes up quite a lot of space and requires serious investment of time and effort to dispose of. Rather than distracting your skilled employees with the task of shredding documents, consider outsourcing the task for the sake of convenience. Overall, it’s a cost-effective and time effective way to manage your disposal while ensuring proper disposal and security is maintained.
For more advice on how to properly manage your business documentation, contact with an expert at Happy Faces Records Management today.
