All about On-site Shredding Vol.7

How can your business prevent fraud through on-site shredding?

Organizations lose around 5% of their annual revenue to fraud every year. For small businesses without severe checks and balances in place, this percentage can be even higher and worse. So taking steps to prevent fraud is essential for every organization. On-site shredding is a necessary part of any fraud prevention strategy.

What are the ways or means for business fraud

1. Employees. those who are not happy in their jobs may be motivated to steal from an employer.
2. Carelessness. Most organizations don’t have safeguards in place when it comes to securing recycling bins, or ensuring that documents and files containing sensitive information are properly disposed of. Information can end up in fraudulent hands by any number of means.
3. Lack of security. Any business data could be potentially sensitive when it comes to enabling fraud to take place, from employee records to financial projections and details of prototypes.

How On-site Shredding Companies can Help

Working with an on-site shredding partner will minimize the risk of fraud in several key ways:

1. Lockable receptacles. Lockable bins ensure that once papers and files have been disposed of for recycling, there is no opportunity for these documents to be removed from the container.
2. On-site shredding services. On-site shredding disposes documents and data before leaving the premises. An on-site shredding service ensures that papers and files are destroyed before this happens and so cannot support potential fraud.
3. In-house responsibility. On-site shredding sends a clear message to employees. With an on-site shredding service in place, a clear message is sent to employees that the company takes these responsibilities seriously and doesn’t tolerate those who expose the business to unnecessary risk

What You Need To Know Before Hiring a Shredding Company

When you are shopping around for a reliable shredding company, be sure to check these first:

1. Reputation. Research for reviews, ask for references and, check online pages. The company you choose to handle your confidential information should have established themselves as leaders in their industry with an excellent service record.
2. Operation Style. This is a big one. You should meet with the company’s representatives to discuss their security and destruction processes. Ask for a site tour; and know about their hiring process, training, background checks, and protocols. The right shredding company will make security their priority and be able to explain their protocols to any prospective clients clearly.
3.  Compliance. the shredding company should be able to provide you with guidance on security laws and legislation for your industry and geographical area. They should work as your partner willing to work with you to implement proper security protocols that keep your business in compliance.
4. Chain of Custody. A shredding company should provide you with locked, tamper-proof consoles, secure information pick-up, and destruction. Along the way, there should be a paper trail documenting the entire process. There should also be a similar process for the secure storage, pick-up, and destruction of hard drives and other electronic devices as well.
5. Proof of Destruction. Your document destruction company should provide you with a Certificate of Destruction. It is also crucial for compliance purposes.
6.  Environmentally Friendly. It is vital to select an environmentally conscious company to do your shredding. Ask what they do with the paper and electronics after destroying files.

Why Companies Have a Shredding Service

Disposing of documents is something that most businesses have become used to prioritizing. However, over the past couple of years, new regulations underlined the importance of data security. Some have suffered the very public consequences of a lack of data security. Respect for data is now one of the biggest motivators.

Apart from respect for data, here are the other reasons why companies like yours choose to partner with on-site shredding company. Companies have respect for the:

1.  Customers. Nurturing customer loyalty in competitive markets is increasingly tough and robust data protection is proving to be one way that many enterprises choose to stand out.
2. Law. For many businesses, the only way to ensure complete compliance with regulation is to outsource document and media destruction to a professional shredding partner.
3. Staff. Many business documents contain staff data, such as employment contracts and payroll information. A well-established shredding service can also help to take the pressure off staff within the business. This not only simplifies operations but can also enable a workforce to be more efficient and focused.
4. Environment. Green office processes can make a real difference to environmental impact. Customers and employees are increasingly looking for businesses that invest in them. Shredding enables recycling which is a far greener use of document waste than allowing it to end up rotting in a landfill. In addition,  it is a much more respectful and celebrated approach to environmental issues.