In-House Shredding vs. Professional Document Destruction

Document shredding isn’t an option—it’s a must for ensuring your business information isn’t compromised. You may think your current in-house shredding program is doing the trick, but in this article, we illustrate the differences between in-house shredding and professional document destruction so you can decide which method is best for your business.

Productivity and time

Although importance may be placed on shredding documents in-house, the fact that it’s a non-revenue-producing activity means it’s not the most productive use of employee time. Commercial-grade shredders have limited capacity that enables only a small amount of paper to be shredded in a single session. Staples and paper clips must be removed prior to shredding, paper jams may occur during the shredding process, and the shredding receptacle must be emptied when full. As a result, your employees may spend several minutes shredding a single file folder full of documents at the expense of their core responsibilities. It’s important to calculate the actual cost of doing it yourself vs. having it outsourced.

A professional document destruction solution does not impede employee productivity. Locked shredding collection containers replace your office shredding machines, offering a secure receptacle for instantly depositing no-longer-needed paper files by simply slipping them through the slot without having to remove staples and paper clips or separating files into small, shreddable stacks.

Shredding collection containers come in a variety of sizes and styles to accommodate your company’s document disposal needs. On a scheduled basis, the contents of your containers are collected and all material is either shredded on-site in a mobile shredding vehicle or is securely transported off-site for destruction at a shredding plant.

Privacy protection

As a business, you have a legal responsibility to provide privacy protection for your clients, employees and partners. However, privacy protection can easily fall by the wayside when using an in-house shredding program. Ultimately, the responsibility falls on your employees to decide what needs to be shredded. This ambiguity can result in confidential and sensitive material being tossed in a trash or recycling receptacle instead of being shredded. Additionally, with an in-house shredding method, shredded material typically ends up in a dumpster in its own bag, making it a highly visible theft target.

With a NAID AAA Certified document destruction company, privacy protection is ensured at all times. They have undergone a rigid certification process assessing their hiring practices, equipment and facilities. Strict chain of custody procedures are followed at all times by professional shredding technicians who are:

• screened
• uniformed
• bonded and insured

With a professional document destruction company, any confusion over what needs to be shredded versus what should be recycled is eliminated, as all confidential material is recycled after being destroyed and sensitive documents never end up in your dumpster. The “lazy toss” of documents into a trash can is also eradicated, since it’s just as easy to drop it into a locked shredding collection container.

Verification

It is very difficult to monitor an in-house shredding program to make sure all confidential information is being properly destroyed. Even one document lazily tossed into a trash can without your knowledge can result in a privacy breach with dire legal repercussions. Professional document destruction provides a Certificate of Destruction at the completion of each shredding project, whether shredded on-site or off-site, offering documented verification that sensitive information has, in fact, been destroyed. With a mobile shredding service, the document destruction process can be witnessed first-hand, offering further verification of destruction.

Pacific Records Management provides document destruction solutions to businesses throughout Fresno, Stockton, Sacramento, Modesto, and Napa and Solano Counties. For more information, please contact us by phone or complete the form on this page.