But that in-house shredding is really labor intensive. You might be better off contracting with a professional shredding service. On the schedule you select – weekly, monthly, quarterly – they’ll take care of destroying your expired documents (and digital storage devices, too) completely and securely. If your line of business requires it, they can give you a Certificate of Destruction for audit purposes.
With a regular shredding schedule, you won’t have to figure out where to put yet another storage box of records. To determine the appropriate shredding frequency, refer to your record-retention policy. Don’t have one? Well, now’s the perfect time to put one together. It’s easy. Group your records into categories like sales records, previous job notes, payment records…you get the idea. Then decide how long each type of record should be kept. That’s pretty much it.
Your next decision is whether you want your stuff to get picked up or destroyed on your premises. Let’s take a closer look at offsite and onsite shredding to help you decide.
Offsite Shredding
With offsite shredding, the service will pick up your materials and take them to their secure site. Once you iron out the pickup schedule, your time investment is minimal. They pick up and destroy while you focus on running your business. Out of sight, out of mind until you receive confirmations that the materials they picked up were obliterated out of existence -safely and securely.
Onsite Shredding
Onsite shredding might be the best option if your industry requires eyewitness destruction. Although someone will need to watch the process, no time is lost getting to and from the shredding site. Are you a control-enthusiast? You might prefer the onsite options since you’ll never have to wonder if everyone did their job right. Your eagle eyes are making sure there are no breaks in the chain of custody. The downside of onsite is the noise and general hubbub shredding creates. Oh, that and you might have to give up some parking spaces to make room for the mobile shredder.
Time to Choose
Most services offer both onsite and offsite shredding. When talking with potential vendors, focus on their equipment and their people. The machinery should have robust security controls, so ask about them. Their answer might get technical and a bit over your head, but by asking, you’ll put them on notice you’re serious about security. Quality vendors will have trained specialists. Be sure to inquire about their staff and their experience. Is everyone involved in the destruction/shredding process accountable? Can the vendor assure you of complete destruction of all your materials, while also maintaining the proper chains of custody?
Higher Information Group offers onsite and offsite shredding handled by HIPAA trained and background screened staff to ensure the security of your documents. Contact us today to find out how we can help keep your document clutter under control while also securing your sensitive data.
