If your business is one that takes in a heavy flow of the type of paperwork described above then you will want to set up a regular schedule for records destruction. The longer you wait between shredding days, the more likely that some of that personal and sensitive information will fall into the wrong hands. If a storage area starts to overflow and your own employees end up cleaning it out you face the risk of a security breach.
As one of the shredding companies Los Angeles businesses most often turn to, we understand the magnitude of the task facing ownership and management when deciding what to shred and when. The good news is that you only have to make those decisions once. Set up a system and use our secure containers to discard materials that fall into that “shred it” category which you create and define for your employees. It’s not as difficult as you would think. There are very specific tasks and departments that create the type of documentation you’ll want to destroy later on.
For the documentation that doesn’t need to be shredded right away, but at a certain point in the future, create a secure storage system that no one except a select few have access to. Tax paperwork and employee payroll and employment records fall into this category. Much of this is done electronically now, but you will still want to have hard copies available for audits and legal questions if needed. Keep it as long as you need to and then have it destroyed. It will just be taking up space at that point.
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( 0 / 0 )Do you get rid of it or do you keep it? The decisions about shredding Irvine businesses have to make each day are more complicated than just simply picking the right company to shred documents for them. Before the shredding company can do its job, the company hiring them needs to sort all documents and decide which need to be destroyed and which should be archived in case they’ll be needed later on.
Tax documents that include sensitive company or personal information should be separated for records destruction, but only after enough time has elapsed that you no longer have to worry about audits. In most cases, that period of time is either seven or ten years, but you’ll want to check with your accountant before making that decision. You’ll also want to make sure that wherever you decide to archive those sensitive tax files is a secure location that cannot be accessed by just anyone.
Employee records should be kept as long as the employee is working with the company. Issues pertaining to benefits and disciplinary actions with employees can come up at any time and those records may need to be referenced back to. Even after termination or retirement you’ll need to hang on to the files for a little while just in case any questions arise about severance or retirement payments. In the case of a disciplinary action there is always the possibility of a lawsuit. You should consult with your attorney about the period of time you hold personnel documentation for.
Hiring a mobile shredding service that comes to your place of business to destroy personnel or tax documents is by far the most secure way to go about doing it. If you send the paperwork out to be destroyed or have your own employees do it you’ll be at risk of a security breach. That’s how identity theft happens, the careless storage or destruction of sensitive and personal information. Employees of a mobile service using secure containers never actually touch the paperwork before shredding it, so there’s no risk of any of them seeing material you don’t want viewed by outsiders.
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( 0 / 0 )If you’re looking for benefits and drawbacks of records destruction, you need look no further than your own record keeping system. If you employ a shredding service to destroy records on a regular cycle when they are supposed to be destroyed, that shredding will be a benefit to you. If you destroy records at the wrong time and end up needing them again, then shredding will be a drawback. In other words, shredding is a good idea for any company if you do it right.
The shredding San Diego companies do every year is mainly to get rid of old tax records and any paperwork that contains personal information about either their employees or their customers. The company holding these records has a legal responsibility to keep them confidential. If that personal information gets out, they would be liable for the damage caused by its release. This is reason number one for companies to hire a professional shredding service. In some cases, it’s even required by law.
How does your company keep its records? Are they placed in locked file cabinets and organized according to date? When the time comes to get rid of them, do you shred or do you just dispose of them through regular waste channels? Did you know that dumpsters and waste pick-ups are among the most vulnerable places that personal information can be stolen from? It’s true. Many people have had their identity stolen by throwing away a bank statement or other personal document. Imagine the kind of damage a hacker could do with a whole pile of those thrown out by a company.
Shredding services offer a better alternative for those who need to destroy personal information or sensitive company information that they don’t want getting into the wrong hands. When hiring a service, ask some pointed questions. Make sure that your shredding service is certified by NAID, the National Association for Information Destruction (PRSS is) and ask specifically if they outsource the shredding or do it themselves (PRSS does all shredding in-house). You’ll also want to make sure you get an official certificate of destruction with a date and time the job was completed.
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( 0 / 0 )That pile of client, customer, and employee records building up in the company store room is of no practical use to you after a certain period of time has elapsed. It should be destroyed, particularly if it contains personal information such as dates of birth, social security numbers, or credit card numbers. There’s just no good reason to hang on to it and doing so could put your company at risk. That potential liability you have if personal information gets out is one of the main reasons why you need records destruction.
Just throwing it away is no good. There are actually laws that dictate you have to shred it to prevent it from getting into the wrong hands after disposal. The shredding Los Angeles businesses do every year prevents thousands of cases of identity theft. If you were to put that personal information into a dumpster or other type of unlocked waste container you’d be giving industrial spies and computer hackers the ways and means to see new designs that haven’t been put out to the general public yet, or open new accounts using your name.
Personnel records, cancelled checks, tax records, even old invoices can do a lot of damage to you personally or your company if you don’t hire a shredding service to get rid of them for you when the time comes. Find out from your accountant how long you should keep these records and then destroy them once they’re no good to you anymore. Not only will you be eliminating a potential security risk but you’ll be clearing space in your office that you can put to better use.
Another good reason to hire a shredding company is to eliminate R&D records. When you are working on research and development of a new product, you’ll want to keep the notes and records under lock and key to prevent industrial espionage. Even after that product is launched for the first time, those notes and records can be used by your competitors to duplicate your process, perhaps for much less if the competitor comes from an area where labor is cheaper, like Southeast Asia. Have your R&D Department destroy what they don’t need as they go, with a shredding company, not by just throwing documents in the waste basket.
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