Why document destruction still needs to be a priority for your Tampa business during the COVID-19 crisis

Since the onset of local restrictions and shutdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic, many Tampa businesses have been forced to drastically alter their daily operations. Many businesses are experiencing a dramatic increase in employees working from home. Others are dealing with reduced staff and shifting responsibilities to handle new workloads.

But while our work situations may have undergone some temporary—we hope—changes, the need to protect our customers’ and partners’ confidentiality hasn’t changed. In fact, it’s more important than ever for companies to manage the destruction of old business data.

Working from home

The influx of employees working from home is the most significant business development in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic. WFH arrangements mean that employees are necessarily changing their usual methods of data storage and retrieval. Cloud computing has become the norm, with multiple employees now saving data to external servers rather than in-house or company ones.

This is problematic for a couple of reasons. For one thing, there are more remote entry points to your company’s network than during there were when everyone was working on site. Secondly, employees have even more responsibility when it comes to document handling—and many of them may be employing tracking and disposal methods that best work for them in the privacy of their homes.

If standards aren’t properly implemented for your entire team of remote workers, this could result in data breaches.

How shredding can help

Just as working arrangements have been forcibly altered by the pandemic, document shredding policies must be changed and carefully monitored when work has spread out from a single office to many different homes.

Shredder truck rental is one option, especially for businesses with heavy volumes of work. A larger business may benefit from scheduling a mobile shredder to arrive at predefined times, either shredding it onsite or collecting documents for destruction at the shredder’s place of business.

Smaller businesses may take manage their shredding operations by allowing individual workers to drop off their old documents at walk-in shredding establishments or arranging for pickup services at certain intervals.

Get certification

With so many disparate locations and methods of shredding during the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s especially vital to keep track of each step in the destruction process. To maintain their high levels of responsibility, businesses need to obtain certificates of destruction from the shredding companies they employ. A valid shredding business will offer formal certification of each job they complete as a regular part of their standard service.

Data compromise doesn’t rest during pandemics or economic slowdowns—your Tampa business still needs to stay on top of your customers’ privacy and your data’s security. ShredQuick can help keep you safe and compliant. Contact us to find out more.