To shred or not to shred…. is no longer the question. You know you need a shredder, but which one is right for you? Purchasing a shredder can be a daunting task, especially when you consider how many different options are available. How can you tell which one is right for you?
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This dilemma is easy to resolve with 3 simple questions:
This is the difference between building a highway and a dirt road – how high-traffic is your office? The number of people using your shredder on a daily basis determines the size of the shredder you’ll need to buy. The size of the shredder is important because it defines how often you’ll need to empty the shred bin. Run time is also important feature for a shredder as it defines how long the shredder can run before it needs to cool down. If only one person needs access to the shredder, then a small shredder with a shorter run time is perfect for your office. If 20 people need access to the shredder for the destruction of their 100-page reports before noon, then it’s safe to say that you need the marathon runner of shredders, with a large bin capacity and minimal downtime.
After you’ve answered the first question, this one will be relatively easy, since the waste bin’s capacity is directly related to the shredder’s size. High capacity shredders generally have larger waste bins so they don’t have to be emptied daily, even after heavy use.
The sheet capacity tells you how many sheets can be fed into the shredder at once. Sheet capacity is an important feature – it’s the difference between getting pages shredded and getting back to your desk and needing to stake out a spot by the shredder for an overnight vigil. Unlike shredder size, sheet capacity doesn’t correlate to the size of the shredder. Many small and medium-sized shredders have high sheet capacities. Some large shredders have small sheet capacities. This is where you stop to consider the volume of the documents you need to shred. Do you need to shred large volumes of paper on a consistent basis? Or will a shredder with a smaller sheet capacity do the job just fine? Picking a shredder with the right sheet capacity will cut down on wait time, increase productivity, and reduce your workplace headaches.
Nowadays, security is a primary concern for most businesses. It’s also a primary consideration when you’re looking at shredders. The security level of a shredder determines how thoroughly the document is shredded. Higher security shredders cut documents into smaller pieces, making them harder to reassemble. The kinds of documents that you need to shred are a primary determinant of the kind of shredder you need to buy. Security is the last puzzle piece in your decision-making process, and it is easily the most important one. Take some time to look at different shredders with different security levels, before you decide which one is right for your business.
Shredder security is directly tied to cut style [link to cut style article] and ranges from a P-1 to a P-7. The minimum standard for shredding any type of document with confidential information on it, including bank statements and social security numbers, is a P-4 Super Cross-Cut shredder. Shredders that rate P-3 and below are a great choice for junk mail and anything else that doesn’t contain sensitive information. If you’re looking for a high security shredder, the P-5 Micro-Cut shredder is an excellent choice, especially for the most sensitive documents. Micro-Cut shredders are a common choice when security is the biggest concern. You’ll see them at financial firms, law practices, government entities and even in private homes.
These three critical questions are all that stands between you and your brand-new shredder. After giving these questions some careful consideration, you’re certain to pick the shredder that’s right for you and your business. Happy shredding!
Do you have unwanted documents that you need to shred and are thinking of buying a shredder to handle destruction on your own? A shredder machine may seem like a helpful tool, but will it protect your sensitive documents from theft and other information security concerns?
Here are eight questions to ask yourself when buying a paper shredder machine for your office:
The most important reason for using or buying a shredder is to avoid a security breach.
Sensitive documents, whether bank statements, legal or medical reports, social security numbers or confidential business information, must be properly destroyed to protect data from illegal and unethical use. Throwing personal documents into the trash or recycling bin can have devasting outcomes for employees, customers and stakeholders. When it comes to protecting information security, shredding is the gold standard.
The number of employees using your shredder will determine the size of the machine that you must buy. If the shredder is too small, the waste bin will need to be emptied more frequently, increasing labour costs and slowing productivity.
Run time must also be considered when buying a shredder machine. This is how long the shredder can operate before needing a break to cool down. An office with a large workforce should buy a shredder designed for heavy-duty, continual use.
The simple answer to this question is: destroy everything that has any sort of sensitive information. A shred-all policy is what many companies follow.
A shred-all policy is necessary to keep confidential information secure and avoid a devasting data leak. This means that all workers must shred all documents and confidential workplace information, including employee, management, company, customer and professional data.
Shredding isn’t limited to physical documents either. A shred-all policy also includes physical destruction of all forms of confidential data, such as electronic information found on hard drives, backup tapes, optical media and mobile devices.
Security is a top concern of businesses – and it should be a primary concern when buying a shredder. Cut style and size are directly linked to the security level of a machine.
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When researching a shredder, there are three common cutting styles to choose from:
Strip-cut shredders destroy documents into long, narrow strips that data thieves can easily reconstruct. This type of shredder is not suitable for confidential records due to its lower security levels.
Cross-cut shredders destroy records into smaller particles by cutting the paper diagonally from both corners, so it’s nearly unreadable. These shredders provide a medium level of security and are not recommended for highly sensitive documents.
Micro-cut shredders destroy paper diagonally from both corners into square-shaped particles that are practically unreadable. If buying a shredder for your organization, a micro-cut machine offers a higher level of security. Financial corporations, law firms, medical offices and government entities commonly use these shredders.
Investing in a good shredder is essential for optimal performance and information security.
A basic office shredder can only destroy small volumes of documents, and a metal clip or staple is likely to cause a paper jam. Additionally, these shredders strip-cut documents, which increases the risk of identity theft and fraud.
A more powerful cross-cut shredder can destroy paper and other media, such as CDs, DVDs and plastic cards, through a dedicated slot. However, most shredders do not have separate waste bins to prevent plastic shreds from contaminating particles before recycling.
Sheet capacity and waste bin capacity are essential considerations because both factors impact productivity.
Sheet capacity tells how many sheets of paper can be fed into the machine at once, while waste bin capacity determines how often a shredder machine will need to be emptied. Generally, the higher the sheet capacity and the larger the waste bin volume will ensure faster document destruction and minimize how often the receptacle needs to be emptied.
Buying a shredder may seem affordable, but it will cost a lot more in the long run. Using trained employees for paper shredding is a time-consuming process that decreases productivity and increases labour costs.
Let’s crunch the numbers:
If your staff members average two minutes of shredding per day, earn an average hourly wage of $29.70 and work 22 days per month, the monthly labour costs will be $222.75. And, that’s only for one employee and does not include maintenance costs, clearing paper jams, removing paper clips or destroying large amounts of files. There are better ways for employees to spend their time – and using a shredder to shred sensitive documents is not it.
While destroying documents in-house may seem like an easy and cost-effective solution, it will never fully protect your business, employees and clients from a serious security breach.
A better choice is outsourcing document destruction to a NAID AAA Certified service instead of buying a shredder machine to do it yourself.
By working with a professional provider, you’ll be able to witness your confidential materials being destroyed in an industrial shredder truck at your location, ensuring a complete chain of custody. Your sensitive data will be shredded into small cross-cut pieces and mixed with other shredded materials, so it can never be reconstructed.
At the end of every service, you’ll also receive a Certificate of Destruction, which is essential to remain compliant with privacy laws.
Blue-Pencil provides affordable on-site document destruction services within the Greater Toronto Area and Southern Ontario to help organizations improve their information security.
We offer one-time and reoccurring shredding services, whether you need to destroy old records, computer hard drives or expired products. We also provide a Certificate of Destruction upon completing every service to prove that documents were destroyed and recycled according to privacy laws.
Contact us to discuss your requirements of Hook Shredder. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.