Benefits and Solutions to a Paperless Working Environment

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has forced a lot of businesses to work remotely and whilst the majority of businesses have chosen to return to the workplace, there are many that have continued to work at home, until further notice is given that they must return to work.

This means that the need for paperless working solutions is greater than ever even especially with the growing environmental concerns specifically related to paper usage, and specifically paper wastage in the workplace.

This raises the question, what options are available for making the move towards a paperless office and what benefits come with it.

Digitising your old paper documents and files

It is estimated that the average office worker uses 10,000 sheets of paper each year with over 6,800 sheets going to waste and moving to a paperless future can drastically help reduce the wastage produced and benefit the working environment.

Not only is the amount of paper used by office workers leading to greater waste but also additional costs for businesses. If you consider how much money is spent of paper on a monthly or yearly business, there are definitely opportunities to shrink this cost down by choosing the digital approach.

Digitising your documents is the quickest and most efficient way of getting your old paper documents online and there a number of companies that offer this service to businesses across a number of sectors.

The digitising process (often referred to as document scanning) involves scanning and uploading your documents before providing you with safe and secure access to them whenever you may require a specific document or file.

Benefits of a paperless working environment

The scanning of your paper documents and files can have large internal and external benefits to a business and make your workplace more efficient overall.

The benefits of a paperless office or working environment include:

• Space saving– having all your documents online removes the need for large filing cabinets or stacks of paper around the workplace, freeing up useful space.
• Increased efficiency– online documents can be easily accessed by anyone in the office as and when they are required and any changes can be saved and shared quickly and easily
• Greater security– digitising and scanning your old paper documents and files can improve the security of those documents and make them less accessible to would be criminals. This is especially important for businesses and companies that utilise a lot of sensitive information on a daily basis.
• Eco friendly– having all of your documents and files online greatly reduces the need for paper in your office and will, therefore, greatly reduce the potential waste which can have positive environmental benefits as well as help boost your business’ brand and image

Ultimately, the attitudes of the world and the unfortunate situation we currently find ourselves in are paving the way for a paperless future and digitising/scanning your documents can have huge social and financial benefits regardless of the sector or industry you operate in.