Paper clutter can take up a lot of space around the office. When there is too much clutter, it can become easy to lose important documents and you might waste precious time trying to find a document. All of this paper is also bad for the environment since trees need to be cut down. Fortunately, there are ways to reduce paper usage around the office.
Convert to Paperless Billing
Your business will likely be billed for various services. However, these services are often easily digitized because you can simply request paperless billing. You can also set up automatic billing so that expenses are deducted from your account.
Offer Telecommute as an Option
Asking workers to telecommute is one way to reduce paper waste and lower expenses. When employees can work from anywhere, your office can communicate with an employee digitally rather than having to send hard copies of documents. For example, an employee can download training materials and read them with a pdf reader rather than reading a printed-out manual that could easily be lost.
Digitize Documents Sitting Around in Storage
One of the biggest problems with so much paper is that you may struggle to determine where you should put it. You might already be short on office space. You may have already changed how you do business so that much of your business is handled digitally, but what do you do about the documents that are sitting in storage? To digitize everything, you'll need an enterprise content management (ECM) software program that will allow you to scan and store a large number of documents efficiently.
Digitize Your Workflow
Once you have digitized your documents, you'll want to change your business processes so that they can also be digitized. For example, applicants can submit their resumes digitally by filling out forms, which makes the document digital from the point of creation. Those who submit their resumes in paper form can have them scanned so that they are searchable, making it easier to sift through a pile of applicants.
Organize and Categorize with ECM Software
When content has already become digitized, it's important to manage it so that documents aren't lost. Filing and categorizing documents can make it easier to find them and search for them, and it will also help eliminate redundancy and free up space. Then, documents can be viewed or edited. You can also use metadata.
For more information on enterprise content management, contact a content management firm.