The transition to a paperless office

Making the move to a more eco-conscious and green office space has been a trend that many businesses have been following over the past decade. It’s the kind of move that helps save the business money and resources, while also providing a positive benefit for the environment. If you own a company that is looking to go greener moving forward, transitioning to a paperless office should be high on the list of priorities.

Let’s take a look at some of the steps a business can take as it transitions to a paperless environment.

Discuss the Plan with Your Employees

Before you can start making any concrete moves you need to discuss the plan with employees. You need everyone on board and excited about this move so that it becomes the new normal in the modern office. You can highlight all the benefits of going paperless, emphasizing the environmental factors.

Before you have the discussion with your employees you need to have a solid plan that you can communicate to them. Let them know what steps they will need to take and what the expectations are. Make sure to hammer home that you are in it together, and everyone will need to play a role to make a paperless office a reality.

Do You Need New or Additional Software?

This is a good time to analyze the software you are currently using and determine if you need something new or different to fill the gap in paper files. If so, you need to factor in the time needed for employees motivation and training on the new software.

Get a Virtual Postal Mail Inbox

Another step you can take is to get a virtual postal mail inbox that puts an end to the paper mail being delivered to your office, such as the service offered by Physical Address. You will have physical mail addresses to use, where all mail can be sent. Employees then open everything and scan it into your private digital mailbox. You have full control to view, forward, organize, manage and trash the content in your digital mailbox. This can be a very important step in your goal to transition to a paperless office and it provides many benefits.

All Paper Files Need to Be Digitized

The biggest job will be to take all the paper files and documents that currently exist in the company and digitize them. It should be simple in terms of the steps required, but it will be time-consuming. Depending on the size of the company and how many files you have, this can take weeks, if not months to complete.

Do You Have Adequate Data Backup?

Because you will no longer have hard copies of files and documents you need to be sure that you have a solid data backup system in place. That could include backing up to the Cloud, a server and/or external hard drives.

Transitioning to a paperless office will be a process but it pays off in several ways and is well worth the effort.