Documents are very crucial, and they help us store essential information. Documents also act as reference points for decisions that were made in the past. Documents found in the office will determine the level of transparency and honesty your employees operate in. However, when stored poorly, documents could land in the wrong person’s hands, get destroyed, and the information in the documents gets distorted. In this blog, let us explore some of the top five ways that you can use to keep your documents safe.
Lock Your Cabinets
In most organizations, you will find their documents lying over the shelves and cabinets. This leaves the document vulnerable as anyone can easily distort crucial information. Ensure that every cabinet has a lock that can easily be locked when the documents are not being used to secure your documents. Thanks to today’s technology that has made it possible for organizations to use smart locks, which requires authentication before the locks can be accessed.
Notably, you can work with your record-keeping department for organizations with lots of documents and have all the documents sorted out. Let all the documents with confidential information, especially the legal documents, be stored in a secure legal document storage. In contrast, documents that do not contain crucial information can be stored in non-lockable cabinets.
Establish a Record Management Department
This is crucial for large companies that have documents circulating throughout the firm. Documents are the primary source of formal communication in most companies. Managers will use documents to convey information to their subordinates. Thus the company must establish an excellent record-keeping department to ensure every document is safe.
Some of the roles of the record-keeping department include planning, monitoring, and organizing documentation and documentation policies to ensure that the firm can account for every document. Record management also monitors the usage of documents and ensures that documents are disposed of properly.
Documents that are not disposed of properly could also put an organization at the risk of losing crucial information. The best way to dispose of documents is by using a paper shredder that will cut the documents into small pieces that cannot be read.
Proper Labeling
It’s possible to lose your documents in a house with lots of books and documents. However, by labeling your documents, you will reduce the time spent accessing a document and prevent possible loss of the document. You can use various techniques to label your document, such as alphabetically and numerically labeling. In alphabetical labeling, you will label your documents using the letters of alphabets, while in numerical labeling, you will label documents using numbers.
Besides this, you may consider labeling your documents according to the date the document was created or according to its purpose. Moreover, to get the best from labels, make sure that your labels are clear and bold to ensure that they can easily be located. Additionally, it is significant you make sure that your cabins and shelves are well labeled also as this will go a long way in ensuring that your documents are not misplaced.
Control Document Access
Did you know that not every person should assess your documents? Some documents contain crucial information that everyone should not access. Thus, soft copy documents in flash disks, hard disks, and computers should be well secured with passwords’; good passwords should comprise numericals, letters, and symbols, which should prove difficult for hackers to crack.
Additionally, as an organization, you should have a clear set of rules and regulations that monitor and regulate the people that access certain documents. For example, the company’s archive should be a no-go zone for non-staff. This will always make it possible for the record managers to quickly track any documents missing in the company.
Shred Unneeded Documents
At a certain point, you mightn’t need specific documents any more. That doesn’t mean they should just be thrown away, however, as it puts the information on these documents at risk. It could be a privacy violation. It’s much better to destroy these documents instead. Local shredding services can be a quick and easy way of doing this, alongside being affordable.
Offer Employee Training and Education on Record Management
As mentioned earlier, record management is the discipline of human resource management responsible for the creation of documents, management, circulation, and disposal of documents. Unlike other human resource courses requiring you to enroll in a college for a couple of years, record management is a straightforward module. You could hire a professional in this line to come and educate your employee on tips that they can use to improve their record-keeping skills.
There is much to discuss regarding proper record keeping and documentation, and these are just a few tips that will help you keep your documents safe. Incorporating these tips in your workplace will increase efficiency and productivity by ensuring that your documents are always safe.
