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Taking The Office Paperless

Posted On: Sep 6, 2018

Most companies still rely heavily on paper use to meet the needs of clients and regulatory/legal requirements. With a more widespread use of tablets and mobile devices, there has been a major shift in society to be less paper dependent.

Here are some practical ways to reduce the amount of paper currently used, as well as some easy ways to keep employees involved in the process:

Get Everyone on Board

Many employees have little to no idea how much paper they are using in a given day at the office. This would be a good time to start recording paper use and showing employees how many reams of paper they go through in a month. Giving them a visual can help them understand the importance of cutting back on printing.

To get employees on board with using less paper, show them new ways to store and organize files on their computers or company servers. Having clear guidelines for how documents should be saved and managed will make it more efficient for employees. This will help save time, but also money on the paper they are not using. Once a system is in place, stick to the plan. Let employees know this is the new process, train them on how the process works and follow up to make sure they are implementing it properly.

Minimize Printers in Workplace

Most electronics have become very affordable, making it easier to have one of everything at each employee’s desk. In many cases, this includes printers. This makes it simple for employees to print at any time; however, it also makes it more common for them to print more than they usually would if they had to walk across the office to get the pages they printed. Taking the printers from their desks and putting one or two printers in common areas, may cut down on printing costs.

Digitize Meeting Handouts and Notes

Usually when you are giving a presentation, you already have your slides and notes on your screen. Many meetings start with handouts so that others in the meeting can follow along. Using a screen sharing service, which allows them to see the slides as the meeting progresses using their laptops, is a great alternative to this. Another way for them to follow along easily would be to have tablets accessible during meetings to view the meeting materials. Save the slides and notes in a folder on the company server and employees can reference the material by doing a simple search inside the folder and pulling up the needed information.

Request Electronic Contracts and Signatures

Many companies are faced with the challenge of still having to physically sign contracts and important documents. This means they first have to print out the contract, sign it, then either scan/email back, or fax it over to the client. When possible, request clients to electronically sign contracts and email back the document. Electronic signatures are as legally valid as signed hard copies. Forms that need to be filled out by employees can also be filled out and signed electronically using services like Adobe. This eliminates the need to print out the form.

If you must still use paper…

Since every office at some point will still have to use paper, ways to use it responsibly would be to use both sides of the paper to take notes or use scrap paper when possible. Printing on both sides of the paper can also cut waste. Start a recycling program in the office and have a desk-sized recycle bin for paper under each desk, while making sure employees know the process of how the recycling program works.

taking office paperless