Paper in the office is not fun. If you are dreaming of getting rid of your mountains and mountains of paperwork, well, you’re not alone. Many people love the idea of having a paperless office, but are often not sure as to whether or not they should make the switch. The bottom line is that there are just too many benefits to going paperless to ignore. Once you’ve made this change, you can be sure of this one key fact: you won’t go back to an office full of paper ever again!

Item 1: What’s Your Strategy for Going Paperless?

You’re staring at all of those filing cabinets and banker’s boxes, wondering if you’ve really got to go back in time and scan all of that material. That thought alone has stopped many offices from embarking on a change that would have otherwise made their ongoing work much, much more efficient. The simple fact is, a paperless office is more efficient and better protected from loss. But if you overwhelm yourself and your staff from the get-go, you’re almost guaranteed to fail.

That’s why you need a strategy. The best recommendation for most offices is to switch to paperless going forward. Decide how you’re going to organize your electronic files (tip: making it match your paper filing will make the transition easiest on your staff). Then put a scanning policy in place and stick to it … going forward. Baby steps! Once your staff has gotten comfortable with the new system, they can feel free to pull in old material as it’s needed.

What about the really old stuff? That’s your call. Some businesses hang onto it until their retention period has run, then shred it. Others want the old stuff digitized too, and end up hiring temporary help to bring it into the system. Whatever your plan, make it deliberate and make sure it doesn’t burden your staff.

(Related: 4 Tips to Moving from Paper to Paperless) Read more ›