Many business leaders tend to archive and store documents. However, it is strongly advised to destroy them. For a company, the destruction of documents is of paramount importance. This is even a necessity when the documents are of a confidential nature. For this, there are rules to follow when you want to destroy documents in a company. So, without further ado, let’s dive into this blog and learn some of the rules to follow before destroying business documents.
1. Choose the right time to destroy documents
Most business leaders avoid destroying documents related to their business activities because they do not know what the future holds. In reality, they do not know if the destruction of archives is a necessity. They can destroy business documents, but they need to know when to do so. In general, the destruction of business documents, whether administrative documents or personal documents, occurs once a year.
This is an operation that is not exceptional and concerns the archives that you have kept for the entire legal period. It must be said that the periodicity of the destruction of a document depends on its nature. Legislation has provided for retention periods for documents depending on their nature. They are between:
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- A year
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- Two years
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- Five years
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- And ten years.
Finally, documents such as title deeds, payslips, and others can be kept indefinitely.
2. Think about data security
The protection of personal data is now a challenge for any company. Indeed, when you misplace a document containing personal information, it could have serious consequences. It is, therefore, more urgent than ever to destroy company documents.
For this task, some companies prefer to buy grinders, while others prefer to entrust them to subcontractors. Whichever option you choose, the most important thing is that you can protect your personal data or that of your customers. This is an essential rule that all companies must respect when they want to destroy their documents.
3. Destroy documents on company premises
After having decided to destroy the documents of the company, it is also necessary to choose the place where the operation must take place. It depends on the method of destruction you have chosen. Do you have a shredder to do it, or are you going to hire a document destruction specialist?
If you choose the first option, the destruction should take place on company premises. However, you will have to think about waste management. On the other hand, if you prefer to use the services of a company specializing in document destruction, the operation can also take place on the premises of the company or at the facilities of the document destruction specialist.
Destroy documents at the subcontractor’s premises
The subcontractor can destroy the documents in your company and proceed at the same time to clean the premises. He can also bring them back to another site. In this case, he will send a truck which will be responsible for recovering all the documents from being destroyed. However, it is better to witness the destruction of documents.
This is the only way for you to be sure that everything has been done correctly. You will also receive a certificate of destruction. It is important to note that when documents are found to be destroyed somewhere, it is the managers of the company who are considered to be primarily responsible, regardless of whether they have subcontracted a company to carry out the destruction.
It is, therefore, preferable to destroy the documents on your premises, especially if the company domiciliation rules have been respected. Here are three rules to follow when you decide to destroy business documents.
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