Paperless Office Improves Efficiency and Reduces Environmental Impact

When a company decides to move from a paper environment into a paperless environment, the company makes a big leap forward into improving the efficiency of its employees and the reduction of environmental impact. Not only that, the company will have also made a move to significantly reduce its operational costs.

A paperless office improves employee efficiency in many ways. In the human resources department, one HR personnel can easily manage the records of hundreds of personnel very efficiently. Employee records are in electronic format thus the HR personnel do not have to spend so much time in going through paper documents, filing them accordingly, or retrieving them.

When it comes to other departments, the efficiency of the employees is increased because they have a way to easily manage and track their workload. In a single screen, they can view all of the documents that they need to work on.

Efficiency is also increased because the documents are quickly routed to the concerned individuals, even if some individuals are in a remote location. An employee may be working in the field and still be informed of documents that they need to be aware of.

A paperless office greatly improves the productivity of each and every employee. Less time is spent on searching for records meaning more time can be spent working on the tasks required.

Another good reason to move to a paperless office is to reduce the environmental impact. In a paper environment, the environment is affected in so many ways. Our natural resources are consumed faster than we can develop them. More trees are cut down every year than planted. Forests around the world are disappearing at a startling pace.

The processing of paper and even the recycling of paper leaves chemical wastes that are sipped into the earth or routed into the rivers and oceans. The earth’s fresh water supply is greatly affected and so is the marine environment.

Many environmental disasters can be attributed to the use of paper. The move to a paperless office will significantly improve the condition of our environment. Recycling paper may help our environment but only to a limited extent.

One of the solutions to the environmental crisis that we are in today is to completely stop or significantly reduce our paper usage. A 100% paperless office may not be possible for many organizations, but a paper usage reduction of even 50% will greatly contribute to helping our environment.

Millions and even billions of dollars are wasted every year around the world due to the widespread usage of paper. The use of paper not only hurts our economy, but our environment as well. The more companies that move towards becoming a paperless office, the more we can help our environment. The fewer trees are cut down each year, the greater the chances are of improving the quality of air that we breathe and the quality of water that we drink every day. A simple move to a paperless office will help to improve our quality of life.

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Going Paperless has some Real Advantages

A truly paperless office has still not been possible even with today’s advancement in technology. However, the advantages of a paperless office can already be realized even if a company has not reached a 100% paperless status. Let’s take a look at the advantages and benefits of a paperless office.

Less Paper Means Reduced Cost

Probably the most important advantage of a paperless office to a company is cost reduction. A reduction of operational costs literally translates into an increase in revenues. There are many different ways that the company will be able to reduce costs and not only in the cost of purchasing paper.

A company will be able to reduce costs in purchasing and maintaining paper reproduction equipment. Reproduction equipments are quite expensive and maintenance costs are also pretty high as well. In fact, many of these equipments need maintenance contracts.

Store costs will also be reduced as well. Filing cabinets, file folders, binders and other items required to store paper documents will no longer be required. The cost of these items can be quite substantial especially in a large operation.

A company will also have more space available to their employees. In many companies, a whole room may be dedicated to reproduction. Another room is dedicated to storage, in some companies a whole warehouse is dedicated to storage.

Productivity is also increased when a company goes paperless. Employees will be able to quickly access the documents that they require. Employees in remote locations will also benefit from going paperless because they do not have to worry about instructions or important information that is printed on paper that they are not aware of.

Security is a major concern for many companies. Paper copies of memos, internal and external correspondence can easily be left lying around or worse, thrown in the trash without being shredded. In a paperless office, documents can easily be secured. Different security levels may also be applied according to the sensitivity of a certain document. Access to the database can be controlled and restricted at any time.

The human resources department is one of the departments that are affected in terms of workload when a company grows. Every employee has a corresponding employee record and a human resources department needs to keep track of different paper documents in a single employee record. If the company has thousands of employees and intends to employ hundreds more due to company growth, the human resources department will need to track thousands of documents more.

In a paperless office, employee records are all electronic thus the human resources department can easily track and update an employee record. Finance and payroll departments are also in the same boat.

A paperless office produces less paper wastes. Every year a company needs to deal with tons of paper wastes. Most of these wastes are pieces of paper that only had a temporary purpose. In a paperless office, the amount of waste paper is significantly reduced. This means that the company saves a good amount of money in the procurement of paper that is only to be used for temporary reasons.

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