Document Shredding Policy

We will help you implement an effective Information Destruction Program that will meet regulatory compliance.

Implementing an information destruction program in your company is not only essential, but it is required by federal and state laws. Every data protection regulation in the United States requires that businesses and organizations train employees to protect individuals, clients, and employees’ private information even when the documents are no longer needed.
The regulations require that you have a written Information Destruction Policy that every employee is trained on, and you must have signed verification from each employee that they have received a copy of the policy and received the required training. It goes further to require that every employee have an annual policy refresher and be retrained if there have been any changes in the document shredding policy.

At any time, a state officer may walk into your office and ask to see your written information destruction policy and the signed employee verifications of training. If you are not compliant, you could face stiff penalties and fines.

According to government officials, organizations that properly train employees to protect private information will not be fully responsible if an employee acts contradict the document shredding policy they have been trained on. The only time an organization will be responsible for any violation of a regulation is when they cannot demonstrate they have provided the proper policy training in advance.

Privacy laws have made training a legal requirement because it works. Employees who have been trained understand the importance of protecting private information and the necessity to comply with the firm’s destruction policy and procedures.

FileShred has made The Employee Information Destruction Training Program simple and not time consuming. Because we have made it simple, it in no way takes away from its effectiveness or compliance value. It is a four-step process;

Step 1:  Employees watch a 14 minute video on Information Destruction. The video will explain why proper security and shredding are critical to the organization and one of the requirements for their continued employment.

Step 2:  Provide all employees with written instructions on the organization’s specific information destruction procedures. As your shredding vendor, we will be glad to provide you with a sample short document that you can use or you can create your own. We suggest that you have your attorney review and approve the document.

Step 3:   Employees verify that they have viewed the training video, understand the written destruction instructions, and agree that ongoing compliance is a condition of their employment.

Step 4:   Establish a follow up system that reminds management of the annual employee refresher training. This also requires written verification by employees.

Having a document shredding policy in place with employee training and a “Shred-All” policy will practically eliminate the chance of a potentially devastating security breach or violation of any privacy laws. Employees no longer have to waste time with reviewing documents to decide if they should or should not be shredded. All employees have to know is that any document that has outlived its usefulness is going to be deposited in a security container and shredded.

Give FileShred a call today and we can get you on your way to having an effective and compliant Information Destruction Program in place.