How raising staff awareness is important to maximise security levels.

May 25th came and went.  There was so much hype beforehand about the dreaded GDPR deadline and yet it came, it went and not so much has been heard about those four letters since then.  For our part in Highline Office Technology, we talk about it all the time; in meetings, in proposals, in blogs, at networking, on our website, on our social media postings…and why? Because it’s of vital importance, that’s why!

We are in the business of managing data, from its construction, i.e. printing, to its placement, i.e. what happens to the document, to its destruction, i.e. how it’s disposed of or destructed, so our interest in GDPR is quite substantial, as it follows the lifespan of every piece of paper in an office.

Without a shadow of a doubt, the overwhelming response is negative, unaware or worse still, indifferent. We would strongly urge business owners to educate their staff in the handling and destroying of documents, as part of their GDPR policies, if they are serious about aiding the organisation to be effective in its document management systems and to avoid any nasty repercussions.

How many people have heard of GDPR? How many people have made changes?

Once paper is printed out, businesses need to have a very clear policy about what happens next, what to do with sensitive documents and with that raising staff awareness is crucial to remaining compliant.  All staff members should be trained on accessing, handling, storing and destroying personal data – this should be an integral part of any GDPR compliance plan.

Staff should clearly understand what constitutes personal and sensitive data and be aware of how to handle it or indeed, destroy it in order to render it harmless. Rendering the documents harmless depends on having the right security level shredder.  Find out more here.

The safest and most secure solution is to invest in an in-house shredder as companies and organisations can maintain control of their document destruction.  It’s also a very cost effective solution!

For organisations that employ external parties to carry out mobile shredding or off-site shredding services, the client company must be aware of the uncertainties that come with this solution. This graphic shows the steps in each choice.  What could possibly go wrong?  We’ll delve further into this topic in our next blog!

Raise Staff Awareness To Maximise Security Levels

SafesandShredders.ie

For a consultation contact us on sales@safesandshredders.ie or 01 4097034 for assistance in choosing the right shredder for your office or organisation.