Going paperless at the workplace isn’t just about being environmentally conscious. According to a 2018 case study by Paperless Europe Ltd, nearly a 5% increase in productivity levels as well as significant time savings across the entire accounts department was observed when businesses went paperless.
According to data published by Reduce.org, the average office worker uses 10,000 sheets of copy paper each year. In fact, the United States alone consumes around 30% of the paper produced worldwide. Paper documentation isn’t just costly in itself—the cost of using paper in the office is estimated to be up to 31 times the cost of purchasing the paper in the first place! The process of sending information via paper involves filing, copying, postage, and more, all of which add to the cost, apart from the expense of the space required for filing cabinets, off-site archival storage, fire protection, climate control, access control, and more, needed for the management of all this paper.
Businesses are moving to a paperless system to stay competitive in the modern business world. Moving to a paperless workplace is simplified by providers of professional document management services, including document scanning and digital storage, which then increases the overall satisfaction and productivity levels of employees due to easy access to documentation, says an expert at Global Document Services.
Here are a few other ways going paperless by using digital scanning and storage helps growth and productivity for businesses.
Reduces Mental Stress
In offices operating majorly on paper documents, paper getting unnecessarily printed and shared around the office is a common scenario. However, the worst part is that all this paper then piles up on the work desk. No matter how much time the employee invests in managing and organizing paper documents, the workspace continues to look cluttered and disorganized. A disorganized desk often results in misplaced documents and lost information. Since it becomes highly difficult to figure out where a paper document is at a given time, the stress levels drastically increase. If an employee’s desk is disorganized, they often get self conscious of the perceptions of their co-workers regarding their work ethics. Instead of wasting time on good practices and techniques to organize the desk, it is practical to go paperless through document scanning and digital storage services.
Allows Persistence
Will you follow somebody who quits after the first failure and is unable to make decisions quickly? Persistence is the most important leadership skill that demonstrates commitment. It is the ability of a person to direct themselves to do something they know they should be doing. In the words of Napoleon Hill, “Persistence is to the character of a man as carbon is to steel.”
According to Harvard Business Review, workers exposed to neat and clean environments persevered with a task 1.5 times longer than those exposed to messy space. Mess creates a threat of employees losing their personal control over their workspace.
Schedules Become Flexible
Going paperless and digital allows employees to access files on the go and even from the comfort of their home. There is no limitation in terms of working hours. This decreases the stress of completing tasks during traditional working hours, which makes the staff more relaxed and at ease, while increasing their productivity.
Allows Proper Customer Service
According to data from Reliable Plant, published by NORIA, the average person wastes 4.3 hours per week searching for papers. Endlessly looking for important documents only adds to the frustration and stress amongst employees at the workplace. This reduces their ability to think creatively and focus on a given task. The biggest impact of cluttered spaces is on the efficiency in servicing customers. This aspect of a business is severely hampered due to mishandling of paperwork. This can make businesses lose clients and future business opportunities.
Having everything available digitally at all times makes it easy to make effective decisions and communicate promptly.
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