Top Factors to Consider When Choosing a Shredding Provider

Outsourcing many business tasks is as easy as picking up the phone, but handing over your document shredding is more complicated. You must make sure your vendor complies with privacy regulations and protects the confidentiality of your information. Here are several factors to consider when choosing a shredding partner:

Experience

Whether you’re an attorney, doctor, or retail store owner, make sure your provider has experience serving law firms, healthcare organizations, banks, and financial services companies. Just as a reputable shredding provider will have client confidentiality agreements, they should also have customer references verifying the scope and quality of their services.

Hiring Practices

The people shredding your documents should be highly trained and trustworthy. Make sure your shredding provider has vetted its employees with a background screening. Each information destruction professional who handles your documents should also be bonded and insured.

Chain of Custody

Tracking your documents during destruction is as important as tracking them during retention. A chain of custody documents the shredding process, minimizing identity theft risks and ensuring compliance with privacy laws.

Technology

Ongoing investments in best-in-class, industry-leading technologies are evidence that your shredding provider takes the privacy of your information seriously. Make sure the company you’re thinking about partnering with uses state-of-the-art paper shredding and baling technology, vehicle GPS and alarm systems, and advanced bar code tracking technology.

Professional Affiliations

Privacy protection, dependability, and cost are important factors when choosing a shredding services provider, but don’t overlook a prospective vendor’s involvement in industry organizations, including the following:

• The National Association for Information Destruction (NAID)
• Association of Legal Administrators (ALA)

Involvement and active leadership in these organizations is an indicator of a potential shredding vendor’s commitment to information destruction best practices and their understanding of industry-specific compliance issues.

NAID AAA Certification

NAID AAA Certification is the gold standard for determining a shredding provider’s commitment to industry-standard ethics and security. The National Association of Information Destruction (NAID) provides oversight for the shredding and destruction industry. NAID verifies whether a shredding vendor complies with industry requirements by assessing the following areas in stringent, surprise audits:

• Personnel screening practices
• Equipment and facility safety
• Insurance requirements

Make sure your shredding provider is NAID AAA Certified.

Richards & Richards provides NAID AAA Certified secure shredding services for businesses throughout Nashville. For more tips on choosing a shredding services provider, please contact us by phone or complete the form on this page.