For decades, filing cabinets containing hundreds of folders filled with documents have been a pretty standard sight in offices everywhere. However, things have changed considerably from the time when paper was the only option. Now, more and more companies are embracing the convenience of going paperless.

They’re realizing that what’s good for the environment is good for them too.

Going digital offers many benefits, the biggest one being that digital documents are easier to store, organize and search through. Here are a few ways you can move your workplace to a totally paperless one:

1. Make it a Part of Your Company Culture

To start the transition, you’ll first need to build consensus among your employees. Unless their managers and leaders take the initiative, many people don’t actually ditch paper in their professional work, even if they want to.

Educate your employees about the productivity and time-saving benefits of switching to digital documentation and discuss any doubts that they may have. This way, they’ll feel involved in the decision and are more likely to support the move.

2. Remember to Start Small

Change doesn’t come overnight, so it’s important to manage expectations, both yours and your employees’. First, develop a timeline in which your company can be reasonably expected to complete the process of going paperless. Then, put the change into effect by starting with one thing, such as switching to digital invoices instead of paper ones.

3. Get into the Scanning Habit

This phase will take some time, but it’s worth it. While you’re taking small steps to a paper-free office, your company will still be receiving documents from outside as well as sharing various files internally. It’s the right time to get your company into the habit of scanning every document and filing it away digitally.

You might even want to incentivize the scanning process by offering a bonus or other rewards to the person who finishes scanning all of their documents in a month.

4. Encourage Electronic Note-Taking and Signing
Reduce the number of inter-office documents making their way around the building in the shape of minutes, notes and memos. Recommend that all your employees switch to note-taking on smartphones or tablets. They can then transfer these notes to their work computers. Obviously, the security and confidentiality of internal communication will need to be given the utmost importance. Signatures can also be easily done electronically, as there is software available to let you place your digital signature via finger or stylus, or insert it as an image.

5. Implement a Document Management System That Works for You:

As you work towards achieving a paperless workplace, there will inevitably come a time when the convenient digital documents will be too numerous to handle. Don’t wait until that moment to deal with the inevitable.

Invest in a comprehensive document management solution which can handle your documentation and is suitable for your organization’s needs, and do it in the early stages of your company’s paperless journey.

As your local community business technology leader in Colorado Springs, document management and data backup are just two of the many high-quality business solutions that we’re providing to various industries. Our digital signage, data recovery and print management software solutions in Colorado Springs are also relied upon by many companies.

Get in touch today and let us help you embrace the paperless revolution!