In a world that makes businesses responsible for their footprint on the planet, it’s not profitable for companies to ignore the environment any longer. As a result, campaigns and dedicated green strategies have been developed to help companies make the move toward an environmentally friendly workplace. Commercial solar panel installations are becoming more and more popular for midsize to large companies. Small businesses, however, need to focus their efforts on affordable and cost-effective actions. Therefore, going paperless has been on top of the list of most small companies, as a consequence of its dual benefits: Low implementation costs and high-cost savings.
However, despite the popularity of a paperless office, it’s important to mention the risks that businesses have to tackle to stay competitive and productive in a digitally focused workplace. Indeed, going paperless might be an environmental and financial revolution, but it also brings additional dangers that can derail companies from the success path.
It starts with your staff
Going paperless starts with the realization that the average office worker uses over 10,000 sheets of paper per year in the US. The need to discontinue excess use of paper and to encourage digital process requires no explanation. With 90 millions tons of waste in the USA only, every company needs to reduce their impact on the environment. However, a paperless workplace doesn’t happen overnight. Your team needs to get used to the digital alternatives, whether they’re using collaborative tools or managing their documents through a virtual cloud. It’s fair to say that your overall productivity can be affected by the transitional period, during which employees learn to develop new work habits. Additionally, your internal policy regardless of paper waste needs to meet the approval of the team. If your employees are not satisfied with the digital solution, they are likely to ignore paperless policies.
The online world is a dangerous world
Going paperless means increasing your use of digital tools and technologies. For a small company, the change of process comes at a high strategic cost. Indeed, finding the right tools to replace paper-based tasks is only the first step of your environmentally-friendly approach. When all business data exist only in the digital sphere, you need to improve your security management and IT maintenance with experts such as ProviDyn, Inc. to guarantee constant access. Failure to keep on top of your system and security updates can expose your company to devastating cyber risks.
Convincing your paper thinkers
Creatives and digital strategists are often referred to as the most digitally-able employees in an office. However, professionals whose main production area is the digital world agree that they can’t start their thinking process online. Roles that require constructed thinking and planning often need to start the process on paper. Thinking on paper ultimately provides a sense of clarity that the fast pace and interactivity of an online tool can reduce. As a result, a paperless environment can have a dramatic effect on the quality of creative and strategic works; most thinkers agree that they need to explore their ideas on paper before displaying them on the screen.
Paperless is the way forward for the environment, and in the long-term, for the office budget. However, the business world needs to accept that digital work processes might not match the same level of concentration, safety, and creativity than paper-based tasks.
