Every business makes mistakes. It’s part of how they grow, as lessons come with each error.
However, when it comes to misplacing documents, firms can struggle to bounce back from these blunders, depending on what’s been lost or leaked. Moreover, small businesses are often more vulnerable than their larger counterparts and can’t always roll with the punches.
It seems that nobody is immune to slip-ups with documents either. We’ve seen people like Trump mishandle classified paperwork, and current US President Joe Biden was also accused at the start of the year of taking similar information home with him.
Whether in high office or small startups, a mishandling of documents is wholly unacceptable. Still, that’s not to say that these situations don’t happen. A swift and decisive recovery process is crucial if you’re running a small business and experience document mishandling at your firm. Here’s what to do in these unfortunate circumstances.
Weigh What’s at Stake
To recover from document mishandling well, you and your workers may need to be more aware of further problems you might all face in this arena. Response measures can also be hard to draft and implement blindly.
The implications of document mishandling must be appropriately weighed first. These instances could create problems like:
- Breaches of confidentiality that violate contractual obligations with employees, partners, and other stakeholders.
- Costly penalties if any privacy laws have been breached as a result of the document mishandling. Any violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, can also accrue fines due to non-compliance.
- Stalled decision-making as document-heavy processes become stalled and backlogged.
- Reputational damage as firms stop trusting your firm’s competency and track record, leading to further missed opportunities elsewhere. Employees may also seek work elsewhere if they become disillusioned enough.
As you’re probably aware, small businesses can’t weather any storm and often try to get as much mileage as possible out of limited budgets. So, regular reminders and training around the potential consequences of mishandling documents is a good idea.
Categorize Documents
Some documents must be managed more carefully than others pre-data and post-data breaches. Knee-jerk reactions aren’t recommended
After all, we’ve seen businesses improperly shred files they were supposed to hold onto for a long while yet. When that happens, inevitable questions arise about ‘what the company may or may not be trying to hide’ start to surface. Small businesses like yours need an orderly approach to categorizing documents so you know how to manage them.
There are four main questions to ask and answer here. They include:
- Do specific types of documents have their retention periods defined at the time of creation or when receiving them?
- Are there any industry requirements or laws dictating when and how long documents should be disposed of and how?
- Might any of the documents have archival value, i.e. recording company achievements, milestones, or groundbreaking business deals orchestrated with partners?
- Do you have the infrastructure to store and organize larger volumes of data and categorize them comfortably there?
Often, their pre-existing indicators for how documents should be handled. Whether it’s specified instructions or merely logical conclusions, there’s usually a roadmap to follow for big and small firms.
Save Space
If something went wrong once, it must not do so again. Mistakes happen, but they should be learned from at every opportunity.
It’s worth reevaluating your firm’s document management policies to mitigate risks. While the full lifecycle of document creation, processing, storage, and potential disposal should be studied, you should do so through the lens of trying to eliminate space and safe space as well. Processes found to be wanting will need to be overhauled.
Digitization tends to be an effective solution for many of these concerns. Still, there are various avenues to explore here, so start by visiting pdf-tools.com. Here you’ll find a rich range of resources to help your small business process higher volumes of documents and shrink their file sizes down without losing any quality. These services only utilize the most secure and reputable platforms, and you can consult experts on everything you need to know here.
PDF tools should help your small business free up space and implement a ‘clean desk policy’, which can be particularly advantageous given the small spaces you and your colleagues may have to work within. Still, digitization mitigates the chances of misplacing crucial data and can prevent cluttered desks and thinking both.
For disposal, destroy the documents completely – either by deleting files online (and ensuring no backup versions are available) or by shredding physical copies on your workplace’s shredder unit. Ensure there’s no trace left if deletion is on the agenda.
Consult Qualified Experts
When documents are mishandled, it can feel like the situation progresses so rapidly that it’s hard to keep up. Small businesses may feel stretched enough under normal circumstances, so a crisis response can particularly test their endurance.
Fortunately, firms like yours aren’t alone in these situations. You can consult numerous experts who can provide guidance and assurances on recovering from these situations. You may find comfort in their advice, as well as a plan of action you can subscribe to.
For instance, professional archivists can be useful here. They are specially trained in the management of documents and records. They can provide instruction around document retention, retrieval, preservation, and the use of technology with it all. Additionally, they also have an eye for records of historical and cultural significance, so if your line of work deals with either of those things, they can help there too.
Compliance officers are other professionals who can help with your mishandled document situation. They can help organizations like yours set internal policies and provide refreshers on relevant regulations and laws that your data management methodologies must adhere to. All of your internal controls can be refined with their contributions.
Last but not least, legal advisors can also have some valuable input on your document mishandling situation. Like the others, attorneys can also help with document retention and break down how long files should be stored for and even the formats they should be stored in. There can be many nuances to cover with document retention policies, and lawyers can help.
Provide Suitable Training
Of course, it’s one thing for consultants to guide you as a leader, but mishandled documents are a concern that all employees need to grapple with. It doesn’t matter how senior the staff are – everybody has a part to play.
There are many online training courses out there that can bring employees up to speed on document management best practices. It can cover many things; how to use Document Management Systems (DMS) effectively and touch on financial and legal repercussions of their potential ignorance.
In addition to approaching accredited training providers, you could also create your own training materials too. This literature could outline the internal measures your employees must factor into their decision-making – where to save documents, what to name them, numbering systems, etc. Reference guides and presentations that are accompanied by handouts could all be effective here.
These types of measures also benefit from ongoing communication too. Helpdesk support, online tutorials, FAQs, and open-door policies for feedback submissions can help reinforce the learning experience for employees and ensure their questions and concerns don’t go unanswered. Even in a small business, talking about problems can help workers find clarity and confidence in their approaches to key issues.
