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News
Majority of Irish SMEs and professional services companies lack formal policies
for destroying files
Research undertaken by DMG Services, which comprises the businesses of Filestores and Shred-it has found that 62% of Irish companies have no policy in place for the safe and secure destruction of documents. This is more of an issue for smaller companies with 79% admitting that they have no policy in place. Out of the sectors surveyed, IT companies and professional services companies (ie. Law firms and accountancy firms) fared worst with 80% and 77% respectively admitting that they do not have a written policy when it comes to destroying documents.
The main highlights of the research are as follows:
53% of Irish companies are storing documents indefinitely and 37% have no
 written policy in place on the length of time they need to store documentation
Only 25% of Irish companies believe that their documents are completely secure
27% of Irish companies strongly agree that their approach to document storage
poses potential security risks for the company
35% of companies agree that their approach to document storage has caused a
considerable time drain looking for old documents in the past
Commenting on the research findings, Cecil Ryan, Managing Director of DMG Services said, “These research results provide hard and factual confirmation that Irish companies have limited formal policies in place when it comes to disposing of documentation. Companies are also giving over significant amounts of office space to storing documents indefinitely which undoubtedly is adding to costs. Changes in corporate governance, data protection and legislation have highlighted that Irish companies must secure and dispose of their documents in a safe and secure manner. Companies will be left exposed if they do not start adhering to best practice with their destruction policies.”
When it comes to recycling, 7 out of 10 companies claim to recycle their waste documents. In terms of the proportion of documents recycled, approximately 6 in 10 Irish companies claimed to recycle in excess of 30% of all documents. The highest proportion of documents recycled was amongst public sector companies (75%).
The research was conducted by Drury Research with a stratified sample of 100 Irish businesses.
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