Switching to a paperless office not only enables remote or hybrid work but also ensures that people working from anywhere can collaborate efficiently.
Flexible Paperless Office
As we’ve learned in recent years, companies and employees need to be adaptable because we never know what’s going to happen! Working remotely is a key benefit for many top-tier employees, so if your work environment can’t yet support this, you may be losing out on the best talent when it comes to recruitment.
Taking the paper out of document management means that employees transitioning from the office to remote work, whether it’s planned ahead or unplanned, can easily continue to access the documents they need to work on.
It also allows for more freedom through hybrid work, so people can benefit from a variety of work situations or locations throughout the week without having to worry about physical paper documents.
Of course, we shouldn’t forget about the financial ramifications a paperless office brings to the table. Without going into too much detail, we can safely say you’ll be saving a ton on hardware (like printers), paper, ink, binders, and so on and so forth. At the same time, the cost of implementing and maintaining a paperless office are comparatively low, with an impressive ROI.
Are There Other Benefits?
Absolutely! With more people working from home, paperless work has lots of added advantages.
Embracing paperless office environments means not only tidier workspaces at the office but also at home—which is particularly beneficial with many people’s personal living areas doubling up as workspaces and even on the road. Paper has a talent for disappearing and there’s a huge risk of destruction. Think coffee stains, rips, tears, or just plain and simple mistakes, rendering the document useless and requiring it to be printed all over again.
Paperless solutions also allow for smoother signature requests that save on time, resources, and costs. Rather than printing and posting an agreement and then wait for the signee to return it, you can simply send an electronic signature request through an online eSign tool. Just like that, a process that would normally take days can instead be completed in minutes, wherever you’re working from. Statistics actually show that a regular signature request via snail mail takes an average of 5 days to be completed, while electronic signatures cut that time to only 36 minutes! Plus, you can see whether the recipient has accessed the document or not, making it easier for you to know whether or not (and when) to follow up with them.
What Does This Mean?
By enabling purely digital workflows and removing the physical barriers that paper presents in fluid work locations, digital transformation enhances the potential sustainability of a business by allowing it to operate entirely online.
This not only means less waste and more cost savings, but is also the key to a workforce that doesn’t need to travel as much or consume unnecessary company resources. Be sure to check out our article, The Economic Benefits of Going Paperless, to find out more about this particular advantage of a paperless office.
Of course, it’s not just a matter of saying “Bibbidy-Bobbedy-Boo” and you’ve got a paperless office. You need the right digital solutions. Check out our suite of 20+ tools to help you with all of your document needs, even e-signatures!
