Take Your Workplace Paperless

We all know the importance of reducing our consumption, recycling whenever possible and being eco friendly. But is your business or workplace doing all it can to ensure they’re being eco friendly too?

According to research carried out by Kyocera, the average office worker in the UK uses up to 45 pieces of paper per day, and 2/3 of that is waste! Across the whole of the UK, we use over 12.5 MILLION TONNES of paper each year. This equates to a forest the size of Wales  (Recycling Bins). Worldwide, 4 billion trees are cut down each year for paper – that’s 1% of the Amazon Rainforest!

Not only is going paperless good for the environment, but it can also reduce the visual clutter in your office and save your business money and time! On top of the paper costs, you also have to factor in the cost of inks, printers, electricity, envelopes, stamps, shredders etc.

Luckily, the advancement in technology for businesses over the past few years has made it easier than ever to go paperless, even in departments such as HR that typically face paper-heavy activities such as sending appointment letters or onboarding new staff! 

Check out these steps we’ve compiled to help you out.

Switch to E-Forms for Staff-Related Paperwork

As we previously mentioned, HR can be one of the largest paper-heavy areas of a business. By ensuring your recruitment and onboarding process is all digital, it can save you from the endless paper applications, legal forms, medical forms and contracts you’d usually have to keep paper copies of. 

You can ask new potential employees to email you copies of the resumes, identity proofs and other documents you might require and use an online application form. 

Your HR documents can then be stored digitally. If you opt to store them online, this makes accessing HR documents even easier for your staff who might still be working from home or reducing contact with other employees. 

There are plenty of onboarding softwares available to help your HR team manage the recruitment process, such as Deel which provides global payroll and compliant hiring for remote teams across 150 different countries!

Use E-Signatures

Filling out a form online, printing it, signing and then re-scanning back into the system is time consuming and unnecessary. Removing the printing part and using e-signatures can ease workloads for several teams across your organisation.

Ensure You Are Signed Up For E-Receipts

Make sure you update all of your service providers to opt for paperless bills & invoices. If you’re buying stock or supplies in person, ask whether they offer to email your receipts rather than taking a paper one. Keep a folder in your system dedicated to holding your receipts in one place.

Opt Out of Junk Mail

Opening unwanted or unnecessary mail is a waste of your time and a big waste of paper. You can simply opt out of junk mail by contacting the company or mailing service. You can opt out of Royal Mail Door to Door and find details on opting out of junk mail in other ways here.

Sign Up For Online Publications

If you’re subscribed to any industry or business magazines, you can often choose to view their online publications instead. It’s easier to search for specific information or articles in a digital version and they can easily be shared across your staff. It’ll also save space as you won’t have to store bulky publications that might not get looked through again.

Don’t Print Unless It’s Essential

Now for the most obvious one folks. Don’t print things you really don’t need to! Proofreading can be done digitally, design inspiration boards can be made on sites such as Pinterest, meeting notes and agendas can be sent by email.

These Might Help

ExpenseOnDemand automates your employee expenses process.

MyDocSafe sends your client an email with a proposal, engagement letter, webform or request to upload a document to their secure client portal.

CitrusHR provides payroll and HR software specifically designed for small UK companies to help handle holidays, absences, onboarding, performance management, timesheets and more.

Qwilr replaces your paper documents with interactive, mobile-friendly webpages.

Spherics is a cloud-based platform that enables companies to understand their carbon footprint and achieve a net-zero business

And remember, if you do have to use paper in your business, make sure to recycle it whenever possible. Recycling paper takes 60% less energy than it does to make it new!

That’s not all

There are likely plenty of other things in your workplace that you could recycle, reuse or repurpose. Almost 80% of the things we throw away could be recycled in some way! 

Objects such as batteries are often overlooked, as they are slightly harder to recycle than the standard household recyclable items. Only 27% of batteries are recycled in the UK, resulting in more than 20,000 tonnes of waste that goes straight to landfill. It also takes 50x more energy to make a new battery than the finished product actually produces. 

Another big contributor to our recyclable waste is electronic equipment. Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) is the fastest growing waste stream in the UK and 25% of it could be repaired and re-used.

So the next time you’re throwing something out at work, consider whether it could be recycled or if it is now out-dated for your team, you could donate it or resell it. 

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