Paperless working is the future in companies. Some companies have already adapted to this trend, but there are still many that have not made the transition to paperless working. But how much does it cost a company not to go paperless?
Paper documents are still an important part of daily business operations in many companies. Therefore, it is important to understand the costs associated with paper documents. In this article, we will shed light on the true costs associated with the use of paper documents in organizations.
What is a paperless company?
A paperless company is a company in which paper is avoided as much as possible. Documents are created, stored and managed digitally instead of being printed out on paper and stored in folders. This saves both time and money and contributes to a more efficient way of working.
What does it cost a company not to be paperless?
Paper documents are still very important in many companies. Although their use may appear cost-efficient at first glance, on closer inspection they turn out to be very expensive.
The known costs, such as paper, printers and storage, already contribute to the overall costs. But there are also hidden costs that are often overlooked, such as the time spent searching for and managing paper documents. Manually sorting and archiving paper documents also requires additional resources and time.
These hidden costs can quickly add up and have a significant impact on the overall costs of the company’s work processes.
Gartner estimates that, taking into account all the costs associated with paper, such as filing, search times and so on, this rule of thumb applies: every time a worker handles a sheet of paper, it costs around $20.
The resume of a sheet of paper in companies.
To fully understand the (unnecessary) costs of a paper-based way of working, you need to follow the journey of a piece of paper from production to disposal. A sheet of paper goes through a long process in a company, only a small part of which actually adds value to the company.
- Production: Paper is produced and consumes raw materials.
- Ordering: Ordering and delivering paper costs time and money.
- Transportation: The paper must be transported from one place to another.
- Storage: Paper requires a lot of space for storage.
- Print: Documents are printed.
- Distribution: Paper documents must be distributed to the workstations.
- Summarize: Various paper documents must be compiled.
- Digitization and administrative processing: Documents must be scanned if a digital version is required.
- Filing: Paper documents must be sorted into the correct folders.
- Archiving: Archives for paper documents cost a lot of space and money.
- Shredding: Paper documents need to be disposed of securely, which also costs time and money.
A sheet of paper therefore travels a long way through the company and requires a lot of time and resources, many of which are not directly useful for value creation in the company.
The true cost of using paper in business.
Paper seems to be an insignificant detail in everyday office life, but the associated costs are surprisingly high. Let’s take a closer look at the individual figures:
Costs for paper, printers, storage and wasted working time.
One of the obvious cost factors is the price of paper, printers and storage in archives. In addition, the time involved in organizing and searching for paper documents is often an underestimated factor. Employees have to invest time in manually sorting and finding documents. Manually transferring information from paper documents to digital systems is also time-consuming and cost-intensive.
According to an IDC white paper, employees spend around 2.5 hours a day, or up to 30% of the working day, searching for information. Multiplied by the hourly rate of the employee, this is a considerable amount of money.
An inefficient paper-based way of working can cost employee satisfaction.
An inefficient way of working based on paper documents can not only cost time and money, but also affect employee satisfaction. An organization with paper documents can lead to errors and delays, which can cause stress and frustration among employees. Paperless working is becoming increasingly popular among employees. 71% of Austrian workers think “paperless working makes it easier to store documents”. And the trend is rising.
A paperless office provides a better overview and organization, which increases efficiency and employee satisfaction.
And of course the environmental factor must not be ignored: CO2 pollution, comes at the expense of the sustainability balance.
The use of paper also has a significant impact on the environment. The production of paper consumes large amounts of energy and resources and contributes to CO2 pollution. The production of just one kilogram of new copy paper consumes around 50 liters of water and five kilowatt hours of energy.
A paperless office, on the other hand, reduces the ecological footprint. At a time when CSR and environmentally conscious business practices are becoming increasingly important, this is an aspect that should not be underestimated.
Conclusion: Why go paperless? A paperless working style has these advantages.
A paperless working style offers many advantages over the traditional, paper-based working style. It saves costs, time and resources, and is more environmentally friendly:
- Time savings through simpler management of digital documents
- Environmentally friendly working practices that produce less paper waste
- Cost savings and increased productivity and efficiency in the company
