The US National Association of Corporate Directors provides some excellent guidelines in their Record Retention and Document Destruction Policy. From trademark registrations, safety records, to retirement and pension records and much more, there is a lot that needs to be retained. But once that retention period is over, much of those documents can be destroyed. Below is a partial list of the types of information that absolutely should be shredded when no longer needed:
- Account records
- Activity sheets
- Advertising
- Applications
- Appraisals
- Bank statements
- Bids and quotes
- Budgets
- Business plans
- Canceled checks
- Client lists
- Contact lists
- Corporate tax records
- Correspondence
- Customer records
- Disciplinary reports
- Educational reports
- Expense reports
- Financial statements
- Forecasts
- Formulas, product plans and tests
- General service information
- Health and safety reports
- Internal reports
- Legal Documents
- Lottery tickets
- Magnetic media
- Maps and blueprints
- Marketing plans
- Medical records
- Microfilm / microfiche
- New product information
- Payroll documents
- Performance appraisals
- Personnel files
- Plastic credit and ID cards
- R&D reports
- Sales forecasts
- Specification drawings
- Strategic reports
- Strategies
- Supplier POs
- Supplier reports
- Supplier specifications
- Test scores / class rosters
- Training information
- Treatment programs
- Encryption key management information
Besides the regulatory and ethical issues around keeping those hard copies secure, the reality is that many of your competitors would love to get their hands on the documents that you are throwing out. And even if your competitors are not combing through your dumpsters, others may do so and attempt to sell your secrets to your competitors.