Don’t Give Up On These Office Equipment Classics Just Yet

The modern office is changing a lot. New companies are doing away with the stale cubicle formula in favor of crazy open plan designs filled with beanbag chairs, ping pong tables, and sleep pods. While these offices are creating more effective workspaces that inspire creativity in their employees, some people are focusing too much on these new-age additions and starting to forget about the bare bones of an office. Regardless of how revolutionary your office is, you still need all of the basic functional equipment in there otherwise nobody will get any work done. If you don’t put the time into choosing all of that stuff as well, things won’t run as smoothly as you want them to. When you’re building your office, don’t forget about these vital components.

Printers

The amount of paper that you use in the office is falling by quite a lot. That’s a good thing because it’s better for the environment and it saves you quite a bit of money, but there are still some situations where you need to use hard copies of documents. Most companies neglect the printer and get a poor quality one because they don’t think they’ll use it that much, and then it ends up causing them massive problems. Make sure you get a good quality one, like a Zebra printer. They are more robust and if you do have any problems with it, they offer certified, on-site repairs for your Zebra printer. Other companies won’t offer the same service and if it breaks, you’ll have to spend valuable time and money getting a new one brought in.

Scanners

Scanners are often forgotten about because most documents are sent electronically these days but you’ll be in trouble if you need to share a hard copy of a document. If your company deals with photographs or drawings of any kind then you can’t do without a scanner. That way you can convert them into digital images and email them to anybody that needs them. It’s also important if you have a high number of receipts to deal with. Being able to scan them in is much easier than manually inputting the data by hand. You can save space in the office and make it a bit cheaper if you get a combined scanner and printer.

Copiers

Although electronic documents are efficient, a lot of people still prefer to deal with hard copies. Sending a document to everybody by email and having them all print it out is incredibly inefficient. You can get around this by having a good old fashioned photocopier in your office. It’s far easier to just make a load of copies and hand them out rather than get everybody to overload the printer at once. A color photocopier is good for reproducing photographs if you use them a lot in your business but only use it when necessary because the ink can be expensive.

Shredders

One of the most important considerations for any business is protecting sensitive data. If you are handling customers details, it is vital that you protect it properly. If they don’t trust you to do that, then they are not likely to deal with you again. Having proper cyber-security will ensure that you don’t compromise any of the details that you are sending by email, but too many people forget about the paper copies that they are handling. Before you throw anything out, you need to make sure that it’s been properly shredded otherwise criminals could rummage through your trash and find a goldmine of sensitive information.

Proper Stationery

Reading and editing documents on a screen is all day can be bad for your employees. Spending too much time in front of the computer can be damaging for the eyes and affect concentration. Typing all day also increases the risk of repetitive strain injury in the hands. If the problem gets too bad, employees won’t be able to work at all, so it’s worth having a regular break and working on paper. Being able to have a break and do things the old fashioned way also helps to keep your employees sharp, and it is often easier to notice mistakes when you’re looking at a hard copy. If you don’t provide your employees with any stationary, they’ll be more inclined to carry on using the computer all day and not take advantage of the benefits of doing things the traditional way.

New technology is always good, but sometimes there’s nothing better than the tried and tested methods that have served us well for years.