If we were to ask you right now, ‘How does your organization print?’, how would you respond?
Most businesses rarely think about their printing habits. This lack of oversight often leads to wasted resources and security vulnerabilities. A company print policy provides the rules and protocols for your entire office, and acts as a blueprint to determine how safe and cost-effective your environment actually is.
By defining clear guidelines, you can improve workflows and keep your network secure. A print policy can be as long or short as you need: the most important thing is that it is easy to communicate to your wider organization.
So, do you need a company printing policy? As always, that’s up to you, but let’s explore the benefits and steps to creating an effective print management strategy…
What is a print policy?
A print policy sets out the rules and details of how your business prints documents. That’s it.
The purpose of a print policy is to record your print environment, so you can improve workflows and efficiencies, encourage good user behavior, and keep your print network secure.
There’s no fixed length for a print policy: it can be as short or as long as you find useful. The important thing is that it’s detailed, comprehensive, and easily communicated to the wider organization.
The benefits of a clear company print policy
Establishing a group print policy takes very little effort but yields massive results – you simply cannot improve what you cannot see or measure. Documenting your ideal operations is the first step toward optimization.
Major cost savings
A policy reduces expenses for paper, ink, and toner by defining responsible habits.
You might set defaults for duplex printing or limit color usage for specific departments – all small changes that can help start cutting IT costs by removing unnecessary waste.
Sustainability and ESG targets
E-waste and paper waste are significant environmental problems. A print policy encourages eco-friendly practices like using recycled paper and reducing energy consumption. This aligns your print room with your broader sustainability goals.
Regulatory compliance
For healthcare or financial institutions, print security is a non-negotiable part of data privacy – and it’s important for every other organization too!
Policies ensure you comply with data protection regulations like HIPAA or GDPR. Clear guidelines help your organization avoid expensive audits and data breaches.
You can learn more about this in our print security guide.
Improved efficiency
A print policy ensures that your organization not only knows how to print, but when and where to print. As such, clear printing guidelines can massively improve organizational efficiencies, reducing the chance of printer bottlenecks, consumable shortages, business disruption and IT help desk tickets (always a nice perk).
What should your print policy cover?
Your policy should be a working document that users can actually follow. It needs to define the purpose and scope of your printing environment. Include contact details for troubleshooting and network management so users know where to go for help.
Essential print guidelines
This section is the core of your document. It should list authorized users, access controls, and passwords. If you use them, clearly outline print quotas and limits for different teams.
Security and document handling
Communicate clear security measures to encourage good ‘cyber hygiene’. Your policy should cover encryption requirements and the secure disposal of physical documents – this is especially important for sensitive information that requires secure print release.
Print guidelines
This should include stuff like authorized users, access controls, passwords, printing limits and print quotas (if you have them).
Sustainability considerations
This is where you include rules on duplex printing, black and white printing, environmentally friendly procurement, and recycling e-waste. Make sure to tie this stuff into your broader ESG strategy.
Compliance requirements
Make sure to cover any legal or data compliance requirements (e.g. GDPR or HIPAA), including document handling, storage, printing and destruction, along with data privacy and IP protection.
How to create a company print policy
Creating a policy from scratch might feel daunting, but you can break it down into easy steps.
1. Define your goals
Start by defining your goals and identifying which departments the policy will affect.
2. Get stakeholder input
Gather feedback from all the relevant department heads, including IT, legal, and employees who frequently use the printers. Ask them what they want from this policy.
3. Research and benchmark
Research industry best practices for print policies, including security measures and compliance requirements. You’ll also need to flag any relevant legislation (e.g. HIPAA) that could affect your print policy.
4. Draft the policy
Use the general structure outlined above to draft your initial policy, but don’t be constrained by it. There’s no rule that says your print policy has to be a certain length, or follow a specific format.
5. Review and approve
Get feedback from the stakeholders identified above, and tweak the policy if needed. Obtain approval from senior management, or the appropriate governing body, before giving the policy a final sign-off.
6. Communication and training
A policy is only useful if people know it exists. Build a communication strategy to share the document and provide regular training. Keep a feedback loop open so you can update the policy as your technology changes.
Print policies and print management software
Which comes first, the policy or the print management software? There’s no right or wrong way to do this one, but you do need to factor in a few things.
It’s often best to shop for a vendor beforehand. You want a platform that can actually enforce the rules you write, and a good provider will help you find workarounds that fit your unique needs.
Flexibility, value, communication and support – those are the qualities you want in a print management provider.
Let an expert help you
A print policy is an important thing to get correct – chat to our sales team about what your ideal print solution looks like and they’ll help you get set up with the best option for you.
Speak with Sales
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