We suggest you start planning for your move around 12 weeks prior to the planned date to prepare your employees for the move.
Businesses need to ensure the minimum disturbance to employees and office equipment during the relocation. If a removal is not well planned, revenue can be rapidly affected and anxiety levels within the business can lead to reduced efficiency. First-rate preparation is vital to diminish this.
Your first steps
1. Get a number of office relocation companies to visit your premises (old and new) before they give you an estimate. Think about your preferred date – most office removal firms will relocate your company on a Saturday or Sunday to minimise disruption of the working day.
2. Confirm that your relocation firm is confident with managing and moving workstation and electronic equipment. Ask questions and get references so that you are in no doubt in their aptitude for the move.
3. Visit your new office space and remember to take measurements of large item dimensions to ensure the equipment will fit round corridors and through entrances.
4. Devise a floor plan for the desks lay-out and equipment.
5. On your floor plan, remember that the usual large items such as chairs, printers, desk filing cabinets etc, need contiguous space to allow for chairs to move, drawers to open and access to shelves.
6. Show your floor plan to key employees for their approval and use this as an opportunity to reorganize certain members or groups of staff.
7. Most essential – ensure you have an effective internet connection when you arrive, so your employees have the smallest amount of disruption on arrival.
Before the relocation
1. When the floor plan has been settled upon, send a copy to all staff so they can visualise their new surroundings prior to the move. Remember to make copies of this floor plan readily available at the new offices on the day of the move.
2. Give your relocation company plenty of photocopies of the new office layout.
3. Mark up each piece to be moved with coloured stickers or labels (such as one colour per floor or department) so that the removals staff know where to place them in the new office. Make the colour codes accessible to everyone.
4. Don’t forget to indicate clearly any furniture or equipment that does NOT need taking to your new offices.
5. Take time to remind your staff about their responsibilities. Do they need to pack their own files? Oversee the move of their own workstations? Pack up their own drawers?
6. It is worth employing a computer specialist to reconnect your network as quickly and efficiently as possible. Some commercial movers have an in house specialist for this.
On the day of the relocation
Tell your staff what you expect them to do. You may give them a half day holiday so they are not hanging around the office, or you may want them waiting at the new offices.
1. Remember the Health and Safety of both your employees and the removal company is absolutely essential.
2. Do not allow your staff to lift heavy items, remember trip hazards, and make certain electrical wiring is organised.
3. Allow your relocation specialists to do what they are best at; they know how to tape up filing cabinets (which are usually moved full), box-up equipment and to wrap computers safely before packing them into their lorries.
4. Remember to take extra care with secure or confidential documents. Arrange for any obsolete but sensitive data to be shredded and not simply thrown into a skip. Your removal company may have a specialist contactor who can undertake this.
5. Ensure your employees have easy access to the new lavatories, kettle and a sink.
6. Tell your staff exactly what the new car parking arrangements are, and ensure permits are allocated if necessary.
7. Send out your change of address cards
Finally...
Celebrate with your staff – this is a new chapter for your business!
Updated April 2020