Whether you’re a novice to moving office or purely aim to refine your strategy, do not allow a heightened sense of self-confidence or previous improvised successes delude you. This is an office move. Remember, depending on the size of your office you’re probably not working alone. So ask yourself, can you afford to dismiss the large scope of relocating your bulky furniture and packing whilst preserving intricate electronics etc…?” Whilst no doubt, you intend to minimise or ideally avoid a possible shut-down of operations. Yes an office move is a lot of work! So refrain from “Last-minute winging-it”. Rather consider the fruits of your adaptation of our concise beginners guide to moving office.
Step One – Plan Early:
Again consider the scope of your office move. Look around. Whilst it may not be on the scale of a house move, you most probably do have first-hand house-moving experience. So Compare. How long did your last house move take? Sofas, the Fridge, Desks, Chairs, Printers, Desktops all need to be moved without costly damages, so give yourself time to prepare.
Remember your professionalism, brand image, and costly office equipment are all at stake, so the more preparation-time the better.
Step Two – Appoint a Director:
You require a current member of staff, organised with good time-management, and experienced in handling people and pressure. Consider appropriate rewards in order to ensure full-concentration levels. You may wish to offer a temporary Job-Role (“Moving Director”) in an email, briefly explaining rewards and expectations (see Step Four for more). This way you’ll have volunteering candidates – the best of them appointed as the Director, and the motivated remainder on alert to your up-coming move.
Yet most importantly your staff will understand how seriously you’re taking this.
Step Three – Hire a Professional Removals Company:
The emphasis and onus here is on Professional. Such an organisation will understand the stressors involved in moving office and therefore they should safely take care of all manually demanding tasks and have a surveyor come out to view your site to evaluate the scope of the work involved and provide you with a competitive quotation.
Some companies even go the extra mile, they clean up after you’ve moved out!
You should have your new MD (“Moving Director”) liaise with them ensuring your package is catered to your needs (that the Professional Removals Company should determine, for example, size, number of vans etc.) and your wants (that you must voice!, for example, strategically moving in phases over a determined number of days in order to maintain operations).
If you’re not able to have your selected removals company visit your new site with your MD, produce dimensional blueprints, maps or equivalents with clearly labelled areas (i.e. Accounts Corner, HR office, Kitchen/Communal Room, Conference Room) in order to ensure furniture, appliances, and hardware go to the correct places the first-time. Any items going to the wrong place is a set-back which may take hours to correct.
Step Four – Brief Your Staff:
Just like any important project, those concerned must be kept in the loop. Therefore all staff must be notified of your incoming office move.
An outstanding Moving Director should organise all correspondence relevant to moving office.
Timely & informative emails must be sent with confirmed understanding of instructions therein (for example, all staff are to pack their own desks).
HR should be contacted as regards to approaching holidays in order to procure an adequate turn-out.
Likewise the IT guys should be ready to disconnect and reconnect all office hardware, whilst safely transferring internet / data plans and more. Someone should be placed in charge of this and drafting a plan for this considerable job is recommended.
For optimised efficiency clearly label boxes/items with appropriate wording for content therein, numbering and location (corresponding to blueprint or map of new site: for example, Stationary, box 2 of 3, Accounts Corner). The importance of labelling boxes must hit home.
A corresponding spreadsheet to list all labelled boxes/items is beneficial yet extra work especially for larger office moves, so break this down with shorter sheets for determined office areas relevant to particular departments within your staff (for example, Sales Team Boxes and Items).
Change of address orders must be put into place and clients (if necessary) notified of your expected routine move and how it affects them.
Instead of a Tick List especially for the run-up to moving day, implement “an Ethos-List”, thereby you instill in your staff members concise, easy-to-remember points that they sequentially recall before conducting a given action. For example, a Labeling-Ethos-List may be a slogan: “Don’t Labour! Label! LNC!” (Location, Number, Content). Yes Cheesy, yet humans are prone to error and the added pressure of tick-lists increases work, stress, and thus forgetfulness, whilst strategic office banter can increase spirits and secure efficiency.
Step Finally Five – MOVING DAY!
We cannot stress how important a mental simulation of this is. Sit down with your Moving Director and play it out, use the largest whiteboard. Ensure notes are taken.
So consider influencing factors such as:
- Traffic (and all other sources of delays).
- Building Rules on the new site (if it’s a shared property).
- Mode of transporting personnel.
- Key holders and security (yes, many a van driver will testify to how opportunistic thieves can be).
- Overall satisfaction with Removals Company Package.
Closing Advice:
Do not allow complacency to cause a diminished view of the magnitude of your office move. Manage it and manage it well-early with a Moving Director. It’s your new beginning on your new site so advance with wide-meticulous eyes. Put a Professional Removals Company in place and convey all necessary information to your staff so your moving office is a laugh and not a timely expense that you rue in regrets.
