Moving your office can have many benefits. Having a larger office space can be quite beneficial to your staff. Moving closer to your clientele can make your service more accessible. These are only some of the benefits of moving your office. However, a lot of companies tend to delay moves, although they would be good for them. Why? Because moving office typically disrupts business, causing issues. Still, it is possible to avoid this. To help you with this, we have put together a list of tips on how to organize an office relocation without disrupting your business.
The problems
When trying to organize an office relocation without disrupting your business, you must carefully assess the problems which might arise. There are two sides to the challenge of moving an office. Firstly, planning the move. It can feel like an overwhelming task and maintaining business continuity while planning can be complex. Moving office comes with the risks of lost productivity, teething problems, and misunderstandings. It means that you will also have to avoid consequential costs along with dealing with relocation expenses. Budgeting for the move might even lead to having to leave some equipment behind, so you might have to choose new furniture for the new office. Secondly, the move can weigh on your staff. Disrupting the established routine is tricky, and dealing with a changed internal layout typically means disrupting existing working methods. These are the problems you have to consider when moving your office.
Ask your staff for opinions
Involving everybody when making decisions is an excellent idea. You have to remember that a perfect option to suit everybody’s preferences doesn’t usually exist. But, accommodating everyone’s input from day one is pretty important to maintain good morale. It is the best way to avoid disruption in a situation like this. So, ask around the office for opinions and try to optimize around them. At the end of the day, choosing an office that doesn’t suit your staff can be very damaging to morale and can even lead to people leaving. Thus, asking for opinions on preferred office location, atmosphere, and facilities is usually an excellent way to show your workers that you care about their opinion and avoid choosing an office that doesn’t suit them.
Appoint project managers
Organizing an office move is a pretty big job and responsibility. There are many moving parts to the project, and a lot of things can go wrong. So, when trying to organize an office relocation, you should focus on avoiding problems. As such, appointing a project manager with a broad knowledge of how your company works and the authority to make decisions is a great way to avoid unnecessary issues. Having someone with experience in moving offices to put in this position is an excellent option because they already know how to organize everything and choose a reliable moving company to get the job done. Also, having a manager who can get the plan in order as soon as possible is vital. Someone who can decide on a new location and work out a proper plan will help the move go smoothly.
Keep everyone informed
Because a location change can significantly impact individual employees’ lives, informing them as soon as you know the new location is vital to avoiding disruption. When you know where the office will be moving, post the new site to keep everyone informed. This will give your employees a head start on organizing and adjusting.
Putting together seating plans can also be challenging and should be well managed. So, make sure to consult with your staff throughout the process. Besides letting them know they are appreciated, your team can also help pinpoint any issues which might show up. Good communication is a great way to avoid disruptions and problems during an office move.
Organize logistics
One of the most significant issues when trying to organize an office relocation is moving your equipment. Because of this, having your project manager focus on putting together a plan for moving all of your tech and furniture can be vital. Most tech and some office furniture are very delicate. Because of this, you will have to plan ahead and find the fastest way to prepare it for the move. Finding new office furniture can be pretty expensive, so avoiding issues with transport is preferable.
Minimize downtime
When it comes to the moving day itself, keep in mind that your employees will want to get back to work as soon as possible. So, having a moving company handle the physical move for you over a weekend is a good idea. Also, getting a technical team onsite to make sure your tech is tested after the move is a good call. This way, you can avoid any technical issues in the new office when your employees return to work. If you can avoid any downtime at all when moving into the new office, great. Downtime is what typically causes the most disruption to your business when moving office.
Hire a reliable moving company
One of the biggest sources of disruption is the physical move. If you have to rely on your employees to move all the gear and furniture out of the old office into the new one, chances are everyone is going to be tired and stressed out. This will lead to low morale and generally disrupt your business for a while. So, hiring a moving company to handle the move itself is a great idea. Just make sure to do a background check on the moving company you plan to hire to avoid any moving scams.
Conclusion
Office relocation is a daunting task, with many things that could disrupt your business even after the move. But, with careful planning and communication with your employees, you can avoid all of these issues. We hope this list of tips on how to organize an office relocation without disrupting your business has been helpful, and we wish you luck in your relocation.