Are you planning to move offices? This is a super exciting time in your company’s life, but also quite stressful for all the employees. During this time, many jobs need to be stopped and many processes need to be managed in a new way. If you’re not careful, your relocation can quickly turn into a true nightmare for you, your employees and your clients. To make moving offices just a bit less stressful and more practical, here are a few things to keep in mind:
Make the announcement
All your employees should be informed about the move, the sooner the better. When they know what to expect, they will have much more time to prepare for the move and avoid all the bad surprises. If you decide to keep your relocation a secret up until the move, such a bombshell of a surprise can make all your stress levels skyrocket. Your staff needs time to figure out all the changes in their commute, harder access to old clients and re-examine the way they do their job. On the other hand, keeping everyone informed will minimize disruption in peoples’ lives. If you want to make your staff comfortable and safe, you can even allow them to work from home until their new workplace is ready to welcome them.
Assign a move manager
Most relocation jobs require everyone to do at least a tad bit of work, yet still, it’s important to have a move manager to create a moving checklist, ensure progress and boost comfort. If you have an administrative assistant, give them the job or find someone with past experience in relocation. Of course, since they need to do this extra work, reward them appropriately.
Book office movers
In big cities like New York, it’s very easy to find good movers who offer affordable prices. Make sure your moving company New York offers easy access to quotes, handles moving preparation and professional packing and has experience in office relocation and commercial moving. This last element is especially important because commercial moving requires much better organization and more serious attention to detail. While professionals handle the move, your staff can continue focusing on their tasks.
Start with non-essentials
When packing, make sure to focus on non-essentials first. For instance, you can start by moving your archives, meeting room furniture, break room furniture and other non-essential things that will allow employees to still keep working through the moving process.
Encourage everyone to pack up their desks
To prevent mix-ups and allow easy unpacking at your new location, encourage workers to pack up their desks on their own. Give them a time by which their desks need to be ready for moving and then give them the freedom to handle the job themselves. If you provide staff with packing materials, they will be happy to do the job themselves instead of having movers go through their business belongings.
Find storage
Many times, you don’t have to move all the things to your new location. Rarely used furniture, documents and files can easily be relocated to a storage space where they can be safe and out of the way. This move will prevent clutter in your new space and give you extra room for tech improvements and new workplace features.
Pay special attention to IT
When moving offices, you have to disconnect your entire network and reconnect it at the new location—this is the biggest and most stressful job for many employees. Give your IT department space and resources to create a good plan for transferring all the tech items—computers, servers, phones, routers, internet plans, online storage, etc. This is a job that should be taken seriously so ensure the utmost attention to this task and its safety.
Change your address
And finally, all your documents need to be updated to fit your new address. If you miss this task, your employees might suffer great losses in revenue and be forced to go retrieve their miss-sent documents and clients. As soon as you find out about your move, order new business cards, envelopes, flyers, labels, etc. so people how where to find you. It’s a good idea to send an update email to all your clients and inform them of your new situation.
With these tips, your employees can hit the ground running and continue to be as productive and efficient as before. Your move will be stress-free and smooth and your business will be blessed with new headquarters.
