Office relocation can be an expensive and time-consuming affair and the better you plan it, the smoother it will go. Here we offer seven essential tips to ensure your move is a roaring success…
1. Plan, Plan, Plan and Plan Again
Start planning as soon as you decide to relocate. Work out what the move will mean in terms of costs, the effect on employees and the impact on the daily functioning of your business. The more meticulously you plan your move, the more money you’ll save and the more efficient your relocation will ultimately be.
2. Minimise Disruption with a Carefully Planned Timeline
Plan to relocate during a quiet time, with as little disruption to your clients as possible. Include in your timeline:
- a fit out of the new location, if necessary
- installation of furniture
- any building works that need to be done
- all telecoms and IT installations
- the main move itself
3. Nominate a Project Manager
A project manager will be the main contact between your company and any external contractors. As well as ensuring the project runs smoothly and on time, they will identify and rectify any potential delays or hiccups before they become a problem, and make sure that everyone understands exactly what their responsibilities are.
4. Allocate Sufficient Time for Packing
Always remember to allow enough time for everything to be cleaned, packed up and transferred to your new location. Consider arranging early delivery of some boxes or crates so that employees can pack their own items ahead of time. Also, ensure that all packing is done in a timely manner. This should be accounted for in your timeframe. Last-minute packing will almost certainly mean things are missed and could delay the relocation.
5. Take the Opportunity for a Clear-Out
Relocating to a new office is the perfect opportunity for a good old clear-out. Make sure you get rid of everything you no longer need and archive any documents you can. Get this out of the way as soon as you can so as to avoid confusion during the actual relocation and you’ll be surprised how much extra space you can create.
6. Keep Staff to a Minimum
During the move itself, you should keep the number of staff on site to an absolute minimum. With relocation, it is always true that too many cooks just get in the way and potentially create health and safety issues. Having only key staff involved and as few obstacles as possible will definitely increase the speed and efficiency of the move.
7. Ensure Technical Support Is Available
When transferring IT and telecoms, always have an engineer on site or at least on call for technical support if required. Also, if you plan to be using lifts to move items at either end, make sure you have a lift engineer on-hand. If not handled efficiently, a breakdown of this kind can cause enormous delay and massively increased costs.
Suppling high quality office furniture, co-ordinating office moves and project managing the whole process is our raison d’etre. Want everything to Flow perfectly? Then give us a call…