Moving office is like moving home. There’s a lot going on, a lot to remember and not enough time to do everything. That’s why lists are so useful, to help prevent you from forgetting anything essential.
Moving is a stressful time and if we can do anything to help with that, we will. Which is why we put this article together.
Here are a few things to remember when you’re planning to move offices.
Make the plan
Ideally, you want to be planning your office move 6-12 months beforehand. If it takes 3 months to move home, it’s going to take a lot longer to move an office!
Create a spreadsheet with all the steps you need to cover, delegate tasks to appropriate team members and have regular meetings to make sure your planning is on track.
Set key dates
Set key dates and create a schedule around those dates. Set a moving date, a cleaning date, handover of the old office date and dates for packing, initial new office setup, new office cleaning and the transfer of your IT, network connections and other amenities.
Involve whoever you need to involve to make sure those dates are realistic and achievable and make sure every stakeholder knows how important it is to hit those dates.
Key dates should take into account moving IT with minimal downtime, moving internet or private circuits, moving furniture, ancillary equipment, kitchens and anything else you use.
Some things, like moving internet, can require 90 or more days’ notice to the provider. The sooner you notify, the higher the chance of moving on time!
Visit the new site as early as possible
Once a location has been chosen, try to get a site visit as soon as you can. You’ll need to assess the connections, capabilities, light, air, space, parking, and layout.
You can use this knowledge to blueprint the move, the layout, the server room and back of house preparations.
From here you can begin building a budget for security, office movers, preparing the new space for occupation, building or refurbishment, utilities, service charges, insurance on both buildings, change of address, marketing and the reprinting of anything with your old address on it.
Announce the move to staff
There are few secrets in an office so the faster you can come clean over the move and let everyone know, the better. It’s far better for morale to include staff in the decision making and the good news rather than try to keep it secret.
Hold a general meeting, town hall or however you communicate with people. Make sure everyone who can be there, is there.
Include the new office address so staff can make arrangements for travel or getting to work, the dates, key benefits of the new office, why you’re moving, what arrangements you’re making to help staff with the move and anything else you want to communicate.
Select a moving company
Are you planning to do the bulk of the work yourself or use a full-service moving firm? We would recommend the latter unless you have a willing team to help or a small office.
There’s a lot that happens during an office move so don’t underestimate just how busy you’re going to be or how much work there will be to do.
In our experience, it’s better to pay someone else to manage the work so you can keep an eye on the bigger picture and ensure the move goes as smoothly as possible.
Have people around to show staff around the new office
Our final piece of advice is to plan to have staff available to show people around. Either on their first day in the new office or as a tour before you take over.
A key anxiety for any office move is staff not knowing where they need to go, where they will be sitting, how to work the new security doors, or where to get their new security pass.
Staggering starts so you can walk staff through the process and show them where everything is can be a genuine game-changer during an office move!