Moving to a new office is an exciting move for any company, and it doesn’t need to be a stressful process for those coordinating it.
A survey conducted by E.ON revealed that relocating is the second most stressful task for small business owners after hiring new staff. Consequently, most companies delay moving, opting to stay in cramped and expensive facilities.
Here are seven critical office relocation tips to help increase the chances of a fast and efficient move.
In a hurry, jump to:
1. Plan your office relocation early
2. Communicate with your employees
6. Hire a professional moving company
7. Update your address everywhere
1. Plan your office relocation early
Commercial relocations need detailed planning and preparation. When planning the move, decide on the moving date and the time frame for the relocation process, and then you can come up with a schedule. Additionally, have a specific budget assigned to the relocation process. It will come in handy when identifying costs for hiring movers and help avoid making uninformed decisions.
This budget can also be used to have a visitor management system set up and ready to go before your company moves in. This way, you’ll not have to manually try to log any staff, visitors or contractors as they come and go from your new premises.
Instead of relying on paper sign-in books when your first move, which isn’t GDPR compliant, you could have a full visitor management system with a management dashboard up and running day one.
Get in touch and tell us about your project and we’ll help you to get set up.
2. Communicate with your employees
Communicating with your employees is a very important office relocation tip you need to consider. Make sure to keep your staff up-to-date with moving plans and time schedules. Notify them of important changes and procedures at the new business premise including:
- The new address
- Any revised phone and fax numbers
- New building rules
- Packing arrangements at the new location
One way you could help to keep your staff aware of the moving process is by having a meeting at your new location before then shifting to working there. You’ll be able to give them a tour of their new workspace and show them how the move will happen.
You can keep this out-of-office trip secure if you have the VisiPoint visitor sign-in system set up at your new location. You’ll be able to invite everyone you wish to give the tour to as visitors and when they sign in at your new office, you’ll receive a notification to let you know.
Another way you can help them follow the moving situation is to encourage them to create a moving checklist to ensure that all essential areas are covered, and nothing gets missed. While change can be unsettling for employees, communicating with them can boost their morale.
3. Assign a project manager
Every office move requires a team effort to increase the chances of success. Appointing a project manager to facilitate all the aspects of the relocation process will also be important.
The team leader should have multi-tasking abilities, exceptional organisational skills, effective communication skills and experience working with budgets. Communication is particularly important as they will need to make sure that your staff are kept up-to-date on the situation as mentioned in the point above.
A great set of office management tools can also help make the relocation more seamless.
The project manager will also need to be one of the decision-makers for any new systems added to your new office, such as the staff and visitor sign-in system mentioned above. If you are in the process of moving to a new office and are looking for a visitor management system, then check out the VisiPoint solution for offices or contact us below.
4. Protect your data
You never know what could happen to your files and hardware during the relocation process. You could end up losing important documents to damaged servers or hard drives. Therefore, it is important to back up your data and protect it from loss and breach when moving.
For instance, you can use a digital visitor management system to safeguard your visitor and staff data. The best part is that you can move with it seamlessly as it is cloud-based. This way you demonstrate compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) since you won’t risk losing data about who has visited your business in the past.
5. Deep clean your office
This is an opportunity to clear out and remove any unnecessary items and files you have lying around. You could very well have filed some of these years ago and then forgotten about them.
- Don’t move with any items you don’t need
- Remove old files that are no longer needed or relevant to keep your data up-to-date
- Shred unnecessary papers
- Dispose of old furniture
- Sell or donate equipment that won’t be needed at your new office
6. Hire a professional moving company
Hiring a moving company is essential to facilitate a smooth office relocation. Moving companies have the knowledge, expertise, and resources needed to make the moving process seamless. They will:
- Packing and unpacking services
- Identify your business requirements
- Help draft a suitable moving plan.
It is important to make sure you choose a reputable company to help with your move. Make sure your chosen company is well-established, is certified, and insured.
7. Update your address everywhere
To make sure that you don’t have any communication issues in the future, let your suppliers and customers know when you are relocating, your new company address and if there will be any downtime during the move for your business.
You’ll also want to make sure you update your:
- Business cards
- Website
- Letterhead
- Social media sites
Additionally, contact Google to have your address and online listing changed before your relocation.
Moving isn’t quite as hectic as it sounds. If you follow these office relocation tips – from planning the process, communicating with clients, vendors and employees to backing up your data – you will be able to transition smoothly into your new workplace.
Contact VisiPoint to learn more about backing up your data using a digital visitor management system.