If you're getting ready to move office to a new location, congratulations - but you have your work cut out for you.
When planning an office relocation, there are some issues that you can easily anticipate – such as the need to hire a professional moving company or to make sure that Bob's lucky bowling trophy is packaged carefully – and some issues that are a little less obvious.
Those are the issues we want to talk about because they tend to be the crucial issues that endanger an efficient, stress-free moving experience.
Below, we highlight 3 less obvious issues that you should anticipate and plan for when moving your office:
3 Office Relocation Issues to Keep In Mind When Moving Office
1. It’s MUCH more than just moving items from “Point A” to “Point B”.
During a residential move, items are boxed or otherwise secured, transferred into trucks, taken to their new home and unloaded. Generally, it’s a straightforward process that most people have experienced several times already.
However, a business move is a categorically different experience and project. This is because many office furniture items – like cubicles, workstations, desks, and so on – must be professionally uninstalled with both power tools and hand tools, and then properly secured to prevent damage (either to the item itself, or to carpets/walls/fixtures, etc. as the item is moved).
What’s more, the sequence of what items need to be moved first – and what items last – has to be carefully planned. While residential movers often deploy things in terms of floors (e.g. basement, main floor, second floor), professional office movers must put specific items in certain areas (e.g. workstation #10 in room #2), and re-install them accordingly so that they’re safe and functional for use. It’s essential to move items in an orderly, organized fashion to avoid turning a 5-hour office move into a 25-hour office move.
This can and does happen – and it’s more common than you think!
2. Employees can help OR harm an office move.
While the words “helps out with the office move” don’t appear in any employees’ job description, the fact is that – whether they want to or even intend to – they will either help or harm your office move.
Employees HELP when they adhere to a timeline for taking home personal items, and securing (e.g. boxing, putting in a bin, etc.) all other office items in their area, and labeling them accordingly. That way, when it’s “go time” for the move to happen, your professional moving team efficiently moves through each area.
Employees HARM when they either ignore the above (sometimes because they’re too busy), or when they try to uninstall or move some items or furniture on their own. If they attempt this, they put themselves and others at risk of serious injury, plus they can easily damage items, walls, carpets, and so on. They also put your organization at risk of paying hefty medical bills or lawsuit settlements.
3. A robust relocation plan is ESSENTIAL.
Many business owners and executives who experience an unsuccessful (read: disastrous) office move DID in fact have what they thought was an office relocation plan. The problem, however, was that it wasn’t robust enough.
That is, the so-called plan was too high-level and probably only focused on activities occurring very shortly before and during moving day. But a robust office relocation plan – which is the only kind that works – starts well before moving day, and looks at aspects such as potential IT, electrical, telephony and networking needs, as well as issues that must be proactively resolved with property managers, landlords, etc.
Learn More
To learn more about the things you need to know BEFORE your office move – including how to develop a robust office relocation plan that puts you on track for success rather than disaster – contact Precision today. Your consultation is free, and, considering what’s at stake, it frankly could be the most valuable relationship you build all year!
