Office Furniture Installation Blog

Many businesses believe that their ONLY option is to relocate if their existing space doesn’t meet their current needs, or isn’t setup to support their future plans. However, while changing addresses can be a viable solution, for many businesses an even better – and certainly more affordable – choice is to reconfigure the office space.

If you’re considering a chance of scenery for your business, here are 3 reasons why opting to reconfigure your office space – rather than moving -- may be the right decision:

An office relocation doesn’t end when all of the furniture and equipment are installed and setup, employees find their desks or workstations, and customers are notified of the new address. That’s because your new environment – whether it’s larger or smaller than the old one – must also be strategically planned and optimized for success.

To help you get the most value and ROI from your new space, below we share 3 principles of strategic office space planning:

1. Look Ahead

Obviously, you need your new space to support your current needs – such as making sure everyone on your employee roster has the space they need to be productive and efficient (not to mention, have a coffee and eat lunch!), that your customers and any other stakeholders can be ushered to suitable waiting and meeting areas, and so on. 

As a business owner or executive, the last thing you want is the phrase “dangerous disaster” used to describe anything that could possibly happen to your organization.

However, despite your best intentions and efforts, that’s precisely the direction you’ll head if you make any of these 3 major mistakes when it comes to office furniture installation:

1. Assign it to your employees

Most workplaces have at least one handyman or handywoman “guru” who has demonstrated their prowess in the past – perhaps by fixing a colleague’s wobbly chair or workstation. However, as competent as these folks may be, they are NOT capable of installing office furniture.

As noted by the Environmental Protection Agency, a growing number of businesses across the country are demonstrating leadership by reducing their environmental impact. For example, they’re:

• Reducing overall energy consumption, such as dimming the lights during the summer or turning off printers, shredders and other equipment when not in use.
• Purchasing ENERGY STAR-qualified products (learn more about these products on the ENERGY STAR website).
• Encouraging and/or providing incentives for employees to carpool, as well as offering occasional remote working options to cut down on commuting.

As you know – or as your CFO, accountant or facility manager will gladly remind you! – IT equipment is a major investment. In fact, in some businesses, IT equipment can be even valuable than any other capital asset, including furniture, inventory, and possibly even the office or building itself!

Given the critical importance of your IT equipment and the size of your investment, naturally you want to ensure that everything is moved safely and efficiently during your office relocation. Here are 4 tips to point you in that direction, and ensure that you aren’t forced to repair or replace damaged items:

As highlighted by an article in Wall Street Journal, office relocations aren’t just about moving furniture, supplies, plants, and yes, that prehistoric coffee maker that seems to be something of a corporate mascot. It’s also an anxious time for many employees; not because they’re necessarily opposed to the move, but because changing locations can be stressful. As the aforementioned article’s author Elizabeth Bernstein wisely noted: “moving offices can be as disorienting as moving homes”.

And so with this in mind, here are 3 tips to help make your office relocation a “good news” story for your people and your organization – and not of a cautionary tale:

Unlike a residential move that can often be motivated by personal preference, a business move is fundamentally an investment.

This doesn’t mean that the only consideration is to reduce costs, generate ROI, or in many cases, achieve both over the long-run. There’s something to be said for quality of life, and since most people spend 45-55 hours a week at work each year, staring out the window and seeing a pleasant park vs. an ad hoc illegal dump site is certainly a step in the right direction!

When it comes to residential moves, most people are familiar with the process of hiring a moving company that (hopefully!) shows up on time, packs and picks up boxes and furniture, transports them to their new destination, unloads/unpacks, and that’s pretty much it. This isn’t to say that it’s not sophisticated or multi-step process – because it’s both. However, there’s typically just one type of professional involved: the movers themselves.

However, when the scene shifts to an office move, the situation is categorically different – and far more complex. That’s why businesses need to ensure that they have not one, but six different types of professionals on their office moving team. These include:

Whether you’re in expansion mode and need room to grow, or you’re looking to shift into a smaller, yet more optimized and efficient workspace, an office relocation is an exciting event. At least, it’s supposed to be. 

Unfortunately however, for some businesses an office relocation can be a bad news saga instead of a success story. The reason? Employees weren’t utilized appropriately or effectively, and that resulted in schedule overruns, chaos and confusion, added costs, and in some cases, 100 percent preventable damage, accidents and injuries.

To ensure that your office relocation is rewarding instead of regrettable, below we highlight how to – and how NOT to – utilize your employees:

For full transparency, we should start off by saying this: we don’t recommend that you take the “do-it-yourself” approach when it comes to your office move, because the risks FAR outweigh the potential rewards -- which are often unrealized in whole or part.