Among owners, executives and managers, there are few phrases in the business vocabulary that command as much immediate, jarring attention as “reducing legal risks”.
With that in mind (and now that we have your attention!), below we highlight 4 best practices to reduce legal risks during your office relocation:
1. Establish Roles & Responsibilities
Ensure that all employees involved in the office relocation are clearly aware of their role and responsibilities. This should be established in your overall plan, and all employees should have an appropriate amount of time to review and provide input. There should also be a standard process in place for communicating (i.e. all emails and documents should be stored on a centralized system, etc.).
2. Protect Employee Safety
Do not have employees attempt to uninstall or move furniture/equipment. Injuries can and do occur, and assets can be damaged as well. It doesn’t matter how much experience they have in residential moves, or whether they were involved in office relocations with previous employers. It only takes one incident to trigger significant legal consequences.
3. Create a Hazard-Free Worksite
Ensure on moving day that both your current office, and the one that you’re heading to, are safe for professional furniture uninstallers and movers to perform their tasks. For example, there must be no loose carpets, live exposed wires or unsecured outlets, and so on. Note: your moving company should help you with this by inspecting all worksites well in advance of moving day.
4. Be Careful About Shredding Documents
You may decide that many of your paper documents don’t need to be moved, either because you no longer need the information, or you’ve created a digital version/copy. However, before instructing your employees to hit the “turbo” button on the shredder, be aware of the hidden dangers – and potential legal liability. For example, older documents that haven’t seen the light of day for a while can be teeming with airborne toxins and irritants, including a particularly nasty entity known as paper mites. As noted by The Pest Control Blog “any activity that stirs up accumulated dust, such as office renovation or the purging of old files, often leads to a paper mite outbreak.” It may be necessary to have the area and files properly cleaned and disinfected before files are destroyed. Or, you may need to hire a third-party company to safely handle the on-site file destruction on your behalf.
Learn More
To learn more about how to reduce legal risks during your office relocation – and ensure that your experience is smooth and successful – contact the Precision team today. Our experience is your advantage!
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