As you may know from prior experience – hopefully positive, but perhaps negative -- a successful office relocation isn’t just about adhering to schedules and budgets. You also need to ensure that you minimize employee downtime, since every hour that your people can’t be productive means money down the drain.
Fortunately, there are steps and strategies you can focus on well ahead of moving day that will reduce – or better yet, eliminate – employee downtime during and immediately after your office relocation. Here’s what to keep in mind:
1. Schedule Strategically
If possible, schedule your office relocation at a time when several employees will be away on training or vacation. With respect to the latter, providing incentives for employees to book off that time vs. another and possibly more preferred time can also help. Of course, the flipside of this strategy is that you’ll have a reduced or skeletal staff. Obviously you want to ensure that this doesn’t trigger productivity or customer service issues.
2. Take Advantage of Remote Working Tools
Consider equipping your team with remote working tools so they can temporarily connect and collaborate from a home office. Just keep in mind that there are many different tools and technologies to choose from, and each of them has a learning curve (of varying steepness). Make sure you give your people enough time to get familiar with the tools you choose, so that they can hit the ground running and stay productive during the office relocation. For a look at some popular remote working tools, check out this Fast Company article.
3. Consider a Multi-Phase Office Relocation
It may be more practical – or simply necessary – for you to move in multiple phases, since this will allow your employees to remain productive (though probably in a temporary workstation or work area).
4. Rent Temporary Space
If none of the above strategies are feasible, then another option – albeit a potentially expensive one – would be to rent temporary space. While most places rent by the month, depending on where you’re located, you may be able to rent corporate furnished offices by the week, or possibly even by the day. Though this really isn’t an option for larger workforces, if you have a smaller team – or during the office relocation if you want a hand-selected group of key people to run the show for a couple of days – then it could be a smart decision.
Learn More
To learn more about how to reduce downtime during an office relocation, and to get clear and competent answers to all of your business moving questions, contact the Precision team today. Your consultation with us is free.
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