Businesses relocate on average every seven years, whether it’s for business growth, company relocation, or simply a change of scene. Moving offices can have a massive impact on your employees. You should start planning your move about a year in advance. Decide who will be involved and what your key requirements are, select a team and assign clear roles and responsibilities.
Our project managers follow carefully prepared office move management programs to ensure every element of your relocation is considered and planned for, whether you use our standalone service or part of our turnkey project. We provide crates and cages. Our porters take care to label everything and ensure it arrives on time and in perfect condition. Your dedicated project manager will help you with every step of the moving process, from consultation to surveys to quotations, and can even help you plan any new furniture and equipment you might need.
Move Management and Office Relocation
As your business grows, you may reach a point where your office can't support all your personnel and technology. When that happens, you'll need to make changes. Though change can be valuable, it's often difficult for employees and leaders to manage.
Our guide will help you run your office relocation smoothly, mitigate the adverse effects of change and position your move as a positive, exciting development for your business and your staff.
Step-by-step Office Move Checklist
Our helpful step-by-step checklist will help you to plan and prepare for your big office move looking at the following steps:
STEP 1: Consider your office move needs
STEP 2: Plan your office move
STEP 3: Identifying costs and planning your budget
STEP 4: Creating a project task checklist
STEP 5: Drawing up the designs
STEP 6: Finding the right furniture
STEP 1. Consider your office move needs
Before making a big move, it's important to assess your business's needs. There can be many reasons for moving office locations, but identifying these early on can help you develop a more strategic, informed process. There are many reasons to move office location, but businesses often do so to improve morale, productivity, and access to new talent:
Attracting talent
Your office relocation could help you attract a better pool of talent, including future leaders for your organisation. If your current office is difficult to get to, in an undesirable area or a particularly rural location, it may be preventing great candidates from considering your organisation as a potential future employer. Your office's location should be chosen to be accessible for your business's future workforce, to help you attract the right people.
Improving productivity
Choose an office location that will promote productivity among your employees. Things like work/life balance and health and wellness are key factors to consider in order to maintain a happy and productive staff. Is there a gym nearby? Are there plenty of green spaces in the area? Can purchase lunch or snacks be purchased locally? Small considerations like natural light and open plan design can have a big impact on staff morale and productivity. Moving to a more modern office environment can improve connectivity and motivate teams.
Business growth
As your business grows, you may need to expand your physical space. Relocating can help you to customise your office design to better suit your teams' needs and your organisation's ethos and values. When choosing a new office space, it is important to consider how it will meet your team's needs in the long term. This is especially important for modern businesses that are looking for an office that will support their growth.
Attracting clients
Your office is a reflection of your brand, so make sure it sends the right message to clients. A comfortable and inviting office space is important to make a good impression. The space you choose for your business can have a lasting impact, so choose wisely. A prime location could give your business more credibility and even help attract new business.
STEP 2. Plan your office move
Create a schedule for your office relocation with deadlines on when new technology, furniture and IT systems must be established.
Analyse your new location and ensure that you understand its IT capabilities, utilities and facilities that it has.
Create a blueprint of your office space and consider changes to workstations, IT infrastructure, and fixtures. Proper space planning is essential for a successful office relocation.Consider how your office move will affect any existing projects you have in motion.
STEP 3: Identifying costs and planning your budget
The majority of costs of your relocation will mostly go towards the design and fit out of your new office. It's a good idea to work with a good office design/fit out consultancy early on, so you can plan ahead. For more information, see our article on '10 Steps to Fit Out & Refurbishment Success'.
Moving offices can be costly, and it can also disrupt your business operations. To avoid unexpected expenses, it's important to identify all the potential costs of relocating your office before setting a budget. This way, your office relocation project manager can determine what level of funding is realistic and achievable.
Rent
Deposits and dilapidation fees
Refurbishment/interior design fees
Contract fees
Administrative fees
Security
Service charges
Utilities
Connectivity and communications provider fees
Removal company
Storage fees
Insurance
Post redirection
Your office design consultancy can help you select the right amount of space for your needs, including all services and storage. Make sure you don't leave anything out, as too little space will require you to move soon, and too much space is wasted money. Your office design / fit out partner can help ensure your new space meets your needs by surveying the building, providing cost estimates, and helping you visualise the space. This way, you can avoid any surprises down the road with your office removal to ensure minimal disruption.
Hire a design / fit out company that offers a 'turnkey' solution to save time, money, and the hassle of dealing with multiple contacts.
Check if they offer the following as part of their service:
Project management
Surveying of your new building
Space planning
Interior design
Fit out and construction
Office furniture selection and procurement
Air conditioning, heating and ventilation
Plumbing
Planning permission
Move management services / commercial moving
Crates, packing and moving, plus furniture assembly
Storage services/ storage facilities
Will they guarantee on-time completion?
STEP 4: Creating a project task checklist
When you decide to change the office, you’ll need a plan in place so that you don’t miss any essential details in your relocation process.
An inefficient office move can cause a number of problems and harm your bottom line. Planning and executing your move carefully can prevent disruptions to productivity, missed invoices, and damaged customer relations.
After you have set a budget and planned for the cost of moving your office, you will need to make a project checklist with specific goals that can be followed by your project team and staff. Make sure to include measurable goals regarding timeframes and minimising downtime in your checklist.
Do’s and don’ts to include in your checklist:
Do:
Appoint your office move manager
One person needs to be in charge of your office relocation project. Everyone will need to be on board with the plan, and your manager will need to delegate to people, but one person needs to be responsible for budgeting, planning, and responding to any enquiries about the move.
Allow plenty of time for the planning process
Plan your office move 3-6 months in advance. This will give you enough time to budget, research, delegate tasks, and ensure all your logistics are feasible.
Establish your priorities (try to involve all staff)
Be clear about your goals for the office move. You may be primarily concerned with reducing rental costs, while your employees may need better parking or a safer environment for evening hours. Asking your employees for their input via a survey can help make them feel more engaged and involved with the project. Be sure to take their needs into account when setting your priorities.
Outline your budget
Once you have an idea of what everything should cost, it will be easier to establish your overall budget. Remember to always overestimate your budget so you have room for unexpected costs.
Create a realistic timeline and stick to it
Set a reasonable timeline with clear deadlines and appoint team members to specific tasks. Try not to miss deadlines; the more you can check off the list early, the less stressful your moving day will be.
Don’t:
Don’t try and do the move yourself
Do not try to save costs by managing an office move on your own. Delegate tasks and hire a professional and trustworthy removals company to help you with the physically demanding aspects of the move.
Don’t underestimate your budget
Do not try to cut corners on your office move. It will be costly, but if you plan ahead you will be able to manage it. If things turn out to be more expensive than you expected, you will have a buffer. If they don't, you can treat your team to a little something extra to celebrate their new work environment.
Don’t leave it all until the last minute
Procrastinating on your move is not a good idea. As the saying goes, moving is one of the most stressful life events. Moving offices can be just as stressful, but if you stick to your time schedules and don't wait until the last minute, your move might just go more smoothly than you expect.
Don’t exclude your staff or your customers
It is important to get your employees on board with your plans and let them know how they can contribute. This will help improve staff morale and engagement. Communicating early with customers about an upcoming office move could help strengthen customer relations in the long run.
Remember the smaller details
Brainstorming with your project team can help you think of all the smaller details you might need to take care of. For example, make a list of general supplies you might need to get, like the following:
Storage boxes in a range of sizes
Packaging papers and bubble wrap
A dedicated packing desk
Markers and labels
Building surveys
A close look at your building can save you thousands down the road. For example, the heating and ventilation system may look good, but it may need a major upgrade. A good design and fit out company could survey your new space and at the same time estimate costs and timescales.
It it also critical to get some indicative designs drawn up at this point. It's the only way you can accurately estimate fit out costs.
Things to check:
Condition
If it's an old building, is it actually possible to bring it up-to-date?
Flexibility
Will it adapt easily, as your business evolves?
Disabled facilities
Do you know what your responsibilities are?
Air conditioning
You may want to commission a special survey - if you share services with other companies, you should make sure you're getting your fair share of cool air
Lifts
Can the lifts take goods and equipment? If not, you'll need to put extra money in your budget for the movers to carry things up stairs
Security
Is the space secure? Check all windows, doors and hatches, and get the landlord to fix any problems
Fire plan
It's your responsibility to have an escape plan in place. At this point, you may want to check that you don't have to alter your new space to comply with fire regulations
IT and electrical
Looking at the space, now is a good time to get an idea of the work that will be needed to install floor boxes and data points, and to run cabling.
Step 5: Drawing up the designs
Spaces Taylored space planning and design service allows our clients to visualise their new workplace to fully understand what they are hoping to achieve from their new working environment to ensure they gain the most from their day to day life within their new commercial relocation.
Take those indicative designs and produce a full layout; Desks, meeting rooms, kitchens, comms room, IT, air con and heating
Put together some mood boards - what look and feel are you going for?; Agree a colour scheme that reflects your brand and identity
Make sure your designs are compliant with all regulations; Particularly the DDA, and the Workplace (Health, Safety & Welfare) Regulations 1992
Arrange for 3D walkthroughs, if you can; It can be difficult to visualise the end result from a plan
Step 6: Finding the right furniture
It's not just about cost. There are things like health and safety and ergonomics to think about.
Is your furniture practical, for everyday work?
Are your chairs ergonomic?
What will it cost to deliver or assemble?
Do you have enough storage?
Are you getting good quality for your money?
The cheapest option isn't always the best. Quality will often pay for itself in the long run.
Spaces Taylored offer free design and space planning as part of our office fit out service and offer an extremely diverse range of office furniture as well as a move management and workplace relocation service. Contact us today if there is anything you require our help with. Call us on 0843 122 9545 or drop us an email at info@spacestaylored.com to find out how we can transform your current working environment into an inspirational place that you’ll love to spend time in. Be proud of your office space with the help of Spaces Taylored.
Web - www.spacestaylored.com
Email - info@spacestaylored.com
Call - 0843 122 9545
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