Office Relocation: A Practical Guide to Transitioning Your Business
Office relocation involves moving the operational staff and office assets of a business to a new location. Well-managed office relocations minimize the duration that the business is operationally unavailable due to a move and keep the work staff productive. Poorly managed office relocations cause massive loss of office assets and increased operational unavailability of the business. Servo Home alleviates the pain that office relocation causes for businesses by providing a managed and stress-free process.
How much notice do you need for an office relocation?
Depending on the size of the business, it's usually recommended to start office relocation plans 6-12 months before the expected move date. Larger businesses can usually take as much as 18 months to prepare for a large office relocation. The extra time helps the business decide on other large-scale operational changes like auditing office inventory, making large-scale IT decisions, and preparing the staff for the large-scale business change.
A sensible timeline works backward from your occupation date of the new space and breaks the move into smaller moves.
What should be included in an office relocation checklist?
An effective checklist includes five key areas: decluttering, packing, IT disconnection, labeling and business continuity. Have each key area named owner and a clear due date in order to minimize last-minute chaos.
Conduct a thorough inventory before you start packing
Once you have sorted the items in each department into keep, store, recycle and dispose, you will have a better idea of the volume you will be moving. This helps to avoid paying to move items you don’t need.
Protect IT equipment
IT equipment is the most disruptive equipment to move. Back up your data, label both ends of all cables, and keep workstations together. Test login and shared drives before your staff returns to work.
Use a color-coded labeling system.
A clear label tells the movers the destination and contents of the box. This helps to correctly place boxes the first time.
How do you minimize downtime during an office move?
You can minimize downtime during an office move by separating the logistics of your move into two categories. The first is the logistics of moving furniture. The second is the logistics of running your business.
You can consider functions of your business, such as customer support and the finance team, and their deadlines to determine where you can set up functions of your business to continue running. You can stage moves to allow functions to run remotely, for example, by setting up customer support to run from a different location.
What are the most common mistakes made during an office move?
The most common mistakes made during an office move include not allowing enough time to relocate and poor labeling during a move.
Some other frequent mistakes made during an office move include not maintaining separation of functions by not designating department owners, and not verifying receipt of items at the new location. Skipping this verification often means that items, or even the shipment itself, are damaged or missing; however, claims for damaged or missing items are often not made because the shipment has already been relocated.
Make your next office move stress-free
Getting your team set up to work as quickly as possible is the main objective for your office move. The team at Servo Home suggests packing in a certain order to ensure your IT team and workstations are the first to be set up, then shared equipment and lastly, non-essential items. Tackle any snags along the way and look at the first week in your new space to evaluate if changes to storage and workplace zoning are needed.
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Common Questions
How much does a typical office move cost?
Costs can vary from one office to the next. Distance, size of the office, and amount of special equipment can affect the final costs. Be sure to add moving costs, IT reconfiguration, and packing costs to your total to be safe.
Should the move be managed by an outside company or by personnel?
Most mid- to large-sized companies hire a moving company for the logistics of the move and keep an internal coordinator to manage their IT and personnel requirements.
What is the main concern for a company moving to a new location?
It's usually the IT department that causes the largest concern during the move. Once all of the desks and personnel are moved to the new location, unlabeled cables and untested connections can still cause IT outages.
Servo Home helps plan and organize moves for their customers to help get their business back up and running quickly and without a hitch.