Just like a family can need a bigger home, businesses often outgrow their office space. Research shows that businesses relocate on average every seven years. However, whether the move is due to growth, company relocation, or a change of scenery, moving offices can have a significant impact on employees.
With the recent global pandemic, many businesses are searching for a new physical working environment that complies with social distancing regulations.
As your business grows and evolves, the time comes when your current office can no longer accommodate all of your business needs. When that time comes, you and your company will be faced with the complex task of change. While change can be valuable in the business world, it is often difficult for employees and leaders alike to manage.
To help make your office relocation as smooth as possible and position it as a positive and exciting development for both your business and staff, we’ve created the ultimate office relocation guide. This guide will help you minimize the negative effects of change and ensure that your move goes smoothly.
Step-by-step Office Move Checklist
Moving a business office can be a complex and time-consuming process, but a little planning and organization can make it much smoother. Here’s a checklist to help ensure that your move goes smoothly:
- Create a moving timeline: Establish a realistic timeline for your move and make sure all team members are aware of the schedule. This will help ensure that everyone is on the same page and will help prevent last-minute surprises.
- Assign roles and responsibilities: Assign specific tasks to team members and make sure everyone understands their responsibilities. This could include tasks such as packing, organizing the move, and communicating with vendors.
- Hire a moving company: Find a reputable moving company that specializes in commercial moves and make sure to get several quotes for comparison. Make sure to read the fine print of the contract and ask about any additional fees that might be incurred.
- Notify customers and suppliers: Let your customers and suppliers know about your move as soon as possible, and provide them with your new address and phone number.
- Pack efficiently: Pack up your office in a logical and efficient manner, making sure to label all boxes clearly and keep track of important items. Consider using a professional packing service if needed.
- Disconnect and reconnect utilities: Arrange for your utilities to be disconnected at your old office and reconnected at your new one. This includes electricity, water, internet, and phone services.
- Update your records: Update your business records with your new address, phone number, and email. This includes your website, business cards, letterhead, and any other materials that need to be updated.
- Notify the post office: Notify the post office of your change of address, and arrange for mail forwarding if needed.
- Transfer licenses and permits: Check with local government agencies to make sure you have the necessary licenses and permits for your new location.
- Conduct a final walk-through: Before leaving your old office, conduct a final walk-through to make sure that everything has been packed and that nothing has been left behind.
With these steps in mind, you can ensure a smooth and successful move for your business. Good luck!
STEP 1. Consider your office move needs
In order to ensure a well-planned and strategic office relocation process, it’s crucial to evaluate the specific requirements of your business prior to making the big move. While there can be several motivations for changing your office location, recognizing them at the outset can enable you to approach the relocation process with more thoughtfulness and intention.
Relocating your office can potentially have a positive impact on your employees’ motivation and productivity, as well as expand the pool of talent available to your business. While there may be various factors that drive a decision to move offices, the following reasons are commonly cited by businesses:
- Business growth
When your business is expanding, it’s vital to consider how to adapt your physical work environment accordingly. Relocating to a new office can offer an opportunity to customize the design of your workspace to better align with your organizational ethos and values, while also meeting the practical needs of your teams. Whether you need to accommodate additional workstations, promote more open collaboration, or provide greater access to meeting rooms, selecting an office space that can meet your team’s long-term requirements is a crucial factor for forward-thinking businesses seeking the ideal environment for growth.
- Attracting clients
Your office space serves as a prominent representation of your brand, and thus it’s essential to communicate your organization’s values to your clients. Selecting an office location that you take pride in and feel comfortable inviting clients to is crucial. The physical space in which your business operates can have a lasting impact on those who interact with you. Opting for an office space in a desirable location can lend more weight to your business and potentially even attract new clients.
- Improving productivity
When selecting a new office location, it’s essential to prioritize the productivity and wellbeing of your employees. Ensuring work/life balance and promoting health and wellness should be a crucial factor in the decision-making process. It’s worth considering factors such as nearby gym facilities, the availability of green spaces, and local options for purchasing meals and snacks. Even elements such as natural light and open-plan design can significantly impact staff morale and productivity. Moving to a more modern and connected office environment can enhance team motivation, engagement, and ultimately help develop your business.
- Attracting talent
Aside from potentially drawing in new business, your office relocation can also potentially expand your pool of top talent and help shape the future leaders of your organization. If your business office is located in a hard-to-reach, undesirable, or particularly rural area, it may be challenging to attract exceptional candidates who envision a future with your organization. As the physical representation of your business, your office location should be strategically chosen as an accessible hub for the next generation of talented employees, enabling you to attract the right people to play a part in your organization’s future success.
STEP 2. Plan your office move
A well-organised office move plan must get plotted out for any transformation strategy to work well – whether moving to a new phone system or moving to a different office location
Follow these tips on creating an office relocation plan:
- Write the schedule for your office relocation including deadlines on when new technology and systems must be established and in what order.
- Analyse your new location’s features to ensure that everyone understands its IT capabilities, facilities, and utilities.
- Draw out your office space to think about the changes you may need to make to workstations, IT infrastructure, and fixtures for good workflow.
- Consider how your office move will interact with any current projects you have in motion.
STEP 3: Identifying costs and planning your budget
Office relocation can be a significant expense and may also cause downtime that can impact your business. Therefore, it’s crucial to identify all potential costs associated with the move before setting a budget. This can help your office relocation project manager establish a reasonable and feasible budget for the project. By being aware of all costs beforehand, you can better manage expenses and minimize any unexpected financial burden on your organization.
We’ve put together a list of typical moving expenses as a baseline for planning the move.
- Rent (including rent reviews and VAT)
- Deposits and dilapidation fees
- Contract break fees
- Administrative/agency fees
- Security
- Removal company/relocation suppliers
- Storage fees
- Insurance
- Service charges
- Refurbishment/interior design fees
- Utilities
- Connectivity and communications provider fees
- Post redirection
STEP 4: Creating a project task checklist
Planning is crucial when it comes to changing office locations to ensure that no essential details are overlooked during the relocation process.
An inefficient office move can result in numerous issues that can harm your business’s bottom line. To maintain productivity and minimize disruption for your staff and customers, it’s important to strategize and carefully plan the relocation process. Taking a step back and considering all aspects of the move can prevent staff frustrations, missed invoices, and damaged customer relations, ultimately leading to a successful and seamless transition.
Once you have established a budget and anticipated the office removal costs, you need to create a comprehensive project checklist with clear goals and objectives that your project team and staff can easily follow. Your task checklist should include measurable goals regarding timescales and minimizing downtime, and you should ensure that it is feasible and comprehensive. By including clear goals and objectives, you can keep your team focused and on track throughout the relocation process, resulting in a successful and timely move.
When project managing your imminent office move, it’s essential to remember that preparing everything ahead of time and making the move on the day with minimal downtime and minimal disruption to your staff is a key consideration. By ensuring that you plan and prepare thoroughly, you can minimize any potential disruptions to your business operations and keep productivity levels high during the move. This requires a focus on careful planning and clear communication with your staff, suppliers, and any other relevant parties to ensure a smooth and efficient office relocation.
Do’s and don’ts to include in your checklist:
Do:
Appoint your office move manager
To effectively manage your office relocation project, you must appoint a single person to lead it. While your entire team must be involved, and your manager will need to delegate tasks, having one point person is critical for overseeing the budget, planning, and addressing any questions related to the move.
Allow plenty of time for the planning process
To ensure adequate time for budgeting, research, task delegation, and logistical feasibility, it is recommended to begin the planning process of your office move approximately 3-6 months before the deadline.
Establish your priorities (but not just within the senior leadership team)
When planning your office move, ensure that you have a clear understanding of what you are looking for. While reducing rental costs may be your priority, your employees may require better parking or a safer environment for when they leave work late at night. To involve your employees and ensure their needs are met, conduct a survey and collate their feedback when prioritizing your requirements.
Outline your budget criteria
To establish your overall budget, you should have a general idea of what everything should cost. It’s important to overestimate your budget to allow some room for manoeuvre in case things add up more than anticipated.
Create a realistic timeline and stick to it
Appoint specific members of your project team to tasks and set clear deadlines in a reasonable timeline. Strive to meet all deadlines to reduce stress on moving day and the preceding weeks. The more tasks you can complete early, the smoother the office move will be.
Don’t:
Don’t try and do the move yourself
When managing an office move project, it may be tempting to save costs by not hiring an office removals company or managing the project on your own. However, it is important to share the load and delegate tasks. An office move project can be extensive and complex, so consider hiring a trustworthy removals company to help you with the heavy lifting.
Don’t underestimate your budget
Make sure not to cut corners on the finer details of your office move. It is a costly undertaking, so it’s important to accept this and leave yourself a little leeway in your budget. This way, if unexpected expenses arise, you will have a buffer. And if you end up under budget, consider using the extra funds to treat your team to something special to celebrate your new work environment.
Don’t leave it all until the last minute
You should avoid procrastinating during your relocation process. Moving offices can be a highly stressful event, similar to moving house. However, if you follow your established time schedules and don’t leave your logistics planning to the last minute, you may be surprised at how smoothly your moving day goes.
Don’t exclude your staff or your customers
When you share your plans and involve your staff, it can greatly boost morale among your employees. Engaging your workforce is crucial to ensuring buy-in from the entire team for your office move. Similarly, communicating with your customers early and letting them know about your relocation can help to strengthen your customer relations in the long run.
Don’t forget the finer details
Brainstorming with your project team is essential to ensure that you have considered all the finer details of your office move. Create a comprehensive list of the general supplies you need to procure, such as the following:
- Storage boxes in varying sizes
- Packaging papers and bubble wrap
- A packing table / dedicated packing desk
- Permanent markers and labels
- Air-filled padding
Your ultimate office move checklist
Stage one: lay the foundations
- Appoint the office move project manager and the project team
- Review your current lease carefully to establish any early-break costs
- Publish criteria and conduct necessary staff surveys
- Research costs and set the total budget
- Establish the office move deadline
- Research office removal companies and office moving insurance costs
- Start searching online or with realtors for office spaces that suit your business needs
- Document the plan and timeline
- Shortlist, discuss and choose your new office and complete necessary paperwork
Stage two: communicate
- Ensure all current client lists are up to date
- Write out an audit of all online and offline and list content requiring and update to the address
- Notify the post office and others of your new address
- Collaborate with your legal team to update necessary contracts with the new address
- Update your social media and online accounts (including Google Business etc.) with the new address
- Review lists of partners and stakeholders to inform of change of address (update lists where necessary)
- Run an audit on stationery and branding material to update addresses where necessary
- Review and update all delivery subscriptions
- Communicate your plans to your staff (let them know how/if they can get involved)
- Give timely notice to current landlord/building manager
- Set a date in corporate communications for staff to update the address in email signatures
- Book your chosen office removals company
- Start coordinating your office move logistics with your IT team to discuss IT systems and equipment needs
- Send change of address notices to clients, customers, partners, industry bodies, and media publications of which you are a member or subscriber
- Inform your internet service providers of your office move and discuss internet connection needs
- Inform your telecoms provider of your office move and arrange for any necessary updates to your phone number, phone systems or cabling needs
Stage three: prepare your logistics
- Conduct an audit of your current office furniture and identify any new furniture you may need
- Map out your new office design with a detailed floor plan and dimensions
- Plan out your new space according to office space and desk blocks
- Identify meeting room spaces and communal spaces in the new office layout
- Arrange for any external temporary storage where required
- Order any stationery and equipment for the new office
- Establish appropriate security needs for the new office
- Arrange/appoint cleaning services (both for checking out of the old office and regular cleaning for the new space)
- Check out and book loading bays or dedicated parking for moving day
- Finalise all new contract paperwork
- Discuss and make arrangements for any new IT equipment for the new office space and meeting rooms
- Check-in with internet/telecoms and other necessary providers to ensure the big day runs smoothly and without excessive downtime
STEP 5: Prepare Your office equipment when moving offices
How will you move your physical hardware when moving from one office to another? If you plan on moving to cloud communications, or you already have a hosted system, then just transport your desk phones and other endpoints to your new location. If you have a complete private business communication system in place, is it time to upgrade? Is it worth taking it with you or should you switch to cloud based telecom?
Remember to consider these things when preparing your office equipment before your moving offices:
- Collaborate with IT teammates to write a checklist of all the IT and telecommunications assets you want to bring to your new office.
- Figure out whether all your assets will work well with the IT infrastructure in your new location.
- Take time to analyze upgrading various parts of your communication strategy by switching to the cloud.
- Consider any upcoming IT/Telecoms acquisitions or upgrades and see if they work in tandem with the move.
STEP 6: Address Your Telecommunications System
As mentioned above, you need to address not only the hardware in your telecoms system but also various other parts of your business communications strategy during your office move.
Of course we created a telecommunications system office move checklist:
- Decide what to do about the voice data in your new system. Are you going to embrace new technology and cloud solutions?
- Figure out how many phones you need and notify your telecoms provider if you want to stay with them.
- Decide whether to bring your existing phone numbers with you. If your customers already know them, then it may be worth keeping them the same.
- Explore available upgrades as part of your move. Does additional bandwidth make new communications options available?
- Create backups for any voice or communication data that you’ll be taking with you. Cloud storage will ensure that you can get back up-and-running quickly on the other side.
STEP 7: Manage Your Security When Moving Offices
Finally, remember the administrative security details during your office relocation. Moving offers the perfect opportunity to consider your network security and make sure that everything is safe.
Things to remember when managing your network security before an office move:
- Create an inventory of all your assets and resources to develop the plan for protecting your information in transit.
- Create a list of current employees and the network access rights they should have.
- Detail and update your security policies if necessary before the office relocation.
- Assess contracts with security vendors and look into the security solutions available from your telecommunications provider.
NoContractVoIP’s cloud based business phone systems and Internet Ambassador service can help you minimize the stress of your office move and reduce disruptions to your business. Moving offices can be a complicated experience at the best of times, but with these services, you can simplify the process.
Why Is This Published By A Business Phone Company?
Here at NoContractVoIP, we believe that your success is our success. And, since we specialize in business communication, we also want to help you communicate better while staying safe. We create the cutting edge communication systems that modern companies need.
One of our specialties is creating integrated phone systems that facilitate hybrid and remote work with no confusion.
To talk to a business phone system specialist, call 866-550-0005 or contact us today.
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