One aspect of moving an office that moving home does not have to deal with is trying to keep the business going while you move. Every hour you are closed will equal lost revenue, upset clients, and unhappy employees. Fortunately, it is possible to move an office without disrupting business significantly. You must allow enough time to prepare and know how to move your equipment, furniture, and other office needs to ensure your operations can continue in your new office.
Plan the Move in Good Time
The most common failure amongst businesses is underestimating how much notice office relocations require. Depending on the company size, you might require two to three months of planning and preparation. You need to allow building management at your new and old locations, as well as the movers, enough time to coordinate a move that is minimally disruptive.
An office move must be planned for a time that will be minimally disruptive to the business where possible. The seasonally busy business may want to move at a quieter time, whereas firms can afford disruption might move at a public holiday or long weekend when employees do not need access to the office.
Create a Staggered Moving Schedule
In lieu of shutting down and moving all at once, many companies prefer to implement a moving plan where they can keep some of their departments still operational while they relocate their other teams. Non-core functions can move first, followed by essential teams once they have settled into the new office.
The phased-in move works for many companies that do not need all their teams in contact with one another constantly. The marketing department can pack on a Thursday and Friday while the sales team is still operational. By Monday, the sales team has relocated, and Marketing is already operational in their new office. Expert commercial movers Buffalo will execute the phased-in move without the chaos of two offices operating from different locations.
Prepare the New Office Before You Move In
To ensure your business has as little downtime as possible after the move, ensure everything is operational at your new office before you move in. The internet and telephones must be operational, and the electrical work done well before you arrive on moving day. This way, you can walk into an operational office rather than an office with a week’s worth of utilities to set up before you can operate.
If you have your floor plan ready before moving day, it will help you quickly set up your office. The floor plan shows where every desk and piece of equipment must go. You can label everything at your old office with where it will be placed to allow the movers to set them up without asking too many questions.
Prepare Your IT Solutions
The office teams that will be least operational if you do not move their equipment in time will be your IT department. Computers, telephones, servers, networks, and other operational systems take time to move. Many offices hire specialists to move IT solutions who ensure everything is disconnected and moved without disrupting operations at the new office.
Before everyone leaves for their new office, the IT team must back up vital systems. You can use these backups to create temporary clouds for other systems and relearn how to access your phone systems so that some operations can continue before your physical move.
Notify Clients and Team Members
The last thing a business needs is for their clients and other team members to be muddled with incorrect contact information after the business relocates. Good communication between your business and the people it does business with will ensure that nobody is confused about your relocation.
The last thing you want is for your team members to be confused about what they need to pack. Your staff must be clear about what they need to take with them. You can provide containers for them to pack their items well before they leave for their new offices. The sooner you provide these, the less likely employees will forget what they need to take when you relocate.
Clients must be notified well in advance that you are relocating. Updating your social media pages and websites with your new postal address is non-negotiable. You must also update mail forwarding with your old address so that clients do not miss communications from vendors. Businesses must also remember to update banks and vendors about their new postal address.
Assign a Move Coordinator
Something has to take full responsibility for moving the office and be the only point of contact for all moving stakeholders. This individual will communicate with the moving company, liaise with the building management team at the new location, and coordinate with all team members involved in the move. This individual will also communicate with vendors who need to be updated with your new postal address.
The person chosen as the point of contact will need to create an extensive checklist for everyone involved in the relocation. This person will confirm arrangements with various companies assisting in relocating your business and resolve issues that arise when relocating your business.
Schedule Moving Day
Once all the operational teams in your business have completed their planning and packing and the IT solution has prepared how they can remain operational until they arrive at their new office, it is time for moving day. Businesses must plan their office relocation day in good time to ensure minimal disruption between moving out of their old office into their new digs.
The ideal time to move an office is on a weekend as this allows your business more time until it becomes operational in its new location. An early Friday start and a Monday opening plan give your company two full days to relocate but only disrupts your operations on Friday for only half the day.
Commercial movers will be able to do office relocations overnight and on weekends if planned adequately. The sooner you get your goods to your new office, the less revenue you will lose.
Be Operational After Your Move
The sooner your business is operational after its relocation, the better. If you have planned adequately, your business will have areas of its operation prioritized to be open before others. Your customer care department can be priority number one rather than breakrooms for employee downtime.
The first week in any new office will not be without its tweaks and final touches in its operational capacity. Businesses can relocate their offices without losing a week of revenue if they plan properly and communicate adequately. They can also use specific techniques to relocate the teams and their offices.
