Office relocation is a great opportunity for businesses to explore their potential. The right approach to the relocation process can make it easier, although it has a lot of complexities attached to it. From choosing the ideal location for the new office t building a business strategy post-relocation and managing the employee’s ad their change-related stress, you have to handle a lot.
There are many crucial aspects associated with the moving process that need expertise in management, organization, and execution. While you must handle the business front and related concerns, the tasks and planning related to the packing, loading, moving, and unloading of the office belongings must be assigned to expert out-of-state movers listed with pricingvanlines.com, a leading moving service marketplace.
To ensure that you have a smooth relocation experience and are totally in balance to get started with the business operations at the new office, here is a crisp 8- step guide that you must refer to in 2024.
Table of Contents
1. Set a timeframe
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Start the project with the right time management plan. Relocation, whether it is a residential or office move, is a time-consuming process. It is very important that you start the planning as soon as you map out the decision to move. Making a timeline helps to simplify and organize the entire project, enabling a smooth transition. Experts recommend that one must start planning for an office move at least 18 months before the moving date. You can take help from the experts to make a personalized time frame that is based on your business nature, moving needs, and size of the move.
2. Make a project team
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There should be a project team and each member in the team must be committed towards a unanimous goal- improving the quality of the workplace. The project leader must be responsible for delegating the tasks to the team members and make the relocation preparations correct. The team must have representatives from different departments in the office. This ensures that the experts from the different departments can handle tasks specific to their skills and knowledge, for example, the finance department representative can be assigned the budget planning and cost estimation job whereas the one from the IT department can handle the process of moving the IT & related tech. The combined efforts from the representatives of different departments will also ensure that the new office works for every member of the task force.
3. Join the dots between the business strategy and workplace goals
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The workplace can help establish a strategic base for the teams to work towards the business goals. Aligning the workspace with the business goals is an effort-taking task and must be handled with due care and efficiency. It is also a time-consuming process but relocation plays as the perfect opportunity to make it easier for the management. As there is already a change of place, you can also introduce minor changes that contribute to boosting agility, promote cross-department collaboration and straighten the communication channels in the workplace.
4. Plan the budget
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Companies relocating their office are widely concerned about the associated costs. Make sure you plan a budget as early as possible and stick to it throughout the process. Experts recommend making the project in line with your office relocation timeline to ensure no extra expenditure through the move. Some crucial moving costs that you must include in the budget are the cost of rent, maintenance, existing space dilapidations, commercial property agents, legal advice, IT infrastructure, furniture, and change management.
5. Pick the location wisely
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There are a plethora of reasons why you must be attentive towards the location of your new office. However, the primary concern should the clients and employee’s needs. When choosing the ideal location, you must keep a few points in consideration including:
- The commute time of your employees
- Easy accessibility for the clients
- Amenities in the area
- Market exposure and accessibility
- Chances of development of the area
- The reputation of the neighborhood
6. Know your space requirements
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Here comes the tricky part- deciding how much space is required. Usually, leases lasts for 3-10 years, and choosing a space that caters to your growing business needs for such a long time demands a lot of consideration. Companies that are experiencing a hyper-growth must be more concerned about this aspect. You can always take help from the workplace consultants. It must be noted that overestimating the space requirements can have severe ill effects on your office relocation. Similarly, if you underestimate the requirement for space, you will have to live with limited resources.
7. Create a people-centric office design
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You need to engage with a property agent as well as a design and build specialist to ensure that you have an excellent business design ready for the office. The design of your workplace must have both your clients as well as your employees at the center. Doing a workplace survey is a great way to understand the requirements as well as the expectations of your employees. This helps the design experts create great designs that cater to your office needs as well as design requirements for clients.
The design of the workplace must also be a great impression creator. It’s crucial that you understand that your clients can make great decisions about you and your business based on how your office space looks. The office thus should have a great visual presentation as well as functional value to cater to the requirements and expectations of both clients and employees.
8. Manage the move
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There are two aspects of an office relocation that you must manage- the practical aspect and the emotional aspect. Under the practical side, you will be dealing with the moving of tech, data, office furniture, contact numbers, and more. However, on the emotional side, you will have to manage the people of the business. As relocation is a huge process with multiple changes coming in a row, people must be attended to well. Also, emotions cannot be handled on a blanket cover basis. This means you will have to take an individualistic approach for every person involved.
Office relocation, a process that is considered tough, can be made easier with the right approach, use this 8-step moving guide and ensure that you move tour office smoothly and take it towards more profitability.
