How to organize a corporate relocation
Office moving is different than house moving in many ways. First, you need to move more people than just your family. There are your employers you need to think about, so corporate relocation requires a lot more communication and planning. Then, the furniture you are moving is different. There are no beds and wardrobes here – but you will have to move a lot of paperwork and file cabinets. This is why it is important for you to hire reliable cross country moving professionals. They are the people who have experience in moving offices and will help guide you through the moving process. In this article, we give you think you should not forget about your commercial move.
Create a corporate relocation plan
The first thing you need to do is to create a plan for your corporate relocation. Gather a team of people and make a timeline of all the phases of the move. For a smaller office, you should do this up to three months before the move. However, bigger offices can take up from 6 to 8 months to complete all steps. Depending on the size of the office, you need to decide how long the moving process will take. The important thing to remember is to give yourself ample time to plan and finish the move.
The next step you need to take is to collect all the information you can on your new office space. Getting a blueprint of the building, for example, can be of great help. This way, you will be able to see all the pros and cons of your new space. First, decide what kind of furniture you will need – will your old furniture fit in the new space?
Take note of how big the rooms are – maybe you are downsizing to smaller offices, so you will not need to take as many things. Maybe your new space will be huge, so you will need to hire carpenters to set up some cubicle spaces for your employees. Also, make sure your furniture will actually fit through the door. This may seem like a basic fact, but a lot of people forget to check it.
Gather a team
After you have set up a plan, you will need to gather a team to coordinate the move. If your office is fairly big, it’s good to have someone from each department take care of their own colleges. Long distance movers South Carolina can help a lot with coordinating the move, but your employees know each other fairly well too. Use both resources for a smoother moving experience.
Depending on the size of the office, maybe all your employees can pack their own files and furniture. This is also a great time to talk to the employees, and see what they disliked about the old office space. Maybe they will have some suggestions and recommendations, and a fresh viewpoint can help you solve some problems you are having with planning the outlook of the new space.
Remember to communicate with your staff well when moving. Everyone needs to know what they are expected to do, but everyone should also be able to express their worries and concerns. Keeping the communication running between yourself, your employees and the moving company will ensure everyone knows what their job is, but also help ease the moving process for everyone. By communicating with your staff, you will also be able to determine your budget. If you are moving on a budget, you should coordinate that with everyone as well.
Getting things done
Once you are communicating with your employees, this is the perfect time to divide the work and assign tasks to everyone. Make sure they understand the timeline and schedule you have set up. It is also useful to write down everything you will be doing, so you will know if there is any special help you might need. For example, you might want to call telephone line installers or computer network specialists, if you don’t have them in your company. Things like these are easy to miss if you are in a hurry, which is why sitting down and making a plan was important in the first place.
Also, talk to the department managers or supervisors what they need in their areas. Make sure common areas, such as the lobby and storages, are covered as well. Sometimes you cannot think about all of these, so having people give you a hand is great.
This is also the perfect time to have the moving company visit you in the office and look over everything. There are companies that specialize in office moves and have the right equipment and the experience for the job. These will be of great use to you, so make sure you ask them a lot of questions and ask for help when you feel like you need it.
Of course, you need to make sure the company is reliable. When moving on a budget, you will also want to ensure you are getting your money’s worth with the company you are using. Be careful when picking movers, scan them thoroughly and ask for references when interviewing them.
Contacts are important
Finally, don’t forget to make a contact list. Write down the contact information of all the people you are working with, from your employees and the moving company to the specialized help you will get to help set you up. Also, make sure both your suppliers and the people you are doing business with are moving. It would be an ugly surprise if some of them arrived at your old office only to find you gone without a trace.
You know corporate relocation can be quite hectic. This is why it’s a good idea to assign this task to one person on your team. This is a lot of work. They will need to focus on it and put all their energy into completing it. Also, this information is very beneficial to your business – you need clients to survive.