How to Plan an Office Move
Moving your office is something that can take months of careful planning and consideration and cannot be done overnight. When you are planning to move an office, there are several steps that you must take to ensure that the move is done efficiently and without incident. When planned correctly, you can move an entire office over the course of the weekend and be back in business by Monday morning.
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Instructions
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Draw a layout of your new offices in the new space that you have chosen. Include all rooms and furniture that should be included in each room. The layout should show each room of the new office, including kitchen and bathroom spaces. Though office furniture should be drawn into all rooms, this does not have to be the final place for the furniture items to go. This drawing does not have to be to scale, but should provide a general sense of what the new office space will look like. Label each office with the name of the person who will be in it and label all cubicle spaces with the names of your employees. Print out copies of the drawing and hand them out to all employees.
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Have an attorney look over all lease and tenant agreements before you finalize them. Make sure that you understand the terms of the lease and that the renter is providing a fair service. Check prices for other comparable offices spaces in the area to determine whether or not you are paying a fair market price for your rent. Once you are satisfied with the lease, sign and finalize it. This should be done at least one month prior to the move.
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Meet with your employees to discuss the layout of the new offices. Find out if they are happy with the new arrangements or if changes need to be made. Discuss details such as kitchen and bathroom facilities, personal office spaces and meeting rooms. Work together to ensure that everyone's needs are met. Ask employees such questions as, "Does this office layout meet your needs?" and "Do you feel comfortable that you will be able to work effectively and efficiently in this new layout?" Be flexible on the arrangement of cubicles and office equipment, such as copy machines and computers. Your employees may be able to give you much-needed information about the efficiency of common work areas. Assign individual offices to employees who are in management based on the office spaces that they already have. These spaces should be non-negotiable.
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Notify the phone, electric and water companies of your planned move and make arrangements for services at the new offices. Ask if your company can keep its phone number to avoid complications. Utility services should be notified of your move at least two weeks in advance. Notify them by calling the service department of each utility service and requesting to speak to a representative. Let them know when services at the old offices should be turned off and when services at the new offices should be turned on. If you are making any changes to the way that you will be paying your bills, you should do that at this point as well.
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Clean out any unnecessary items in your current office by checking around the offices for any equipment that is out-of-date or has not been used in at least one year, such as a slide projector or VCR. Purge filing cabinets of files that you don't need and get rid of any furniture that is broken or not moving to the new office. These are items that can likely be thrown out. Have workers take all their personal items home to be moved to the new office at the appropriate time.
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Prepare a move announcement for all of your clients. Include information such as the date of the move and the location of the new office. You should also include a small map with directions to the new office. Send out these announcements by mail at least two weeks before the move.
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Hire a moving company that will be responsible for moving all office furniture and equipment to your new space at least one month before the move. On the day before the move, box up all files, books and other miscellaneous items so that your office is prepared for the movers.
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References
- Photo Credit office image by peter Hires Images from Fotolia.com
