How to Ensure your Office Move Goes Smoothly

Relocating office doesn’t have to be disruptive and shouldn’t affect your day-to-day business. There are steps you can take to ensure your office move goes smoothly? Danny Rutter advises on what steps can be taken to ensure a successful office move

1. Early Planning is Key  Commercial removal firms recommend that you start planning three months before your move, so you have enough time to think through every aspect of the process.

2. Set a Budget for your Office Move Get quotes from removal firms and estimates for the other associated costs to ensure all fit within budget. Other associated costs would include:

• Deposit and building costs
• Rent, rates and service charge on new property
• Legal, insurance, consultant fees
• Administration costs (new letterheads, address stationary, marketing material)
• Design and fit-out costs
• Equipment costs (furniture, IT and telecoms)
• Staff relocation costs
• Redirect of post
• Disposal of rubbish, recycling and cleaning
• Dilapidation, making good of the building before vacating

3. Office Move Checklist Write a checklist of tasks to do in advance and on removal day. Advance tasks include informing your current landlord and give notice, getting a detailed floor plan of your new space, finding and booking a reliable office removals company, ordering packing materials, labelling and boxing up items and shredding unwanted documents. Tasks on the day include checking inventories of items moved and placing key staff in the old and new buildings to direct operations. See our full checklist here https://renovo-services.com/office-relocation-checklist/

4. Office Move Plan Make scale plans of the new office layout, showing where to place furniture and equipment. Assign work spaces and address any concerns with staff well before the move. Some removal firms may be able to help with providing CAD plans of your new space.

5. Minimise downtime  Schedule time off so key staff are available. During the move, other staff could contact clients with an update. A move is a good opportunity to remind customers of what you do, so make this contact part of a promotional push.  Move day is a good day to ask staff to work from home.

6. Communicate your office move plan Set up a communication board on your company intranet with key information or sent out E-Communications detailing such as, deadlines for packing and the new office layout. Brief staff to inform them of their duties and to answer questions. Ask staff to take personal items home for safe-keeping.

7. Assign office move duties Staff might clear desks, pack and label boxes, or create and check inventories of stock and materials.  Leave crating and lifting of heavy or expensive items and disassembling/reassembling furniture to the removal firm experts, who have insurance to cover breakages and who are responsible for their own health and safety.

8. Move IT first  Important data must be backed up. You will benefit from a detailed pre-move audit where your chosen relocation company should consider the network and application configuration of every PC, along with its related operating systems and software. Ensure they have IT experts in place to ensure your network is replicated precisely upon recommission, and aim to achieve zero downtime.

For more information or advise on office relocation please contact Danny Rutter on 07553 265 461 or email danny.rutter@renovo-services.com