Shabby Chic Boho Relocating a commercial office is synonymous with a strategic reset. If the timeline to the physical move is short, the timeline to the strategic reset is infinitesimal. No one has time to think, so everything happens by reflex. The new space resembles the old space with improvements. The same with your network. The same with your business continuity plan. The same with your filing system. Everything you do internally mimics what you did before. Your move was a waste of time.
The same applies to old lease termination or the disposition of the old location. If you’re thinking of keeping two leases operational for a year to help handle the move, be prepared for an additional year after that and another after that if you fail to anticipate. Any costs saved in a rushed or poorly managed relocation will be forgotten in the costs lost to inertia.
Run An Honest Audit Six Months Out
Six months may sound like a long time in advance to prepare for an office move (especially considering you hadn’t thought about it until now). But believe us, that time evaporates faster than a puddle in the Sahara. And besides, you’ll need every minute of it to avoid screwing up the really big things.
The earlier you face the facts, the less it hurts. That means starting the painful process of an audit. Identify your assets and separate the dead and the dying from the assets you can’t live without. Old, under-utilized and outdated equipment is also a security hazard, especially with GDPR a thing now. Fix legacy holes before they bite you.
Twenty monitors you bought new last month should be re-used, just like twenty chairs, twenty desks, and fifty computers should be replaced. Could you get more years from some things to put budget towards pain points elsewhere? Should you?
Treat Connectivity As A Dependency, Not A Detail
The quickest way to lose two workdays of productivity following an office relocation is to get to the new office and find out the network doesn’t work. This happens far more often than it should – and there’s no reason for it.
With your move project manager, do a ‘Day Zero’ connectivity check with the network provider(s), I.T. support and internal systems techs, and if applicable, the provider of the VoIP or straight-to-cloud phone systems. That all needs to find and test the new VoIP calls to make sure the phones actually work.
If the new landlord or property management crew needs to make changes to the space, that means your whole office’s computer network needs to be pre-figured and share with maintenance at that time. Power sockets are a little less likely to not even be present, but if you need your new digs wired for your system, find that out far enough in advance to do the work.
Give Your Team A Real Communication Plan
Change management often seems to be the last thing on a move committee’s mind. But it’s also the first thing employees notice. Three-day notices and a “figure it out” attitude are not the way to go.
You know how easy it is to get rid of relocation anxiety? Communication. As soon as you know your new office, send your employees the new floor plan. Give them deadlines on when they can expect moves, and what they need to pack. Floor plans should be sent out early enough so that people have an opportunity to actually have an opinion about them.
Anxiety is higher in mixed teams with some people commuting from suburbia: the prospect of suggesting they move away from heaven might be horrifying – default resistance to the move. The best way to reduce it is by showing people you understand them. Providing information about public transportation, parking, and other amenities does the trick.
Decommission The Old Space With The Same Care As The Fit-Out
Transitioning your entire operation to a new physical location isn’t easy. But it’s precisely the kind of job that we find the budget and make the time to get things right for.
We go to that trouble because it’s high-risk when it goes wrong – the interruption to business, the impact on productivity and sales, the damage to your reputation, the pain for everyone involved – and because it’s also high-reward if we get it right.
Second only to data loss in security threats are the risks and costs of sloppy e-waste at the end of a lease. Old computers disappear from registration; crucial tax, payroll, and personnel records vanish. Responsible e-waste recycling through certified providers ensures decommissioned devices are handled properly, with data destroyed and materials kept out of landfill.
The Move Is A Handover, In Both Directions
Make sure the new office is ready for you. You should’ve inspected the new space and created a punch list to make sure all our requirements are met. Run through every wire, door, and desk. Acknowledge every check and change order that was raised in the process.
