Relocating an office is a very exciting time for any company, as it often represents an important milestone. Whether you’re moving to a larger space, or one closer to the central business district, a new office space provides a perfect opportunity for a fresh start. Although moving an office can be a little challenging, performing a few simple tasks before the move date can make the whole process run as smoothly as possible.
At Future Fitouts, we’ve compiled a quick guide to help make moving an office a seamless experience:
Tips for relocating an office
Have a clear plan
Moving an office can be a stressful experience, so it’s important to have a clear outline of the moving process and slowly implement instead of resorting to a last-minute dash. Sorting out in advance the moving date and individual responsibilities can make all the difference when it comes to moving day. Or, to help mitigate stress and break down the moving process, you can stagger your move across a few days instead of just one.
Communicate with your team
Due to the amount of emails received daily, a single company email or slack message might not be enough notice for your employees. Keeping your employees in the loop is integral to ensuring a smooth moving process, so regular communication is key. Face to face communication is a great starting point, but it’ll likely take multiple messages across various platforms for the message to have an impact. Remember, employees receive a lot of internal messages, and will likely only pay proper attention to high priority emails or consistent messaging.
Label boxes
Unpacking boxes can quickly become a nightmare if boxes aren’t labelled properly and can lead to an unproductive day filled with confusion. Aside from getting your employees to write their names on their boxes (unless they’re moving the boxes themselves), correctly dividing and labelling boxes such as office chords can save you a lot of hassle in the long run.
Clear out any unnecessary junk
Relocating an office gives you the perfect opportunity to get rid of any unwanted junk. You can help aid this by hiring out a skip for the day and encouraging employees to do a deep clean of their desk and drawers. At the end of the day, there’s no use taking the time and energy to pack up useless items, so clearing everything out before hand will make the office move feel like a fresh start.
Make good & de-fit your office space
Undoubtedly the most stressful part about moving an office isn’t just mitigating the actual move itself but correctly de-fitting the office space to meet the landlord’s requirements. Considering most offices have decals and frosting, as well as custom light fittings and partitions, correctly de-fitting the space can end up taking a lot of time. There’s also scuff marks and damage to factor in, and potential repainting (depending on how much you’ve customised the office space). If you attempt to restore the office using members of the team or by hiring people to do several spot jobs, it can end up costing both a lot of time and resources. A professional de fit make good and de-fitting company can offer a start to end solution to help alleviate some of the stress of moving.
Are you relocating an office and need help with the de fit process? At Future Fitouts, we’re experts at restoring office spaces to meet landlord’s expectations and lease obligations. Just leave your contact details and we can arrange a complimentary inspection and quote.