Finding a new facility for your business is the beginning of a new chapter for you and your employees. However, the relocation can be disruptive to daily operations, so you’ll need to put effort into minimizing downtime during an office move.
There’s help on the horizon. You can partner with professional office movers who are well-versed in business relocation strategies—and they can even help you outline your commercial moving checklist and teach you some valuable office relocation tips.
Research Business Relocation Strategies
Companies change facilities for all sorts of reasons. Maybe your organization has outgrown your old space, you’ve pivoted to hybrid or remote work and don’t need as much room, or perhaps you’re moving to a more strategic geographic location.
Whatever your reason for finding a new spot, it’s important to educate yourself on business relocation strategies for minimizing downtime during an office move, like assigning teams to take on tasks, moving in phases instead of all at once, and partnering with professional office movers.
Assign Teams
One of the most important steps to minimize business disruption during a move is to assign teams of your employees to take on certain tasks. The groups and their to-do lists can be related to their daily jobs. For example:
- Put your marketing department in charge of organizing, packing, and labeling your company swag, gear, and giveaways.
- Let your technology experts handle the IT relocation planning and logistics.
- Ask your in-house designers or visionaries to beautify your brand-new office space with bright paint colors, fun furniture, and unique desk layouts.
By creating teams that all have their own commercial moving checklist for your upcoming move, you’re making the workload manageable since the tasks will be spread across multiple employees. Plus, you’re taking to-dos off your own plate so you can focus on your own daily job responsibilities.
Move in Phases
Although many home relocations happen in just one day, it’s common for businesses to move over days, weeks, or even months.
Moving in phases helps with minimizing downtime during an office move because your operations are never entirely shut down. You can assign dates for each department to move to the new facility and get their equipment up and running before the next team or department packs up and heads to the new place.
In addition to being easier on your employees and operations, this business relocation strategy is also optimal for your clients since they’ll experience fewer—if any—disruptions.
Partner With Professional Office Movers
Perhaps the best method of minimizing downtime during an office move is to hire professional movers who are experienced in commercial relocations.
Although your employees will still need to pack up their desks and personal items, partnering with skilled office movers maximizes your staff’s time by handling the furniture wrapping, moving truck transportation, and unwrapping at your new office. In most cases, your local office movers will also disassemble and reassemble your furniture and desks so your employees don’t have to spend their work hours doing so.
Minimized downtime isn’t the only reason to hire a professional moving company. Partnering with professionals can help prevent injury to your employees. Legitimate movers are highly trained in safe lifting and carrying techniques for large and heavy items. Although your personnel is highly talented at their jobs, chances are they haven’t worked with specialty moving equipment or are well-versed in moving safety procedures.
Additionally, professional office movers know the right way to pack, wrap, and transport commercial items, which minimizes damage to your company’s equipment and facility. In case any damage occurs, you’ll be covered by their moving insurance. Unfortunately, if your employees move items on their own and anything gets damaged, you’ll have to foot the bill for repair or replacement.
For these reasons, most companies hire local office movers when they begin to tackle their commercial moving checklist.
Build Your Commercial Moving Checklist
A thorough moving checklist can help any move go more smoothly. Carefully planning and outlining your move with a checklist can reduce your stress throughout the relocation process—plus, it goes a long way toward minimizing downtime during an office move.
Here are some of the items that should be on your commercial moving checklist:
- If applicable, pick your paint colors and any other finishes for your new facility.
- Design a detailed layout of your new office space, including where each desk and piece of equipment will be placed.
- Work with your department heads and key employees to determine how long they’ll need to pack up their workstations and reassemble them in the new office, then build a timeline based on their input.
- Identify any equipment in your current facility that will need a specialized technician to shut down at your old location and set back up at your new place.
- List any utilities like electricity, gas, and water you’ll need to move to the new address. Don’t forget to update your shipping companies, delivery services, and the USPS!
- Source the packing and moving materials you’ll need, like boxes, packing paper, and soft material to cushion and protect delicate items.
Keep in mind that proactive communication is key to minimizing downtime during an office move. Once you’ve put your checklist together, make sure all of your employees know what their duties are and when they need to complete them. The more informed your team is, the smoother and less disruptive your move will be.
Learn Some Office Relocation Tips
Most companies stay at their facilities for years at a time, so it’s common for business leaders to seek assistance and advice on best practices when the time comes to relocate the office. To help you have a smooth office relocation with as little downtime as possible, check out these tips:
- Plan as far ahead as possible. The moment you find out you’re moving, start researching business relocation strategies and outlining your commercial moving checklist.
- Pick the right team members to help. Be attentive and respectful of your employees who might be buried in their daily workload. Try to assign moving tasks to staff members who don’t have as much on their plates.
- Keep your employees informed. Consider having a brief weekly meeting or emailing consistent updates on the move progress so everyone understands and buys into the moving plan.
- Choose eco-friendly packing and moving supplies. Support your company’s green initiatives by planning an eco-friendly office move with sustainable supplies.
- Consider moving on weekends or during your slow season. You can minimize downtime if your moving company handles most of the move on weekends when your staff isn’t present, or during your industry’s slower time of year.
Finally, use your move as a marketing opportunity. Post about your office relocation on social media, and host an open house at your new facility. Incorporating your company’s exciting new chapiter into your marketing strategy can drive engagement and get your existing and prospective customers excited about your business’s progress.
Need Help Minimizing Downtime During an Office Move? Call in the Commercial Relocation Experts!
We understand that moving an entire business is a huge undertaking. On top of keeping your employees happy and figuring out how to move all of your equipment, desks, and other furniture, you’ll likely be concerned about minimizing downtime during the move. Fortunately, we have the knowledge, experience, and talent to help you have a smooth move with as few disruptions as possible.
Schedule a consultation with one of our commercial relocation experts today!