There’s one unfortunate part of a move that’s really worth focusing on: stress. Whatever the size of your business, having to relocate offices is a true trial of patience and coordination.
Preparation is key. To ensure you understand how to minimise stress throughout the moving process, we’ve compiled these top tips.
The sources of stress
First, you should understand the most likely sources of stress. Two common factors involve people management, namely your employees and your clients. Your obligations regarding these will fluctuate throughout the moving process, but neglecting either will lead to much more stress than is necessary. It’s best to keep these two groups in mind throughout the move, and regularly update both as it progresses.
In addition, the logistical arrangement of the move will also be a source of stress. Finding a new office space, dealing with leases, arranging telecoms, transferring data centres and IT infrastructure; there are so many moving parts that keeping it all in order is an immense challenge.
Internal support
To limit stress from the outset, build an internal team to help arrange and manage the move. Choose senior managers from varying departments to provide company-wide input, so you’re constantly aware of the requirements of different departments.
Nominate an overseeing internal project manager to take charge and assign specific roles to employees. This brings order to the entire process; when everyone knows what they’re doing and when it needs to be done by, you can avoid a lot of uncertainty and stress.
Budgets
Money is always going to be a factor. Going over budget or not setting realistic budgets will lead to more stress in the future, with lasting implications once the move has finally finished. Calculate basic costs and set aside budgets for each stage of the move – and take into consideration any surprise costs that may spring up regarding contracts and utilities.
Communicate
It’s easy to find yourself keeping your head down to make sure everything is going as planned. But communication is essential. Your employees will want to know what’s happening, as will your clients, so be honest and forthcoming with information. An ‘open door policy’ for staff will ease a lot of anxiety regarding the move, as employees will know they can come to you and your team with any ideas, fears or questions.
Preventing downtime
Potentially the most stressful factor comes near the end of the move. If you hit a snag once you arrive at the new office – or something happens to delay the move – you might experience downtime. Downtime means loss of profit and, potentially, angry clients. Ensure your IT team has the chance to plan installations for the new office, and make sure any essential data is properly backed up.
You can also consider a temporary, remote working solution for some employees. Having essential staff on hand to carry out basic operational duties will help to keep the business running even if there are some delays before you can move into the new office space.
Get help!
Internal organisation is great, but outside help from the professionals is the key to relieving the stress of moving offices. The most sure-fire way of generating stress during any move is trying to do everything yourself. That’s why it’s always advised to enlist the services of a reliable office removals firm to ease the heavy burden.
With trained professionals taking care of the packing and transportation of all your equipment, you have much more time to focus on the logistics and planning. What’s more, a quality removals firm will help you with that as well, with a project manager assigned to you – someone who will liaise with your internal team and help to make the transition as smooth as possible – you have little to worry about.
TWO MEN AND A TRUCK® provide a comprehensive office removals service for businesses of all sizes. With project management, packing and safe transport of fragile office equipment provided as standard, our fully insured removals service will ensure your office move remain stress-free from start to finish. For more information, contact us today.