Moving office is a huge undertaking. No matter how many employees you have, or how big or small your business is, every office move needs to be carefully planned and executed to avoid minimum disruption to your business.
We’ve put together this office relocation checklist to ensure a smooth transition to your new office premises.
12-months from moving day
- Appoint someone within your organisation to lead and mange the office relocation. If your organisation is large, you might appoint one person within each team to specify their team’s needs, concerns or questions.
- Make an inventory of what office equipment you are taking with you, what you are selling or recycling and what new equipment you’ll need. This will help provide an accurate removals quote and help you order any equipment in time for your arrival in the new office.
- Create a moving budget which itemises all relocation costs. This might include removal costs, new furniture items and IT equipment.
- Review your office lease to ensure you give your current landlord sufficient notice as stated in your lease.
9-months from moving day
- Get three removal quotes from local companies and compare their costs. Ask for a detailed outline of what’s included in the move, such as insurance, IT de-commissioning and re-commissioning and crate hire.
- Appoint your chosen removals company and ask for their guidance of things you need to consider in the run up to the move to make sure everything goes smoothly.
- Make a list of your service providers, including utility companies and suppliers so that you can inform them of your relocation and new address.
6-months from moving day
- Contact utility companies and IT suppliers to inform them of your plans. Moving office is an ideal time to review utility companies to reduce costs and improve efficiency.
- Communicate the office move with your employees to keep them informed of your moving plans. You may need to get HR advice if their contracts need updating, and to handle any concerns that your team may have.
3-months from moving day
- Archive any files that you no longer need regular access to. Moving office is an ideal time to clear out things you no longer need and free up valuable office space.
- Arrange for a skip to be delivered if you are disposing of lots of bulky items.
1-month from moving day
- Order packing supplies from your removals company such as bubble wrap, boxes and plastic crates. You can begin packing some of the things that you won’t need immediate access to early on to help save time on moving day.
- Communicate to all staff that they’ll need to be responsible for packing away their desk items into a crate which should be clearly labelled.
- Give staff a tour of the new office space, if this is possible. This will help create a sense of excitement around the move.
2 weeks from moving day
- Email all suppliers informing them of your new address and set up a Royal Mail redirection service to forward your mail to your new office.
- Order a welcome gift for your staff that you can personalise and put on their desks at the new office.
- Confirm all plans with your removals company, making sure that you are able to relocate your current office at the appointed time by your landlord.
- Arrange for a thorough clean of your existing office so that you are not charged by your landlord for doing so.
By planning well ahead of your office move, you will ensure a smooth transition to your new premises and keep business disruption throughout the move to a minimum.
Get started today by requesting a FREE in-person survey. We’ll visit your office and give you an accurate removals quote.