When you are planning an office move, one of the most important things to try and do is avoid disruption for your staff as much as possible. There are a number of things that you should make sure your staff do well in advance of the move to make the transition smooth, and here are a few of the most important.
1. Remove Personal Items
One of the first things to instruct your staff to do when you are moving office is to remove all of their personal items from the office. They may have lots of stationery and items that they like to keep at their desks, but if they leave these then they could become lost during the move. To avoid any undue stress on their part, ask them well in advance to take all of their personal items home, reminding them that they can bring them back to the new office once the move is complete.
2. Get Their Files in Order
One of the most important things that you will need your staff to do is to get all of their files in order. If you have a large filing space for each employee in the office, this could take a considerable amount of planning to get everything into order. Make sure that they have plenty of time to sort through all of their files so that they don’t lose anything or get panicked as a result.
3. Inform Their Customers of the Changes
Some of your employees may be the main point of contact for clients and customers, and it will be important for them to make sure that all of their contacts are up to date about the move. If clients end up sending important packages to the wrong address, this could cause some serious problems, so make sure that they inform their customers well in advance.
4. Back Up Important Documents
This may not be necessary if you have a backup system in place, but if you do not have any system up and running, you may want to make sure that your staff back up all of their work and current projects to ensure that nothing gets lost during the move. If a computer gets damaged, for example, this could have serious repercussions if there is no backup of the work on its hard drive.
5. Pack Their Own Files and Equipment
You don’t have to do this, but it could help to make the move easier for everyone. By asking your staff to pack up their own items and label the boxes clearly, this could help to prevent confusion. When you move offices, the boxes can simply be placed at the right desks and then your staff can sort out all of their items at the new location, preventing things from getting lost during the move.
Plan a Straightforward Move
Moving offices can be stressful, but things can be made a whole lot worse if your staff become upset because they have lost an important file or they are finding the whole move too disruptive. Give them plenty of time to plan ahead, and make sure you make it very clear what you want them to do well in advance.
