How To Move Your Office

You will always need some inside guidance when moving an office. Outside vendors can't make the decisions for your team. However, you can alleviate some of the burden by choosing to:

​

1. Outsource Tasks to a 3rd Party Vendor

The easiest however most expensive avenue is to engage the services of a proven move manager and/or project manager. This individual should come to you with references and/or endorsements of similar type of operations whom they have helped in the past. A project or move manager with experience in moving large offices may not be the right fit if you have a large warehouse operation. Similarly, a small office may not want to engage the services of a large move project manager, as they tend to overthink the process. An office with less than 20 employees can easily be managed by the moving consultant of the local moving company.

 

 

2. Dedicated Staff Member

The second Avenue is to dedicate an employee within your office to take charge. Our recommendation is that this employee is freed from the majority of their day-to-day tasks, as moving an office sometime becomes a full-time job in itself. Make sure this individual is very good with details, is organized and has the ability to multitask. On any given office move multiple vendors and trades will be utilized, such as data, phone, security/alarm, movers, furniture, property management and construction firms. Keeping all of these tasks separate and their progress under one umbrella can be tricky.

 

It may be helpful to have the staff member visit another Company who is currently moving as well but perhaps is further along in the process? Fellow office managers can share great insight as the move is unfolding. Typically, with no hesitation, fellow office managers will be willing to share their wisdom for a few minutes. Simply ask one of your vendors if they can connect you with such a company.

 

 

3. Team Effort

A tricky alternative is to designate key personnel to key tasks throughout the project. Typically a company hired staff or an individual for their strength and expertise in a certain area. The process of relocating an office can be very volatile and often requires traits such as patience, negotiation skills, detailed organization, CAD design, and many more. Not often can an employee with all these abilities be relieved from their day-to-day duties to commit themselves to the office move. Hence, the creation of a move manager by committee.

 

The obvious weakness of this alternative is the lack of seniority of one individual. The owner of the company in this case should take the helm, however be careful when delegating tasks and during meetings, that everybody on the committee feels like their area is important and that they are receiving the same support as their fellow committee members have been given.