How to Plan an Office Move
There may come a time for any company or organization, where their office and/or operations must be relocated. This need for a relocation, may be due to expansion of the business or worst-case scenario, a setback.
No matter the reason, an office move is never an easy task as there are many intricacies involved. One of the biggest fears of business owners is the downtime during the moving process.
If you are planning an office move (domestic or international), then we highly recommend hiring a relocation company like USP Relocations (Thailand). Just like moving people’s homes, we also specialize in office moves. Over the last 2 decades, we have successfully relocated countless offices within Bangkok and Phuket, as well as to and from Thailand.
There is no question, that the best way to initiate an office move, is to follow a streamlined Office Moving Checklist or Guideline. This is an effective organizational tool you can use to optimize your office move.
Many business owners have followed this checklist with much success. The following business moving checklist can also apply when moving a home office as well.
Office Moving Checklist (Guideline)
3 Months prior to Moving day
Begin by planning your office move as early as possible for the smoothest transition. The more time you’ve got on your hands until the move-out date, the better your chances of organizing the perfect office move.
☐Find a new office for the business. The place should be superior to the current location, or at least not worse in any way.
☐ Secure the new location with a signed lease. Have a lawyer review the terms and conditions of the lease to make sure that everything is peachy.
☐ Set a date will you be leaving the current office. Notify the property manager of your intentions to move out – good communication is vital for avoiding misunderstandings and possibly losing the security deposit. If you are selling, then put the property on the market ASAP.
☐ Make the necessary company arrangements. If you are responsible for overseeing and managing the commercial office move, the most optimum method for initiating the office move is to form a team of reliable employees that will help you achieve the goal.
☐ Assemble the office move team and discuss in detail the upcoming corporate office move. Here, the best course of action is to assign each member specific tasks that will help ease the transition between the two offices.
☐ Schedule the next meeting of the team responsible for the office move project and monitor the progress that’s been made.
☐ Set a budget to limit any overspending and try hard to stay within the budget.
☐ Request a few quotes from several well-known corporate movers in your city.
☐ Compare the quotes. Compare the rates, services, and all terms and conditions that they offer in order to pick the best one. Look for quotes that guarantee the shortest amount of for the move. This doesn’t always mean the cheapest either.
☐ Book with the best office moving company in your city.
To help you chose the best moving company for YOU, please read our blog:
Finding Your Moving Company in Bangkok or Phuket
2 Months prior to Moving day
Now that you have a moving team and a moving company in place, these are the next steps you should take.
☐ Create a detailed inventory of all the office furniture and office equipment in your current office. The office inventory will serve 2 purposes:
- It will help you determine what actually needs to be moved
- It can be used as a packing checklist to help mitigate any packing mistakes and to keep track of the items when they arrive at the destination.
☐ Create a floor plan of the new office. Use this to lay out exactly what goes where. You can even use color coding for room and the items being moved. This makes things a lot easier for you and the moving company.
☐ Check if any IT equipment in your office needs to be moved by a specialist (assuming the moving company doesn’t provide one).
☐ Examine the floor plan closely. Order any new furniture, equipment or items as needed. Obviously, make sure all orders are delivered to the new office.
1 Month prior to Moving day
Everything is looking great! You are only 4 weeks away from the moving day, yet everything is in order and well prepared. Now it’s time to:
☐ Assemble the office team that’s responsible for the organization of the company relocation and check the progress. Get more team members to help out if things are moving too slow.
☐ Change the business address of the company so that no mail gets lost during the process of moving.
☐ Set up a list of all the partner businesses, government organizations, and individuals to notify of the address change. Contact them all immediately.
☐ Ask your employees or IT to do a backup on the office computers to make sure all the important data is kept safe during the move.
☐ Digitize the most important paper documents of the company. Also, dispose of any sensitive documents that are no longer needed. This is where that paper shredder comes handy. Its also a great opportunity to organize all documents.
1 week until Moving day
You may think that with only 7 days away from moving, things will begin to get chaotic. Well, if you followed all the above steps correctly, then there should be zero chaos. In fact, you will most likely feel a sense of calmness and pride. That said, here are the next steps:
☐ Make sure the new office location is ready: all the utilities are set up, Internet, phone lines, and security systems are all up and running.
☐ Instruct your employees to pack up their things from their desks the day before the move-out date.
☐ Have everyone in the office to take their personal stuff home, they can bring it back after the move has finished.
☐ Contact a professional cleaning company if needed to clean up the office you’re leaving but not before you’ve officially left the office premises.
Moving day
Ok, so you’ve made it to the moving day. Great job! While the moving company takes care of all the hard work, you are just left with a few more final tasks:
☐ Hand out the new keys or access cards to the employees.
☐ Meet the office movers at the scheduled time. Assign a team member to each room where the packers are to help assists with anything needed.
☐ Take one final walkthrough around the office. This is a chance for you to make sure nothing was damaged, forgotten or lost.
☐ Have the moving company deliver, then unpack all office furniture and equipment at the new office ASAP. Your top priority should be to lose as little time as possible.
☐ Ask your employees to set up their personal workspaces ASAP, so that the operations of the company can resume.
☐ Write a review about the company you just used. Doing this help the moving company and helps other companies wishing to make an office move.
Summary
The above checklist is simply just a guideline for you to use and may not consist of all the steps you must take. Every office is different, and so different precautions and actions may be required. If you need further assistance, please contact one of our move specialists at USP Relocations (Thailand) to help you.