Making Your Office Move a Smooth One

Full article 7 min read

Planning a commercial move has many of the logistics issues of any other type of move and requires much of the same planning. Efficiency, budget-consciousness, and planning are all important, as well as finding a great mover. (That’s where
www.longdistancemoving.com can help!) But in many ways, an office or company move presents its own unique challenges. It is important to manage all of the moving parts in an office move in order to ensure a smooth transition for you, your employees, and, most of all, your bottom line.

  • Give everyone a job: There is no doubt that your employees work hard every day, but during a move it is important that they take on some of the responsibility for the move as well. While you will probably appoint one person, or one team, to head up the move, you will want to spread responsibility for the move among all of those employees who are affected. They are the ones who know how to prioritize, how to designate tasks, and what will be last out and first in on moving day. Starting early will allow everyone to understand and have input into the process, so that all of those moving parts can work together well.

  • Take inventory: An accurate assessment of what you have is the first step to ensuring that it all ends up in the right place. In fact, even before determining your needs in your new space, you’ll need to have an accurate sense of what you currently house and what your current growth trajectory will require. In addition, if you have highly sensitive items, like client files, financial records, and confidential data, you will need an accurate record in order to ensure that nothing has gone missing or been damaged during the moving process.

  • Create a timeline: Having a detailed timeline with numerous small milestones will make the entire move more manageable and ensure that you are staying on target and on budget. The timeline will need to take into account a number of factors, not least of which is the needs of continuing to operate during the moving process coupled with the need to get up to speed quickly on the other side of it.

  • Plan the layout of your new office: In consultation with your moving team and team lead you should look at the current layout and evaluate areas for improvement, then begin to apply these improvements to your new space. You may want to hire a decorator or an efficiency expert to consult as well, in order to help ensure that your new space is as user friendly as possible. You will also want to take into consideration how different parts of your company work together in order to understand the proximity of different departments or units to each other. This is especially important if you are moving into a multi-level office building where time would be wasted making multiple long trips each workday.

  • Take into account your company’s calendar: Most businesses have downtimes at some point during the year. In some industries summer lags, while in others winter is the slower season. Try to schedule your move for the slower time of year in your company in order to avoid client inconvenience and excessive employee disruption.
  • Clean up before clearing out: Many businesses accumulate excessive equipment, furniture, and files over their years of operation. Don’t waste time and money moving things that serve no purpose in your current space. Sell or donate inventory that is no longer relevant. Hire temp workers to digitize paper files and then properly dispose of those files. A little time and effort can pay big dividends in savings on both moving and storage at the other end of the move.

  • Prioritize operations: What is the most important part of your company? For some businesses, it may be the IT department. For some it may be support personnel. For other companies, minimizing manufacturing is paramount. Figure out what department needs to be up and running and conduct your planning around a rapid and efficient relocation of that unit. If part of your move includes equipment upgrades as well, ensure that employees are trained before they arrive at the new office so that they can hit the ground running as soon as possible.

  • Arrange for cleanup at the old location: You don’t want to have all of the employees setting up their new offices and find that there is a mess to clean up at the old one. In most commercial moves, the space must be left as clean as it was when you moved in. This may require you to hire a commercial crew for the day to come in and clean up the old space, or you may need to assemble a custodial crew and ensure that they are scheduled at the old space before going to the new one.

  • Communication is Key: Whether it is with your landlord, your employees, or your clients and customers, it is important to ensure that everyone understands what is happening, when, and how it will affect them. This requires planning, transparency, budgeting, and communications to ensure that everyone is on the same page. Even if your business is generally a “go with the flow” kind of office, a move creates challenges that need to be planned for and discussed.

Of course, all of the planning in the world won’t help if you don’t have a great moving company as your partner. Let www.longdistancemoving.comhelp you find the right mover for your relocation, whether it is one state over or across country. Use our Quote Finder to get started and let us connect you with a pre-screened moving company that can help you make your office move a breeze.

Written by


Alex Sherr is the founder of Long Distance Moving, a blog that provides moving information and resources for people who are relocating. He has more than two decades of experience in the moving and relocation industry, and he is passionate about helping people relocate smoothly and efficiently. When he's not writing or blogging, Alex enjoys spending time with his wife and two young children.