As with moving house, office relocation can be very stressful and time consuming and it often falls upon a member of staff who has little or no experience in moving a business to organise everything and ensure the move runs smoothly. A badly planned move can lead to stress and downtime in the business resulting in loss of productivity and money.

In order to have a successful move it is advisable to seek professional advice at the earliest opportunity. List out the products and services that you will require and consider whether these should be dealt with in isolation or if certain areas overlap. It may be advisable to appoint a project manager to oversee the whole project but this will generally depend on the size of the move and how complex it is. Office space planning is one of the most important services required.

The first item to deal with is finding the right premises and of course an Agent will be needed to assist with this. However, one should bear in mind that a building that looks to be right size, or have the correct square metres may not be ideal for many reasons and one might wish to consult a space planner to look at likely buildings to ensure they are right.

Having identified the new premises the next issue is to decide what existing furniture or equipment is being taken and therefore what new products are required. As we have dealt with elsewhere the space planning must be looked at as soon as possible to ensure that the correct office furniture and equipment is ordered but also that all relevant trades that need to consult each other do so as quickly as possible. Many relocation projects have gone wrong because electrical floor boxes have been installed or partitions erected and then a furniture consultant has advised that it is all in the wrong position. Early planning is essential.

Having identified those products and services are required and the space planning process has been completed orders can be placed and a timescale for the move can be created. If you have a deadline, for instance because of the end of an existing lease work back from this to establish when work must commence. It is important to be clear how long each element of the process will take and give each trade sufficient time to complete there work, ideally with time to spare. Provided a clear plan is established and each person knows in advance when the next requires access to the site thee should be no problems with trades overlapping. If this is not done then it is easy for decorators to be on site when the electrician is trying to work or the ceiling fixer is installing a suspended ceiling when the furniture supplier arrives to deliver the new desks.

With the actual move date looming a removal company should be contacted and they can advise on crate hire and how much time staff need to prepare. Clear instructions should be issued to staff to ensure crates are properly packed and not overloaded and that they are clearly labelled.

A well planned and executed office move will be beneficial to staff morale, create a positive atmosphere and ultimately improve productivity within the business.