Tips for Managing Your Office Relocation
This article was updated on 6/03/2024
Moving: many consider it to be among the least enjoyable aspects of the human experience.
The logistics; finding the right mover; the packing; the unpacking. There's little pleasure to be found in these activities. And, yet, it's a necessary evil. Because while the process of moving may not be joyful, the act of having moved - and finding yourself in a new and stimulating environment - quite often is.
As daunting as a household move may be, an office relocation can seem even more intimidating. This is why LoopNet spoke with Vincent Imbrosciano, principal owner of Elite Relocation Group, to obtain advice on how to optimally carry out your office relocation.
Imbrosciano's nearly 30 years of experience encompasses large-scale moves for organizations such as Credit Suisse and Madison Square Garden Co., as well as much smaller relocations. And while the suggestions he provided to LoopNet were targeted towards a prototypical 5,000- to 10,000-square-foot office tenant, he observed that "essentially a 1.4 million-square-foot job is simply 140 10,000-square-foot jobs." So, provided that there is nothing particularly esoteric about your company's space or office equipment, the following process and tips should apply, regardless of the size of your office.
Based on conversations with Imbrosciano, LoopNet developed the following list of key steps in the office relocation process.
Eight Steps To Guide Your Office Relocation
- Six months out: communicate move to employees.
- Four months out: begin furniture, technology and file assessment.
- Three months out: develop a scope of work/RFP and begin vetting movers.
- Two months out: determine seating assignments.
- Six weeks out: select vendors.
- Two weeks out: begin packing (and purging).
- Week of move: finish packing and conduct move.
- Post-move: unpack, liquidate and clean.
While an office relocation is certainly not a simple process - "You can't just rent a U-Haul and give your friends pizza and beer and expect to get this done," Imbrosciano joked - it is a manageable and potentially productive endeavor, provided you approach it in an organized fashion.
Six Months Out: Communicate Move to Employees
It's likely that long before any official communication is issued, employees at your company will be aware that a relocation is impending. They may know that a new lease has been signed, or at least that the company has elected not to renew at its existing location.
In a vacuum from confirmed information, rumors can abound, potentially fostering anxiety among your employees. To counteract this possibility, Imbrosciano suggests developing an official memorandum providing details about the move approximately six months in advance of the relocation.
"If you're the facilities manager, you're getting questions about where you're moving," Imbrosciano said. Questions such as, "what neighborhood it is, what the new space is going to look like, who the other tenants in the building are … employees are curious about those things."
Accordingly, Imbrosciano believes it's beneficial to develop an FAQ document regarding the move to accompany the formal announcement. This relocation document should contain information such as:
- Anticipated move date.
- New office location.
- Data regarding the building and its amenities.
- Highlights of the local neighborhood (if it's different from your current one).
- Commuting/parking information.
This will help put employees at ease about the move, and save you the time and effort of having to respond to multiple individual inquiries.
While most professionals involved in the relocation will be hired later in the process, Imbrosciano noted that there is one potential vendor that should be considered at this juncture: a move manager.
A move manager will help guide your organization through the entire relocation process, from providing numerous communications to employees, to developing your scope of work, selecting vendors and conducting the physical move. While he is admittedly biased, Imbrosciano observed that, "An [in-house] facilities person already has a 40- to 50-hour a week job anyway. When you add the move on to that, and all the questions, the communications, furniture and technology assessments - it probably makes sense to bring in a professional."
Imbrosciano also claimed that this expert assistance frequently pays for itself. "Our fees wind up, nine times out of 10, being covered by what we save [the client] on the move, just from efficiency."
Four Months Out: Begin Furniture, Technology and File Assessment
For many companies, a new office space also means new furniture and, possibly, new technology as well. One of the first priorities is to understand the differences between the old and new furniture; specifically, in terms of storage capacity, as most new office furniture offers less space for files, personal effects, etc.
You should review your organization's retention guidelines for files and purge or place into storage as much as you can, in order to accommodate the differences between the furniture at your origin and destination locations. Make sure that employees are aware of any changes in storage capabilities as well, so they can plan accordingly.
Three Months Out: Develop a Scope of Work/RFP and Begin Vetting Movers
Once you've determined what your new furniture and office space will comfortably contain, you can begin developing a list of all the items you plan to move. For the novice, this can be the most challenging - and treacherous - phase of the process.
"Underestimating the scope of a job is the worst thing anybody can do," Imbrosciano commented. "Because then you're just going to keep on getting hit with change orders and it's going to be a very frustrating experience." Not just frustrating, but costly as well, as any additions to your initial scope of work will be charged at a premium.
When developing your scope of work, you'll need to be thorough, Imbrosciano suggested. You'll want to count all the common area file drawers in the office, as well as every monitor and every PC. Count and define every piece of furniture that you'll be moving, as well as every piece of art hanging on the wall. Once you've calculated everything, do it again - just to make sure there aren't any items you missed.
After these tabulations are completed, you can develop the scope of work that will be included in the RFP issued to potential movers. It's also important to make sure that every mover receives the same scope of work, so that their bids reflect identical levels of service.
Prior to issuing the RFP, it's also advisable to confer with the property owners at both your origin and destination regarding your short list of potential moving companies. Some properties will require you to utilize union movers, while other owners may just have certain companies they prefer not to work with. "Sometimes the landlord will say you simply cannot use this mover, and you don't want to find that out after you've signed a contract, or when the movers show up," Imbrosciano said with a chuckle.
Two Months Out: Determine Seating Assignments
While you're evaluating bids from potential moving companies, it's a good opportunity to start considering seating assignments. It's likely that your new space won't offer the exact same layout as your previous office - perhaps you're moving away from private offices and towards an open floor plan model - and this will require you to reimagine your floor plan. Begin by developing a list of the departments and employees that need to be located in proximity to one another and go from there. This is a unique occasion where you can foster new dynamics and create novel synergies among your employee base.
Six Weeks Out: Select Vendors
Once you're approximately four to six weeks away from the move, you'll want to have finalized your contract with your moving company, as well as selected any other vendors that you may require.
In addition to the movers, you will also need to hire a liquidator to dispose of any furniture or fixtures that are not making the journey to the new space. Depending on the size of your company's IT department, you may need to hire a technology consultant as well, to assist in disconnecting and reconnecting servers and individual workstations.
Two Weeks Out: Begin Packing (and Purging)
Imbrosciano said that employees should begin packing approximately two weeks prior to the move. All the equipment for the move - boxes, crates, labels, etc. - should be supplied by the moving company. Every employee should have a label with their name, origin and destination information. If your company is going to be located across multiple floors, it's beneficial to color code the employee labels by floor. This will make the moving process much more efficient.
You will also need to provide employees with clarion guidelines about how many boxes or crates of items their new furniture will accommodate, so they can pack with those stipulations in mind. To help employees purge old items, dumpsters should be moved into the space, and purging campaigns should begin.
In order to make your purging campaign successful, "you kind of have to make it a little bit fun for the employees," Imbrosciano advised. Give everyone the opportunity to dress down for the project and have a contest to see which employee or department can purge the greatest number of items, with the winner receiving a gift card or other reward.
Week of Move: Finish Packing and Conduct Move
With just a few days remaining until the move, employees should be almost fully packed, reserving a single box for any last-minute items that they'll need to be able to access until the day of the move. Imbrosciano also noted that it's beneficial to have a deep clean conducted at the new space just before the relocation takes place.
Imbrosciano suggested that the move should ideally take place after work hours on a Friday. Most buildings won't allow a move to occur during office hours, because of the disruption it creates and the impact it has on shared property resources, such as freight elevators. As for the advantages of a Friday move, it allows for a weekend-long buffer, should any issues arise during the relocation. This consideration is particularly critical for technology, since your business' server is probably being shut down at the origin site and reconnected at the destination.
Speaking of technology, if your company utilizes a physical server, it is probably the single most important item that gets moved between offices and should be treated as a priority. "When [the server] is down, your company's down. So, the mover has to be aware of when it's going to be disconnected … as soon as it's ready, it gets put straight on a truck and is driven straight to your destination," Imbrosciano said.
Post-Move: Unpack, Liquidate and Clean
On the Sunday following the move, you should probably book an additional cleaning for the new space. It also can be helpful to have some representatives from the moving company around the office for the first few workdays after the move, in case any items are missing or other problems emerge.
However, you're also not entirely finished with your old space just yet. According to Imbrosciano, "most leases will require a full broom sweep removal of all furniture, fixtures and equipment before you turn the space over." He went on to say that "the rule of thumb on a liquidation is that if you turned the office upside down and shook it, anything that would come loose has to be liquidated."
Before the liquidators arrive, though, Imbrosciano recommended that you check every drawer of the old furniture to make sure that no sensitive paperwork or technology has been left behind. Any miscellaneous office supplies can be discarded with the old furniture through the liquidation process.
For those who find the liquidation process somewhat wasteful, there are alternatives. Imbrosciano said that there is a resale market for some higher-end office furniture, such as Herman Miller Aeron Chairs.
Another option is to donate the old furniture. Imbrosciano said that for one recent move, his team had arranged for a "donation walkthrough" once the move was completed. "We brought along about six different charities and we let them pick anything that they wanted. It saves us in some of the labor to bring it downstairs and potentially have to crush it and wind up being in a landfill, and the value of the furniture winds up being a tax write-off."
