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Writer's pictureKellie Heinze

Office Relocation Checklist: Countdown to an office move


Planning for an office relocation starts earlier than anyone tends to think. We developed this Office Relocation Checklist to ensure you appoint the partners you want to work with and at the right time to ensure your office relocation project goes without a hitch.


Based on our experiences with hundreds of company moves over the years, we have identified the different actions that you should be thinking about and this involves you picking up this Office Relocation Checklist 18 months before the planned move is due to take place. If you follow the guidance in this checklist, you will be able to make the most of your project as an office relocation can be a great catalyst for other needed changes in your business.


As the person managing your office relocation, we've detailed the decisions that need to be actively taken at every stage to ensure your project stays on track.

18 months prior to your office relocation

This stage is all about understanding why an office relocation is happening and what the ramifications are for your planning processes. There is always a reason to move: whether it’s a lease break, a need to accommodate growth, rationalise multiple offices and facilities, downsize, improve and modernise office facilities, or enable agile working.


Understanding the motivation for moving will impact all of the plans that are made at this stage, from whether you need an architect or a design & build company to what type of furniture you will choose. For example, if your company is introducing agile working, you may need to transition from fixed desks and filing cabinets to hot desks and lockers.


This is also a good time to undertake a time utilisation study, which assesses the ratio of staff to desks by understanding how many people are in each team working in the office at any one time. By ‘untethering’ people from fixed desks and filing cabinets, your business can create a more flexible and productive work environment. Adopting software suites such as Microsoft Office 365 that enable a modern workplace will support this, but time for training on new tools and technologies will need to be factored in.


Office Relocation Checklist

✔️Filing audit and requirements

✔️Time utilisation study

✔️Architect versus Design & Build

✔️Furniture choices

✔️Printer requirements

✔️IT system and telephony upgrades

✔️FM service providers


12 months prior to your office relocation

This is activation time, building on the plans drawn up over the past six months. Actions you can take at this stage include filing reduction, based on your filing audit results, scanning documents so that they can be accessed online or archived off-site; final furniture specification; and IT deployments.


Communication is key at this stage. It’s time to appoint move and change champions who can help create buy-in with the rest of the team. Your senior management, HR team and comms specialists should be ready to answer questions about why the move is happening, the positive impact it will have on everyone and when things need to happen. You will also need to appoint a project manager (internal or from a specialist third party) who can keep everything on track, such as IT roll-outs and ensuring locker software and security pass software are co-ordinated.


Office Relocation Checklist

✔️Filing reduction

✔️Final decisions on agile/static environment or combination

✔️Furniture specification

✔️IT deployment including room management and access control

✔️Appoint project manager

✔️Appoint departmental move/change champions

✔️Arrange contracts for telecoms, catering, cleaning and security

✔️Communications plan


6 months prior to your office relocation

As you approach your move date, it’s time to track key actions and ensure you have preferred partners on board to help with your physical move as well as the clear-out phase afterwards.


Office Relocation Checklist

✔️Re-measure filing requirements

✔️Review project plan and action list

✔️Appoint move manager

✔️Issue tenders for physical move and appoint chosen firm

✔️Issue tenders for building clearance, including safe disposal of IT and appoint chosen firm


10 weeks to the office move!

Decisions that can be left to the final 10 weeks before go-live include the adjacencies of departments and team neighbourhoods and allocation of lockers. You can also begin the distribution of new security passes, order stationery or set up templates, circulate instructions for packing up personal items and documents and update contracts with suppliers including the new address.


Office Relocation Checklist

✔️Agree adjacencies of departments/neighbourhoods

✔️Allocation of lockers

✔️Issue security passes

✔️Update contracts with suppliers

✔️Order stationery

✔️Issue instructions and timeline for employees


Help is at hand

Planning and managing a move can be time-consuming and complex, including as it does so many moving parts. Fortunately help is on hand from our ClearSpace team, who are expert in supporting companies of all shapes and sizes through the process.


We can offer tailored audits based on your current storage use and reliance on hard-copy information.


The output of our storage audits is often a storage rationalisation programme. This includes detailed toolkits and experienced assistance in the reduction of on-site hard-copy documentation through digitisation of paper records or transfer to off-site storage facilities. The reduction and removal of unnecessary material creates additional space for your teams to work and collaborate – so starting this in good time will help you make vital decisions.


In close cooperation with your facilities management team we independently plan the allocation of material and gain signed off floor-plans from each department. Our managed teams pack and unpack your documentation, allowing your business to continue to function normally throughout the day of your move.


Finally, we can help you by undertaking information asset audits, reviewing risks and ensuring records management policies are written or reviewed to ensure compliance with regulatory standards. We can also review business processes that are driven by hard-copy information, identifying pain points and appropriate solutions.


The next step? If you are in the process of a business transformation project, moving to agile, managing an office refurbishment/relocation or are simply running out of space in your working environment, our filing consultancy service will give you an overview of where you are now, how you compare to your competitors and give you a road map of the steps you need to take to go paperless. Contact our team today to learn how we can help you.

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