How Office Moves Go Wrong
Have you heard people talking about the dangers associated with office moves? You may think that it's an honour to be tasked with arranging the office move, but the reality is that you're likely to have been put in a very difficult position.
If you're not careful,
there's a chance that you may be left to find out why others dread these changes so much. The problem is that they are naturally associated with a lot of concerns, many of which will probably originate from within your own organisation. Dealing with those concerns will undoubtedly be part of the process.
Firstly, it's worth thinking about the very nature of those concerns. Why should different sets of people worry at all? Within the business, it's clear that employees may have a number of issues and the actual move may simply result in conducting these into a central story.
For example, there may be some individuals who are concerned about changes to their daily commute to work. The reality is likely to be that you won't have decided on the location of the new premises, but you may find that you are the victim of certain levels of productivity.
There may also be issues surrounding the provision of facilities within the new office environment. Will individual employees be happy with desk positions and the amount of space that will be available to them. This can all sound pretty trivial, but these are the sort of concerns that really do worry people. You need to be thinking about such problems because a failure to deal with them is likely to make things worse.
This leads on to thinking about the reaction of clients and customers. Their concerns are likely to surround the fact that they demand certain service levels. They will be worried about whether those can be maintained, given the circumstances. You need to demonstrate that you understand these concerns and that everything is being done to ensure that the transition is seamless.
It can be seen that the concerns of customers will also have an impact on employees. The latter may be worried that any disruption will reflect poorly on their own abilities. This is very clearly something that needs to be avoided. At all stages of the process, you should be thinking about business continuity, taking into account the feelings of employees, suppliers and customers.
What becomes clear is that commercial relocations tend to go wrong when people forget these basic facts. A failure to plan properly can lead to complaints, loss of business and also to lower levels of productivity. These are the elements that you will be working to avoid.
