Moving an entire office to a new location is not a simple task, and it requires a great deal of planning and flawless execution to make it a success. It also requires a great deal of commitment and hard work of the employees to ensure that they do their bit in helping the move to happen smoothly.
Every moving process is preceded by the task of identifying a new office space and getting the interior designing complete. The moving process will only start after the office is completely ready for use by the employees.
Building an office moving team
The process of shifting and entire office needs to be taken up as a project by the company, and a project manager or a focused group should be created to lead it. This group, known as the Office Moving Team will spearhead the planning and execution process and everything that comes in between.
The office moving team should ideally be created with representatives from several departments, some of which are as follows:
Human Resources: Moving an office involves change, and by nature most human beings dislike and even resist change. The primary task of the human resources department is to sensitize the employees well in advance, and to allay their fears regarding the change.
Admin: This department is responsible for all office infrastructure related matters, so a major involvement will be needed from them. They need to identify a new office and get it ready for relocation. They will also manage the logistics, negotiate with the packing and moving company, and get the necessary approvals and permits from the building and local authorities for the shifting.
Finance: The finance team will be responsible for identifying possible costs, approving budgets and for paying the bills.
Apart from these, there should ideally be one representative from the other major departments in the Office Moving Team, especially IT department as the most expensive items to be moved are almost always IT infrastructure like Desktops and Servers. They can coordinate on with their respective departments to facilitate the moving process.
Responsibilities of the Office Moving Team
The involvement of the office Moving Team is pivotal in every step of the moving process. Their primary responsibilities are: • Choosing a Vendor: Involving a professional packing and moving company very early in the shifting process is highly recommended. Ideally, this company should be contacted even before the final shifting plan is drawn up. Their expert advice can be very helpful to avoid several possible mistakes, and make the shifting process smooth. • Planning: The team needs to draw up a detailed plan for shifting in consultation with the professional office moving company. They should consider the minutest details and also attempt to foresee things that may go wrong during shifting process, and chalk out a backup plan for every probable eventuality. • Create a timeline for the shifting: The overall plan needs to be broken down into specific tasks and decide the timelines for completion of each of those. • Assign tasks: The team then needs to assign each task to the best person who can complete it. Everyone should be made responsible and accountable for the task assigned to them. • Identify inventory: Make a list of the furniture, desktop, servers, office appliances, electrical fittings, file and documents, personal belongings of employees, etc. to be shifted. • Get the new premises ready: The interior design, commissioning of new furniture, installation of the IT infrastructure in the new office has to be completed before shifting can happen. • Coordinate: The team needs to interact with the moving company, procure necessary permissions and coordinate with the internal employees to smoothen the process of moving • Oversee the shifting: as champions of the shifting process, the office moving team needs to ensure that every step for shifting gets executed within the timeline that was created earlier. They also need to find solutions to any difficulties that may crop up during this process.
How A Professional Shifting Company Can Help
Choosing the right removal company to take care of packing and transportation is essential for the move. They will take away a lot of effort from the in-house team and facilitate a fully planned, smooth relocation experience. A professional shifting company like Pikkol is highly experienced in shifting offices of all sizes in various locations with more than 200 commercial establishments moves handled every year. Involving them early in the planning stage will ensure that their expert advice is available to the office moving team at all-times. This will ensure that no critical factor is missed by the team during the planning process.
In most offices, the office moving team is not well versed with several complicated procedures like getting the necessary approvals from the building authorities and various other local agencies. The professional office moving company can easily get this done, thereby reducing the intake of the team.
Apart from this, they are the experts in packing. Standard operating procedures for packing are followed to ensure the right packing using the right packing material appropriate for various types of items that need to be moved to minimize the risk of damage during handling and/or transportation. Each packed item is labelled for easy retrieval at the destination. Any requirement for warehousing the packed items (for eventualities like the new office is not ready yet) are also taken care by Pikkol with its extensive network of warehouse at various geographical locations. In short, Pikkol will take the burden off the shoulders of the moving team, and make the daunting task of shifting your office a cakewalk.
