A few tips for an office move

When an office is moving to a new space, every manager and every employee wants to avoid the unpleasant side effects of the move — so that once you’ve settled into the new place, you don’t end up hunting for important odds and ends or missing documents. Even experienced movers who handle a turnkey office relocation aren’t immune to that. So before you even set a moving date, it’s best to do a little reconnaissance on the ground: work out what actually needs to go to the new office and what belongs in the bin. Naturally, most of the staff’s personal belongings should be crossed off the moving list straight away. Whoever put mom’s photo in that frame on their desk can carry it themselves.

All the paperwork should be packed into separate folders, envelopes and boxes well ahead of time. And don’t put too much faith in the idea that the moving company’s staff will do it for you. Sure, they’ll do it — but then you’ll be the one putting the documents back in order afterward, and that can turn out to be far from simple. Experience says it’s better to move all the most important paperwork yourself, once the main commotion of the move has died down and the desks are sitting in their new spots. Wise managers move their computers’ system units themselves too. Everything else — furniture, office equipment, archives, mouse pads — can be left to the professionals.

Now for the next important step: choosing the company that will handle the office move. Here you need to look not so much at the polished homepage boasting how skillfully and competently every job gets done, but at the reviews that company has actually earned from people who’ve moved with its help before. If such reviews exist and aren’t just a figment of the site designers’ imagination, you can contact those people and check whether what’s written holds up. Once you get the chosen company’s dispatcher on the phone, listen carefully. If the dispatcher doesn’t ask in detail where you’re moving from and to, or doesn’t care whether either building has stairs or a freight elevator, that should raise some quiet doubts about their professionalism. If, on the other hand, the dispatcher is ready to send an estimator to inspect the site in person, ask them to bring along a detailed price list of services. Then, calculator in hand, you’ll be able to work out the real cost of the move.