Step 1 - Where to
start?
The reasons for moving office are many and varied but for
the most part are pre-empted by a current lease expiring or a looming lease
break. Moving office is a fantastic opportunity to look inwards and
determine whether your current offices are fit for purpose, it can cater for
any anticipated/future growth or if it is adaptable to changing work practices.
Moving office presents an opportunity for
companies to consider exciting changes like:
- Working practices: investigating new ways of working
- Workplace culture: any changes will have an impact on culture, which will need to be pro-actively managed
- Brand identity: a move can be a good time to look at changes to your brand identity, with many companies opting to re-energise their corporate identity alongside a move
All of this can have a huge impact on
- Staff motivation and productivity
- Staff retention and attracting the best talent
- Improved internal communications and collaboration
Step 2 - Build your
project team
Most importantly, you need to identify and designate your
Senior Project Champion:
This should be a capable and senior individual who commands
the authority to make decisions and will drive the project forward. A strong,
senior project leader will keep everything - and everyone - on target, minimise
delays and inaction, and ensure that the resulting office space closely
reflects the initial brief, the company’s brand and any key objectives set out
at the beginning.
The next step is to employ a robust and varied internal team
to complement and support the project lead. This team of experts should consist of specialists in
multiple disciplines from across the business including IT, marketing and HR.
Their expertise and input when it comes to things like IT systems, branding,
and staff engagement is invaluable.
A highly involved, cross-team approach incorporating a great
wealth of expertise is essential when delivering the perfect office space.
Step 3 - Decide on
what you want to achieve
- What kind of space do you want to create?
- What is most important to your organisation?
- How do your two answers translate into the perfect office design?
Finding answers to these questions will have the most impact
on your budget, as well as any project timescales. Because of this, it is
critical to be as realistic as possible with your answers.
Both your new office building and its location need to be
put through their paces to ensure they deliver everything your company needs.
You can only inspect a potential workspace if you know what
you need from it. This can include:
- Commute times
- Staff parking
- Public transport
- Accessibility
- Local amenities
- Rent costs
- IT/mobile coverage
Once you’ve taken all of these elements into account, you’ll
be in a better, more informed position to decide whether or not any new office
can meet your requirements.
You can also consult our step-by-step Office Relocation Check-list for an extensive list of preliminary checks.
Step 4 - Approach the
right commercial property expert
At this stage, you’ll have formed an all-star project team
led by a senior stakeholder, set your location and office building criteria and
agreed on a budget. Now, it’s time to research and approach the right commercial
property agent to complete your office relocation line-up. Using a reputable
agent can make the process - and the lives of your project team - considerably
easier.
Set aside some time to research and short-list different
options.
- Ask colleagues and clients for recommendations
- Ask for references and testimonials from past clients
- Determine whether they have a good knowledge of the area you are searching in
- Do some online research
- Ensure they have a good grasp of the technical side of commercial property
Working alongside a trustworthy, highly- recommended
specialist with strong technical skills, well-founded knowledge of your
specified areas, and a transparent fee structure will result in a project with
far fewer issues or delays.
Once you have selected an agent, they will help you to short-list available properties matching your criteria, arrange viewings and help you to
negotiate the best overall package for any potential new space.
The right commercial property expert should support your
project team, ensuring the project is made as effortless as possible.
Step 5 - Select your
interior design partner
Once you have selected your new space, the next step is
finding an interior design partner. Some partners are design and build and some
like ourselves are independent to a fit-out contractor so will design an office
that is most suited to you, not what is the easiest to build. Independent interior
design partners will also help you to tender a fit-out partner fairly. Consider your prospective partners as an extension of your
project team, a specialist capable of designing and delivering to your
exacting, detailed standards. They will need to understand your brief, provide the
enthusiasm to drive the project forward and possess the expertise to swiftly
deal with any challenges your office move may encounter.
Don’t accept a company that cannot work to your vision, as
this relationship is absolutely crucial to the success of any office relocation
and fit out.Start this process by creating a list of factors and then
rank them in order of importance. These could include:
- Knowledge and experience in your sector
- Strong reputation
- Green credentials and sustainability
- Financial stability
- Positive testimonials from past clients
Once your list is finalised, present it to your project team
for their input before agreeing on a set of non-negotiable criteria. This will
put your team in the best position to approach some firms to enquire about
their previous clients. Whittle down your list to three practices, issue your
brief and set aside a day for presentations from each of them. You should also
look to meet the entire project team at this stage, and do not be afraid to ask
the tough questions that will help you make your decision. Proposals should include
conceptual ideas that meet your needs and estimated costs to achieve this, but
don’t let these be the only deciding factors.
We recommend that you spend some time visiting offices that
your prospective partners have designed and delivered for other clients and
also some live sites that they are working on to see how they operate.
Don’t focus on minute details at this stage. Designs can
easily be tweaked, but be sure that you understand the thinking behind what is
presented. The overall designs should meet the brief, even if the colours in
the concept don’t match the walls and floors of your ideal office.
Step 6 - Consult,
collaborate, and listen
You have appointed your ideal design and build team to take
on your brief. Energy and enthusiasm levels are high. Everyone is looking
forward to getting their teeth into delivering the project.That’s great, and now is the time to get staff involved and
to host workshops with your chosen Design & Build partner and their
workplace team so they can…
- Determine how your business operates
- Gain a greater understanding of your business
- Get opinions from across the entire business about what kind of office would work best
Your chosen design and build partner will need to take the
time to get to know and understand your business and your employees, and most
importantly what they need from the new space.
Creating a culture of ‘no surprises’ from the beginning of
the project can help reduce resistance to change, and create a positive buzz
around the project.
Engage with staff in the preliminary stages, keep them
informed, and present them with opportunities to be part of the process through
brainstorming sessions and/or workshops.
Many design and build companies now have in house workplace
strategy teams who can arrange consultative workshops with staff to gauge
opinions as well as carrying out research and utilisation studies so they can
make recommendations that can potentially influence the final office design.
Step 7 - Agreeing on
design
Your design team will help you translate your objectives
into a design that matches the vision for your business. The various studies undertaken during the workplace phase
will help you understand how your staff work, how they use the space, and help
you identify what sort of areas you need in your new workplace to support them.
Your designer will also help you identify what colour palette, lighting and
office furniture is best suited to different areas whilst also making sure it
all reflects your brand. This could be by ensuring there are more informal,
collaborative areas, better use of desk space, or perhaps smaller private
meeting rooms.
This step is also a great opportunity to encourage your
staff to work in different ways:
- Could there be more collaboration?
- Do you need to break down internal team silos?
- Does your space need better kitchen facilities?
- Are specialised activity rooms and breakout areas needed?
- What about flexible private workspaces?
By exploring these questions, your design team can work to
create the perfect space.
Step 8 - Finalise the
project plan
You've selected a design and build partner, consulted staff,
received workplace recommendations from the experts and agreed on a final
office design, so what next? It’s time to create and agree on a detailed project plan. This
needs to include everything, the big and the small: from IT servers and
furniture delivery to cardboard boxes. This will allow you and your team to
plan when all of the many tasks need to be completed, and ensure everything
happens in a timely fashion.It is important to include major milestones in this schedule
such as moving IT servers or delivery and installation of new furniture.
Sticking to the plan and its deadlines takes effort from
everyone on the project team so it is critical that you make sure timings are
realistic, lines of communication are kept open and that you meet and check in
with one another regularly. This should include regular site visits to assess
progress.
Step 9 - Planning the
move
So the design has been approved, your project plan is in
place and the delivery team is on site building your new offices. Now it’s time
to look at planning the move and working with your project team to ensure it’s
a smooth transition.
There is a lot to consider, including:
- Will there be a phased move or will everyone move on the same date?
- Where will staff and different teams be located and seated within the new office (or is it a hot desking workplace)?
- How do you make sure the IT systems and internet are up and running on day one?
- Do staff need cards or keys to access the new building in advance?
- Who is ordering the coffee and tea bags?
It is also important to keep staff informed, so look into
sending regular email updates, sharing progress pictures from the new office
during the build and make sure all staff know everything they need to know in
advance. Remember, no surprises. It may even be worthwhile arranging
tours of the new space a few days/weeks in advance to get people used to and
excited about the new space.
Step 10 - Move in day
The new office has been handed over on time and looks
fantastic. All of the furniture has been installed. All of the IT systems and
Internet are working perfectly and staff are arriving and inspecting their new
workplace. What next? It is important to pro-actively manage change by having a
go-to person for staff to direct questions to about the new office.
Host a welcome breakfast or lunch to ‘introduce’ the new
office and look at planning sessions with staff to gather feedback on what they
like/dislike about the new work environment.
It may also be worth considering hosting an office party to
introduce yourself to your new neighbours and to meet other companies in the
building and general vicinity.
It is worth remembering that moving office is a major change
and managing this change doesn't end on move in day. We always recommend
working with your partner to ensure that the office continues to work for your
organisation and any tweaks are ironed out.
