Odds are fairly good that your processes at work have shifted a bit this year to protect against the Coronavirus. Whether many of your company’s employees are working from home or you have staggered employee in-office schedules, you are probably contemplating a more long-term solution. Relocating your office during Covid-19 can have some complications stick around to learn how we handle it.
Many companies have begun to either renovate their current office buildings or relocate to spaces that more aptly fit the current safety guidelines. This is a great idea, but it presents its own challenges. For example, how does one coordinate a large-scale move without putting employees at risk? If you have ever experienced a corporate move in the past, you know how many moving parts there are, and how many people are involved in the transition. Add in COVID-19 Health Safety Precautions and there is even more need for strategic choreography. So how does one accomplish this task safely and efficiently? We recommend consulting with a move coordinator to make sure every task is accomplished on time and within budget, but here are a few things to consider before you get started.
You need to come up with a highly detailed schedule, and you need to stick to it. When moving multiple departments in the same building, it cannot all happen at once. To keep employees fairly isolated, you need to create a daily plan that stipulates exactly who can come collect their personal belongings and pack their moving boxes on which day. You do not want to facilitate this by department as you would usually do before COVID-19. Instead, you want to make sure the staff coming in are located on opposite sides of the building so that there is minimal contact between each other, therefore decreasing the risk of contraction.
When creating this schedule, you also need to think about which vendors will need to be on-site at what times. If you have too many at once, not only will there be unneeded exposure between people, but your company will be paying for each vendor there, even if they are awaiting instruction. Believe us, this time adds up. Hiring a move coordinator who has experience with vendor relations and time management is the best way to limit unnecessary expenses.
What may appear as a logistical nightmare to many people comes as an exciting challenge to a move consultant. COVID-19 has definitely made it harder to conduct certain operations within the business world. However, it has also reminded us that the health and safety of ourselves and our employees should be paramount. Transitioning to a new office should be a safe endeavor for everyone, whether it occurs in the middle of a pandemic or not.
