Whether you run a business or any other organization, office moving is a process that can cause lots of disruptions not only to employees but, operations as well. However, your employees are among the most valuable investments that you must carefully handle during the relocation process to ensure that operations are not compromised. Even though news of moving the office to a new place could sound good to most of them, some employees may not feel good about it.
Without knowing how to effectively manage your employees when moving, you might end up losing quite a number of them.
Tips can help you on how to smoothly manage the human aspect of an office move
Start planning early
Depending on your needs or reason for switching offices, relocation can be quite overwhelming. One of the secrets to successful office moving is early and better planning, which should cover a number of elements including, finding an appropriate location, determining the required amount of space, items to be moved and consultants to involve. These are important because, they usually form part of the information that you will present to your employees regarding the move.
If the relocation is a surprise that none of the employees is not aware of, it is always advisable to keep it under wraps until you are sure. When planning, it is important that you also set dates for the relocation so workers are able to know in advance, any projects that might need to be completed by then. Always try to make all the necessary preparations in prior so that when communicating the news to employees, you have something concrete to tell them.
Communicate effectively
Effective communication is always very important for the smooth operation of an office. Office moving can impact mixed feelings on employees and, a communication breach could only stir up uncertainty. The best way to communicate news about office moving to employees is through the usual communication channel. However, you should work on a communication strategy that takes into consideration, expected reactions of employees.
When coming up with a communication strategy, try to emphasize on the unique benefits that employees could derive from the move. Besides, the strategy should also address some of the expected concerns from workers with regards to relocation. The following are key aspects of an ideal communication strategy for office relocation;
Tips for creating an effective communication strategy
Effective communication requires that the right information is passed onto the target audience at the right time. Therefore, you should always be keen on when the communication should be done. Since situations sometimes change during the process of planning an office move, communication should be done in three stages; initial announcement, interim updates and final announcement.
The initial announcement is whereby you will break the news about plans to relocate the office. In order to effectively get the point home at this stage, your communication strategy should tell the employees the expected time of relocation, location of the new premises and why they should consider the decision a plus. The aim of the initial announcement is to try and shed off some uncertainties and speculations that might arise from employees.
In case you have already selected consultants to work on the new office, it is also advisable to tell the employees about it when making the initial announcement. You can also show the workers portfolios of the new premises so they can also know what to expect. This could keep them motivated as you near the move.
Upon making the initial announcement, you should give the heads of department and other staff members the time to ponder over it and give their inputs. Ask them to communicate their relocation requirements for assessment by your space consultants. Based on the recommendations of consultants and employee requirements, you should come up with a clear outline of what is possible and not.
As the planning for office moving nears its maturity, it is important to also keep your employees updated. The updates should tell workers about some of the plans that have so far been finalized including, the decisions made with regards to their submissions. The way in which you handle the workers’ input could be very instrumental in their morale at this stage. Therefore, try to focus more on their needs to avoid shaken confidence.
Apart from just communicating the plans for office relocation to your employees, they also need to get involved in the process in order to feel part of it. For instance, you can appoint a few staff members to organize how activities like, packing and farewell parties will be conducted. This will encourage participation on their part. On the other hand, you can even organize occasional social meetings between managers and other employees to help in eliminating any bad feelings about the new place.
As soon as all the plans for the relocation are up to date, you can now make the final announcement. At this stage, you should have all the finer details of the entire process including, complete portfolios of the new office. Any other adjustments or luxuries that were promised in the earlier announcements should also be presented to the employees. At this stage, you are not expected to drop any surprises that were not hinted earlier since that could compromise all the efforts made before.
Create a contingency plan
Even if everything looks in place at the time of relocation, you should never just sit back and hope all will go well. In order to avoid frustrations during office relocation, it is always advisable to come up with proper contingency measures. One of the major surprises that you can be faced with upon getting to the new office is resignations of some staff members. Thus, you need to talk to your managers to identify some of the expected cases of resignations so that an ideal plan for new employees can be developed on time.
In case you are planning office move, Mover Singapore can deliver the best moving solutions for a stress-free transition into the new premises.