The fact that commercial moving is complicated is hardly a secret nowadays. Almost any company manager that has gone through one can tell you about the hardships and the stress they had to endure while tackling it.
One aspect of commercial moving that is often forgotten is managing employee relocation. After all, if you are moving to a new city, you cannot merely move office supplies and technology.
And, as you will soon learn, relocating people can sometimes be much more challenging than moving heavy machinery. With that in mind, let’s see what moving will be like for your employees and how to help them out.
3 Tips For Successfully Managing Employee Relocation
1. Understanding Employee Relocation
If you approach this relocating from a manager’s standpoint, you are setting yourself up for trouble. To help your employees move with as few issues and hardships as possible, you must first consider what the relocation will be like for them.
Know that there is no “one-for-all” method to ensure minimum stress and maximum efficiency. Instead, you need to carefully consider what your employees will go through and tailor your efforts to help each employee.
2. Discussing The Upcoming Move
A golden rule of preparing your employees for the upcoming move is to assume that they have never dealt with relocation before. If you want them to deal with this well, you need to discuss the relocation step by step.
Ideally, you will come up with all the major obstacles they might face and then address them in a meeting. Some of the things you will most likely need to cover are:
- How and when to pack belongings
- Dealing with decluttering
- How to go about bills, rent, and landlords (both for the current and the apartment they are moving to)
- Organizing their everyday work assignments so that they fit with the relocation
- Explaining how and when the moving company will help them
- Helping them understand how to prepare pets and family for the move
- Familiarizing them with their future city
- Explaining where your future offices will be
- Going over the relocation procedure and the expected timeline
Be sure to make room for your employees’ unique needs, like pets, family, or difficult items. Furthermore, try to consult with your employees. They probably have questions that have never even crossed your mind.
The smart thing to do is start preparing your employees as soon as possible. Experts recommend that you begin organizing a relocation of this size at least six months before the actual moving day.
3. Employee’s Family
An employee often has a tough time relocating when they also need to move their family. Besides standard issues, they need to find schools for their kids, employment for their spouse, and potentially leave their extended family and friends.
Therefore, employees often get cold feet and start hesitating once the relocation stress starts kicking in. Your job here is to make sure that they are on board. Have a long talk, both with them and their spouse, to get a good idea of how they feel.
If the employee cannot move, but they could work from home during the previous months, try to explore different options.
3 Steps in Managing Employee Relocation
So, let’s now assume that you’ve talked with your employees and that you’ve explained the upcoming relocation. You can opt to dedicate your time towards moving your office and leave everything else to them.
But, this is often not the best approach. By helping all of your employees move, you can reduce the overall moving cost, as you will bring a lot of business to a single moving company, therefore making you eligible for a considerable discount.
Furthermore, know that the months before a move can become quite hectic. Even experienced employees can have a hard time keeping up their productivity among all the things you are changing. So, to help boost their productivity, try to relieve some of the moving stress. It will be well worth your money and time in the long run.
1. Finding The Right Company
When moving an office to a different relocation, it is paramount that you find a good moving company to help you out. If you are also using that company to relocate your employees, the importance of their trustworthiness doubles.
So, do the smart thing and don’t stop looking until you’ve found the company that will make moving to a new office space enjoyable. Get at least five estimates from different companies and talk with their company representatives. This will give you a good idea of how much your relocation will cost and how to best approach it.
Always ensure that the company has good reviews, is registered with the Better Business Bureau, and has previous customers that can vouch for it. The company in question will essentially be the backbone of your entire move. So, do your best to find one that is reliable, efficient, and cost-effective.
2. Proper Preparation
If your movers are going to handle everything for you, great! Your main job is to coordinate with them and with employees so that everything is as efficient as possible. If your employees are undertaking the move on their own, try to ensure that they keep up with the relocation timeline.
Know that they should relocate to the new area a week before you start your office. That way, they will have enough time to acclimatize. Managing employee relocation boils down to keeping everything under control and being aware of all that is going on.
3. Organize Your Work
The final thing to consider when managing employee relocation is the work itself. In most cases, it is possible to keep your business operational while you prepare for the upcoming move.
But, whether you will be able to do so and for how long is entirely up to your organizational skills. If you plan correctly, you will business will suffer minimal losses, and your employees will be as productive as usual.
Read Also:
- Top 5 Tips To Keep in Mind When Welcoming A New Employee To Your Business
- Why Your Employees Need Time Tracking App?
- 14 Office Designs That Will Motivate Your Employees
Author Bio: Cory Edgar has worked as a professional commercial mover and moving coordinator for over 15 years. He is currently more focused on advising moving companies like Zippy Shell Louisiana and writing helpful articles about moving.
