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How to Prepare Your Employees for an Office Move in Chicago

August 7, 2017

While it’s important to understand the essentials of moving offices and the common issues that past clients have encountered, what about all of your employees? After all, whether your place of business has five-to-ten employees or five hundred, you’re ultimately going to be dealing with many of the same issues regardless of your company’s size.

Moving is a big psychological agitator, causing stress, anxiety, and frustration in many people when things don’t go smoothly or an item gets lost in transit. While hiring some of the best Chicago professional movers will help to ensure your office items arrive safely and all together, here are some tips to keep in mind on your end that will help everyone be on the same page.

Table of Contents

What You Need To Know To Help Employees Move Offices

1. Communication is Central

When planning a big move for an office in Chicago, the first thing you’ll want to do is create a master schedule for yourself and the rest of your employees. While your schedule will include more managerial tasks like confirming the move date, arranging provisions, and setting up the internet, for your employees, things are considerably more simple.

Consider printing out a calendar for the month leading up to the move and make sure each employee knows what they need to complete before the movers come, like packing their electronics and labeling their desk and chair. Sending out an initial memo about the move is a best place to start and then to follow that with a schedule clearly outlining what is expected and by what date.

2. Motivate Your Employees

One of the biggest issues that both large and small companies face is employees dragging their feet when it comes to the move. We get it; no one enjoys moving. But at the same time, you have several hundred employees to motivate in order for everything to get where it’s supposed to go and work can resume as quickly as possible.

Consider offering prizes for those employees who finish their scheduled tasks first, such as getting to take a Friday afternoon off early or first pick of where they want their new desk to be. Get creative because every office is different and most have their own distinct culture. If Game of Thrones is all your employees can talk about come Monday morning, create a GoT-theme contest or break people up into teams based on the different factions in the show. Or if your office is more of a Love and Hip-Hop or Bachelorette crowd, work with those themes. By connecting with your employees over a shared interest, you can help take their mind off the move while still getting their tasks completed on time.

3. Lay Out the Unpacking Process

As you’ve almost certainly hired the best professional movers in Chicago, your employees won’t have to do any of the heavy lifting like moving the desks and chairs into the new office space. But they will need to unpack their items and often the unpacking process can devolve into The Hunger Games quickly as employees jostle to get to their box first.

To avoid an in-office Battle Royale, assign each employee a number created randomly or alphabetically and break up your employees into multiple groups, just like you would board a plane in sections. Have Group A’s boxes set in a particular area and allow them to grab them first, followed by Group B and so on.

Ultimately, organization is the key to any successful move and when it comes to moving offices, by communicating clearly what you expect of your employees, motivating them to get pumped about moving, and streamlining the unpacking process, you can make the whole move much easier for both your employees and yourself.