Your office relocation questions answered
An office relocation is an exciting time, but one filled with challenges. When faced with an office relocation project you may find that before you start making headway, you are confronted with a lot of questions.
Here, we help to address and answer some of the typical frequently asked questions that come up during your office move.
Firstly, ask yourself: WHY are we moving office?
Before choosing to relocate your office, you should be confident about the key objectives you want to achieve for your new space. Having a key driver for your project is integral, you need to know your purpose for moving and be confident in doing it. There should be a clear vision for your office relocation, and you should have goals in mind that will help you make important decisions about your project. Make sure you have two or three simple goals that you are looking to achieve.
Aside from acting on a lease event, there are some common signals that you should be looking to relocate your office:
- Your office is too small or too large
- Implement a new working style
- The space doesn’t support plans for growth and expansion
- You want to improve productivity & morale
- You are investing in talent retention and acquisition
- You want to make a financial saving and improve efficiency
By identifying your objectives, you may find it is worth considering if you can achieve these through an office refurbishment project instead.
How long will an office relocation take?
Working backwards from your moving out date is usually a good way to help build your project programme. As a rough estimate, you can expect 1 week per 1,000 sq ft of office space. More time will need to be factored in for any mechanical alterations. The exact amount of time it takes to carry out the office relocation process depends entirely on the size of your space and the intricacy of your project. From initial conversations through to project completion, the timescale of the process can vary based on the individual project requirements.
Time needs to be factored in for design development, ordering materials and lead times for furniture.
One thing that cannot be stressed enough is that it is never too early to engage with a design and build company during your property search. The sooner you have a design and build company appointed, the more value and advice they can add.
How much office space do we need?
When it comes to choosing your new office, you will need to know how much space you require before viewing properties.
The size of your office will be dictated by the number of permanent desks, agile working spaces, your budget and most notably how many staff you have.
Traditionally, the most commonly followed space allocation for London staff is 100 sq ft per employee. This is a rough estimate to help work out space requirements – it means 50 sq ft for the desk space and 50 sq ft for the other office amenities. However, this space allocation has evolved and smart working has enabled better use of space which has seen tea points and breakout areas replacing the space previously taken up by traditional desking.
How much will it all cost?
To optimise time spent at the planning stages, it is important to outline the budget allocated to the relocation project. This means that everyone involved with the project understands the limitations and possibilities involved, which means the entire project can be carefully managed and costed at each stage. You need to consider all your costs as part of a global budget not just fit-out costs.
This includes:
- Dilapidation costs
- Service charges
- AV and IT
- Move management removals
When should I introduce a design & build company?
Whether you are totally new to managing an office relocation or you’ve managed multiple projects in the past, assigning a design and build company early on in your project will provide you with a turn-key solution, taking the stress out of your project.
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