Congratulations! You’ve moved your business to a new office! Maybe this means your company has been expanding successfully, and you needed extra room. Or maybe it means you’ve made enough money from home to get you and your employees together in an office. Whatever the case, having a new office is exciting. Here are some of the things you should sort out in order to get everything running smoothly as soon as possible.
It’s recommended that you get these things sorted out before everyone moves in and begins work. That way, you make the move more efficient and remove possible distractions in the starting days.
Legal stuff
This is probably something you’ll have dealt with right away, but it’s of the utmost importance, so I’m listing it here. Have you made sure everyone who needs to know about your change of address has been made aware? This includes, of course, clients and family members. If you have insurance on any company assets, you need to discuss this change of address with them, as it may alter some agreements. But most importantly, the government and the relevant tax institutions need to know about these changes.
Desks and chairs
How many people work for your company? You should know this right away, off the top of your head. You want to know how many people are going to be moving to the office with you. Take into consideration those that will be working remotely, if any. Once you have an accurate total of heads, then you can buy the correct number of desks and chairs. Make sure to check the inventory that comes with the office. There may already be desks and chairs there, in which case you just need to know how many more to buy, if any.
You should consider getting a bit more than you actually need. So if you’ve got thirty employees coming to the new office, you could get enough desk space and chairs to hold forty or fifty people. You never know when you’ll have new employees coming in! Try not to overdo it, though. While laying out enough for a hundred people can give fire to the desire to fill those seats, you’ll just be spending money needlessly. Unless it’s likely you’ll be hiring seventy new people by the end of the year, you should leave it. Plus, you should take advantage of the surplus room while you can! You don’t want things to get cramped when they don’t need to be.
Of course, as implied above, get this sorted before employees come into the office. They need somewhere to sit and work, after all.
Office accessibility and security
It’s the first day at the new office. You’re excited as can be. But no-one seems to be turning up to work today. Why is that? You soon learn that everyone else was outside, unable to get in because you’ve forgotten to give them access!
What do I mean by “access”? I’m referring to keys or passcodes, of course. Offices are protected by non-employees in different ways. Most of the time, there is a mix of keys and passcodes throughout the building. To get into the front door of the office, someone would have to unlock it using a regular key first thing in the morning. After that, employees are usually required to use a key card in most modern offices. These may take the form of a fob, but most of the time access is granted via a card that also doubles as an ID badge.
You need to decide who should be given keys to unlock the door first thing in the morning. You will surely be one of them, but you can’t be there every day! What if you’re on holiday, or if you’re running late, or simply don’t intend to be the first in on a given day? That’s why you need to entrust a set of keys to more than one person. Maybe you even want to give all of your employees a set of keys. The problem with this is that you want to be able to keep track of all the key copies, and if there are more than ten copies then this can be hard to do. Key cards will usually be provided by the company from whom you’re renting the office. Making sure every employee has an office key, as well as a lanyard to keep it safe and within reach, is crucial. Wholesale lanyards will ensure that you have enough for everyone in your company.
Another accessibility worry: do you have any employees with disabilities? You need to ensure that anyone who is physically impaired is able to get into the office. This is probably something you considered when you were scoping out offices in the first place. You should double-check the building anyway. Are there ramps where needed? Are the elevators reliable? Can someone get from the door to the desks without hazards or blockades?
When the day is done, you need to ensure that the place is locked up correctly. Get a solid process for this in place. The responsibility for locking up will, of course, rest on those with whom you have entrusted a door key.
Safety
Make sure you have safety guidelines figured out before anyone comes to the office. It seems unlikely (and would be utterly atrocious luck), but what if an emergency breaks out on your first day?
Speak to the landlord of the office about the safety guidelines of the building. They may have prearranged fire drill processes, such as where to meet after escaping the building. If they don’t, you need to arrange one. With fire in mind, you should also ensure that the right safety equipment is available. Your office should already come with fire extinguishers, but if that isn’t the case then you need to make sure you get them in.
Identify any faults
You should do a sweep of your new office to check for any other faults. Do all the windows open? Does the air conditioning work? The heating, too? All of the electricity outlets should also be checked. You don’t want an employee plugging in all their equipment then finding they can’t turn anything on because of a fault! Any problems like these must be fixed asap.
