Careful Consideration - An Office Move

Your average family move is a breeze compared to moving your business office. Although there are similar steps, your office move requires additional administrative preparation and protocols to protect your business and any essential information stored on the premises-such as customer and employee records. Business owners tend to forget the serious privacy, legal, and monetary issues connected with moving offices that can end up costing them much more than money. Let's take a closer look at some of the things businesses often forget when they move their offices.

Appointing a Move supervisor 

To make a move as professional as possible it's important for businesses to have one person in charge. Whether this is physically, a manager on-staff, or an employee, someone from your company must manage the move. Even if your mover has an selected manager, this manager oversees the office moving company and its processes, but who is monitoring the move on your side to verify that your staff are in obedience or that the moving company is doing what it says it does?

Planning Well in front of the Move Date 

Planning in advance is the best way to a booming office move. In addition to giving yourself time to study the new location and review the floor plan to ensure it's the right fit for your physical property, it is just as important to research movers to make sure you decide one that is also an experienced records manager. This will ensure secure chain of custody actions are followed for your records. Office moves that are planned too quickly often leave out very important steps and open the door to legal, theft, and compliance issues when it comes to proper records management.

Ignoring retreat Risks 

Safeguarding special information is not only the right thing to do; your company, management, directors, and stockholders have a responsibility to protect receptive data. Your company records all have some sort of personal in turn that if breached can carry harsh penalties and loss of good will. Customer and patient records, for example, must be protected under HIPAA and FACTA laws. Since these contain personal information about customers, they must be treated as any other assets before, during, and after your office move-throughout the secure chain of custody. Ignoring privacy risks will make your business exposed to identity theft or a personal information breach during your office move-all of which can cause costly legal 

problems for your company.

Forgetting About Downtime Depending on the size and character of your business, you will have a certain amount of downtime between send-off the old location and entering the new one. It is very important that you plan in front for the downtime with employees and customers. While records are in transit, decide how the business will run without all equipment and records on-site. Provide your company and employees with enough planned downtime for the move and any possible bumps in the road that may lie ahead-such as electricity being unavailable at the new site on time.

Hiring the incorrect Mover 

The office moving company you hire for your office move will either open the door to isolation and legal risks or protect you from them. You should provide yourself enough time to research your mover and make sure that:

• They have strict employee policies for office moves, with how equipment and records are managed .they provide a safe chain of custody moving process 

• Employees are not provisional workers and all go through extensive background and drug testing 

• They have wide knowledge of all privacy laws and regulations, and will ensure your company and the movers are in compliance

Complicating the Move 

An office move requires a great deal of help. Several contractors and individuals are typically involved in the procedure. Adding too many hands to the pot produces litigation risks, especially if the companies you hire do not work to comply with state and federal regulations. Rather than hire a separate record moving service, combine the office move with your record move with the help of a hybrid moving company. These companies offer safe, confidential moving services that help relocate your entire office-including records-without the need for additional vendors.

Office Moving guidelines

Office moving or any office furniture removal can be very tense and very little control maybe given to workers and their families, if they are moving out of town. Generally there are specific rule that companies and corporations will give staff and these should be followed to the letter.

Here are some general guidelines to help the office moving process go easily.

3 Months before the Move

Get ready for the move 3 months in front of time as it is new land for most people.
Keep in mind that companies and corporations continue to operate even during a move.
Use only the necessary amount of time planning and preparing for the move.
Become recognizable with the new offices and location.
Measure all rooms that are going to be used in the new location.
Note the rooms' shapes and new furniture.

1 Month before the Move

Internal notifications with the plan copy and moving information should be sent to all employees, movers, landlords, renters, etc.
Make mover’s alert of location for each piece of furniture.
Make sure that movers are aware of which furniture, such as desks, belongs to which employees.
Label furniture for each floor with colored labels and number them according to the exact employee that they belong to. Also do this with all equipment.
Ensure that all labels are noticeable.

Moving Day

Ensure supervisors instruct employees correctly on moving day using these instructions.
Ensure each employee in each department has a copy of these tips and then they can return to work rapidly with the least amount of delay.
Make sure each employee packs their own personal items prior to the move, following these tips.

Moved objects

Remove and pack into secure boxes all things enclosed in cupboards, wall units, desks, shelves and bookcases.
Do not unfilled filing cabinets, but secure them with a lock, thick packing tape or string.
Pack all personal things such as possessions, plants, pictures, fountain pens, lighters, money, legal documents and other items in secure boxes and move them personally. If special containers or boxes are required, ask the mover.
Lock all security files prior to the move. If special regulations require specialize escorts then inform the moving consultant to make special arrangements to consolidate the files with the movers.
Empty storage and supply cabinets, locking or tying the doors securely shut. Pack all items into secure and sealed boxes.

Above Street Level Floor Access

Study each floor of the office building to put elevators and ensure they are working properly and are big enough for furniture moves prior to the move. If elevators are unfit or there are none then give ample warning to the movers so they can prepare.

Electrical Machines Moves

Make sure that the movement of machine technology is done by someone who knows what they are doing as some machines need special handling. With rented equipment, notify the rental agency or company prior to the move.

Disconnect computers and take apart them properly.

Drain all photocopying machines of liquids, and secure loose parts securely or remove them and transport them in separate sealed boxes.

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