Workstation-Based Moving: The Most Efficient Solution for Office Moving

Office moving can be stressful, and if not planned properly, may lead to lost work time or prevent your business from operating to its full potential. When businesses move, it’s usually to improve operations, make space for onboarding new employees due to expansion, or even cut costs. But whatever the reason, moving a business is supposed to make it work better. That’s why being hampered by a bad or a lengthy move is a double whammy: not only are you not working better, all of a sudden you’re doing worse than before.

That’s why more and more medium to large companies trust professional movers to take care of the logistics of moving the business and employee workplaces from one place to another. When budgeted properly, hiring a good moving company can make the office move more efficiently, keep your employees occupied with work and not move offices during work hours, and doesn’t interrupt your regular business operations, leaving your customers satisfied without unnecessary stress for the management.

Of course, in order for everything to come together perfectly, you have to be aware of a few factors associated with commercial moving, not the least, what you need to know about picking a moving company, and how much you can expect to pay to relocate your business. We’ll break down these, and other factors associated with moving a business in today’s post.

Why you should leave your company and move to the pros

As we mentioned above, the whole point of hiring a professional moving company to move your office is to alleviate the stress from management and employees and to make the move as efficient and speedy as possible without interrupting the regular operation of your business or office.

Even compared to residential moves, there are several extra factors to consider specifically for moving an office. A good moving company will do the following:

Designated moving manager. Just like having someone in your own company be in charge of the move, a designated manager from a moving company will work with your management team throughout the process to ensure your move goes according to a plan, has a timeline, and ultimately comes in within the budget you agreed when you signed the contract.

Packing and unpacking. Making sure that all the furniture, drawers, and filing cabinets, not to mention papers, are packed can take a tremendous amount of time. Professional movers have the knowledge and skills to pack efficiently and compactly. At the new location, they will ensure everything is unpacked and ready for the employees.

Moving out of office hours. A huge benefit of hiring a moving company to move offices is that your workers can stay focused on their work, while the movers focus on moving. Many commercial moving companies do moves overnight or on weekends to ensure that no work time is lost. The workers can come back to work the next day and resume regular operations.

Furniture assembly and arrangement. Whether you have your floor plan or need help designing one for your new office, your mover can assist in assembling the furniture and even begin preparing the place before the day of the move. This is another significant time saver that helps ease the transition from the old office to the new.

Cable and wire connection. One time-consuming task businesses don’t always consider when moving, is how long it takes to hook up all the phones, computers, modems, routers, and security systems in the office. Even without trying to do it neatly, hooking up all the cables and ensuring everything is connected can take a lot of time and resources. Professional movers can ensure everything is set up and ready to use by the time employees arrive to work.

Disposal services. Whether it’s new stuff for your new office, getting rid of junk from the old one, or even the packing materials used during the move, relocating a business can create a lot of garbage. A benefit to using a moving company is that they will take away and dispose of any waste, and make sure your business is starting its new life in a fresh new space.

What is workstation-based moving?

A great service being offered by business moving companies today is workstation-based moving. In this case, the mover treats each cubicle or office as a separate unit. All the electronics, furniture, files and personal stuff travels together in one package from the old office to the new. At the new location, the mover will then unpack each unit and assemble it individually to make sure nothing is missing and that everything works just like at the old office.

Why a workstation-based move may be a good solution for your company

Regardless of whether you have twenty employees or two hundred, workstation moving can save a lot of time and keep things organized. These moves are great if you want to be able to be back to full operational mode as soon as possible. The movers ensure no computers or electronics get mixed up, and everything travels securely.

How much does a commercial mover cost? Calculating business move prices

As you start looking for a moving company for your business, you will notice that there are plenty of companies that offer a variety of services. While daunting at first, this is actually a good thing, because if you know what to look for, you can find a company that offers the services that are right for you, and not pay for what you don’t need. Many moving companies today also offer a full breakdown of services so you could choose a moving package that is right exactly for you.

Consider these prices when looking for an office moving company:

Packing and unpacking services can cost between $ and $ depending on the size of the office. The standard rate for a packer is usually between $ and $ per hour.

Depending on the size of your new office, and the amount of furniture, assembly services can range in cost between $ and $.

Connecting all the electronics and cables can add anywhere between $ and $ to the total cost of your move.

If you require additional disposal services, this can add between $ and $ to the final cost.

Workstation-based moving can add anywhere between $ and $ per employee.

What To Look For In A Business Moving Company

If you start searching for a business moving company, it can be outright overwhelming to look at places like the Internet or online reviews. There is seemingly an endless number of companies and at a first glance, almost all of them have flawless reviews and ratings. So how do you settle down on just one, and how do you know that this moving company will do a good job. This is partially what the quote process is for. Remember you should get 4-5 quotes before deciding on a company. To get you closer to narrowing down that big list, consider these things all good moving companies must have:

  • Make sure the company meets the criteria under the Good Practice Guidelines for Canadian Movers. Because there is no single governing body when it comes to the moving industry in Canada, there are a lot of shady companies out there, misleading people. The Good Practice Guidelines is the closest thing to an official document on how moving companies in our country should operate and has a lot of useful information for both residential and office movers.
  • Does the moving company belong to the Canadian Association of Movers? The Canadian Association of Movers is a third-party body with voluntary membership that keeps a registry of reputable moving companies. While there are a lot of companies that are members of CAM, being a member on its own does not legitimize a moving company.
  • Is the company registered with the provincial Workers Compensation Board? This is almost a standard for any trades or laborers in Canada today, and there is a good chance even your business pays into the WCV. Being in good standing with the WCB means the company’s employees are covered and protected while working at your home. Many shady moving companies will not go the length to register their business with the WCB.
  • Does the company offer Replacement Value Protection, and for how much? Most moving companies do not offer any insurance or protection on your move. The RVP often adds to the cost of the move but offers much higher reimbursement on your personal belonging if something goes wrong during the move. Even if you don’t opt-in for the Replacement Value Protection it’s a good sign if a company offers this option.
  • Does the moving company subcontract any of its services? This doesn’t necessarily mean the company is bad, as long as they are honest about what they do and exactly which business will handle your stuff when you move.

What to consider if you’re moving the business yourself

There are endless business moving checklists online that go into specifics of business moving, but there are always a few basic golden rules to moving your business yourself, to make sure all your bases are covered. One suggestion for example is to try and stagger your move as much as possible. If you can have both locations operating for some time while you are finalizing the move, this can go a long way towards not losing customers or disrupting service.

Here are some other things you absolutely must consider when moving your business:

Make someone in your company the move manager. Even if it’s not full-time someone should be responsible for coming up with a timeline, and budget, and ensuring that the move is moving along. This will create realistic time points for planning your move and have a point of reference in a person you can go to for everything move related. That being said, don’t overburden your move manager, and make sure responsibilities are split as evenly as possible.

Change your address online. You’re changing your address in real life, so make sure that is reflected in all your online platforms, especially if your business requires people to walk in to find you.

Try to keep your existing phone number. Mail can be redirected and marketing pieces can be redone, but a missed phone call from a prospective client can outright kill a business. Whether keeping the same service provider or going with someone new, try to keep your phone number so that your clients know where to find you.

As you can see, whether you decide to hire a professional moving company for your office move, or try to move using your own resources, there are a lot of factors to consider. What’s ultimately important is that your move doesn’t affect the performance of the business and allows you to get back to full work mode in the new place as soon as possible.