Businesses understand how employee productivity is important for the continued growth of a company. When a business decides to move to a new location, the stress and chaos of a move can hurt that productivity. Take a look at these ways to help maintain employee productivity during a move.
Communicate With Employees
Open lines of communication are often one way to boost productivity during normal business operation,and moving should be no different. When you offer open channels of communication with all your employees during a move, you eliminate a lot of stress and confusion. Some ways you can communicate with your employees are:
- Inform your staff as soon as possible about the move to avoid rumors and uncertainty.
- Give employees a timeline of moving events so they can plan their schedules and appointments.
- Inform everyone about the role they will play so they feel involved.
- Provide frequent opportunity for employees to ask questions.
When you make every effort to provide communication with your staff, they will feel less tension and are better able to stay productive.
Ask for Employee Participation
You don’t expect your employees to carry desks and help install the new internet, but you can still ask your employees for help. One way is to ask for input regarding new office setup. Employees are often the best source of helpful information about office efficiency,and what desk or cubicle arrangements work best.
If relocation allows it, you might find out what your staff prefers in a break room or printer and copy room. Work flow and productivity increases in the new location as well when you ask them to participate this way.
Provide Packing Advice
While employees are not expected to pack and move the entire office, they may be responsible for packing their office or cubicle. When you provide appropriate time and offer clear and detailed advice about howto accomplish this,employees are able to return to their tasks more quickly. Use these tips to help your employees pack:
- Let everyone know what space is available at the new location. Office space may be different and employees need to know what to plan for.
- Encourage staff to take the time first to declutter, discard, or donate office items they no longer need.
- Inform staff what personal items are allowed in the new space. Encourage everyone to pack their own personal items and take them home until the new space is ready. This helps avoid broken or lost items.
- Direct employees about protocol regarding data and documents. You don’t want any accidental breach of personal or business information or files during the move.
- Make sure you provide plenty of packing tape, bubble wrap,and sturdy banker boxes or other types of packing boxes for filing cabinets and other items.
Once your staff accomplishes the essential task of packing their own items, they can return to work and be more productive.
Sweeten the New Location
People fear the unknown, but employees will remain more productive during the move if you help them feel more excited about the new location. Some ways you can make the new location seem more appealing are:
- Help with parking or transportation. Offer to assist employees with their commute if the new location is much farther away. You might gift them a bus or rail pass to help ease the move for them.
- Develop flexible schedules. If employees are severely impacted by the new location, offer them different work schedules to accommodate traffic. Some staff might be able to work from home occasionally.
- Introduce the area. To help employees feel at ease in a new part of the city, highlight some are a restaurants or shopping they might enjoy. People feel more relaxed and positive about a move and more likely to remain productive when they explore a new area.
When you enlist the professional help of Fairfax Transfer & Storage to handle a business move, your staff is better able to focus on work and maintain that productivity so important for your business.
