How to Organize an Office Move in Dubai?

Office moves sound exciting and enthusiastic. The company will have a new location and the employees will get to work in a shiny, furbished environment.

The problems surface when you try to plan and organize the office move. Soon you’d realize that organizing an office move is different and more challenging than a home relocation. That’s where expert advice can help. Here’s a guide on how to plan and organize an office move in Dubai you can use as a reference.

While the exact process would vary from office to office, depending on multiple factors, the common steps are:

• Create Timeline
• Take Note of Inventory
• Organize important documents
• List the Items for Sale
• Create Budget and Purchasing Process
• Announce the Move
• Start Packaging and Labeling
• Shortlist Office Movers and Packers in Dubai

Let’s explain the steps briefly so you implement them for your own office moving process.

Create Timeline

The first thing you need to do is put things on paper. Many executives plan the movement in their heads. This is a really inefficient way to get things done. Its always recommended that you write things down and create a plan.

So grab a paper and start creating a timeline. Write down when you plan to move, when you plan to start packaging things, when to make payments, etc. Ideally, you should start writing the plan at least three to four months prior to the shifting date. The more detailed the timeline, the better. You should also get input from your team members and ask them to contribute any ideas they may have.

This timeline doesn’t need to be exact and could be an approximation. You should be flexible with making changes down the road.

Take Note of Inventory

After the timeline is complete, the next step in organizing your office move is to calculate the inventory. This is the amount of stuff you have at your present office. Calculate everything from chairs to computers to cubicles. If you can weigh them, that’s even better. It’d help you estimate the cost associated with moving the inventory.

Another advantage of creating a list of inventory is you can later ensure that you’ve moved all the things and haven’t left anything behind. Things do get lost while moving things from one location to another. The inventory will help you quickly figure out what was lost in the transportation.

Organize Important Documents

Many companies make the mistake of treating the official documents in the same manner as the rest of the inventory. But that’s a mistake. You should organize the documents separately. It becomes even more important if you’re in a data-sensitive business like law, finance, insurance, or healthcare. A data leak while moving the documents can result in hefty fines.

It’s recommended to get separate file folders and boxes where you can store such documents. Along with documents, you should also store hard drives, pen drives, and CD-ROMs that contain sensitive data.

List Items for Sale

If you’re moving to new offices, there’s a good chance that you won’t be taking everything with you. For example, there will be damaged chairs, tables, clocks, etc. Some of these items may not be worth taking to the new office. Moreover, they’ll consume the valuable space in the truck and would raise the total transportation cost. So if they’re not worth it, you can sell them and recoup the value.

Moving to a new office is a chance to start fresh. So consider investing in new furniture and tables that’d create a new vibe rather than using damaged items.

After you’ve listed the items from sale, you can remove them from the inventory list. You’ll get a clearer picture of the things you need to move to the new office.

Create Budget and Purchasing Process

The next step in the moving process is budgeting the move. Many business owners don’t fail to budget properly and end up either underestimating or overestimating. That’s because they don’t take every cost into account.

In an office move, you’ll have to pay for the following things:

• Trucking and towing – this is the obvious cost. You’d have to hire vehicles to move your office stuff (unless you own such vehicles)
• Packaging – You’d have to pack all the things with bubble wraps and then place them in the box. These are going to cost money. Look up to the inventory list to estimate your packaging needs.
• Labor cost – If you’re bringing in people to help with packaging and loading them into the truck, they’ll charge you extra.
  Cleaning cost – Many commercial tenets require that you clean the office before leaving. So you need to pay the cleaning person. But it depends on what is in your contract.

Depending on your needs, you may incur other costs too. It’s better to categorize them as Miscellaneous costs.

Announce the Move

Somewhere between planning the move and the actual move date, you need to communicate to your employees that you’ll be shifting on a fixed date. This is to grant them the time to make adjustments to their schedule and streamline the work.

For mid-sized offices, it can take a few days or weeks to complete the move and get back to normal. So how are employees supposed to work? Announcing the move in advance allows the teams to plan their workflow too.

Start Packaging and Labeling

Now comes perhaps the most important step in organizing an office move: packaging and labeling the items. Doing it right means you’ll have to spend less time unpacking and organizing them at the new office.

First, you need to get boxes of the right sizes. Then start packaging them one by one. Another tip you should consider when packaging is to use identical boxes for the same items. So all the furniture will be packaged in similar boxes. All the computers will be packaged in the same boxes. It simplifies the overall process not only for the owners but also for handlers. You can instruct them to be more careful with boxes that contain computers or fragile items.

After you’ve packaged the goods, it’s time to label them. Either write identifiable information on the boxes with a marker or stick a paper that has printed data.

Shortlist Packers and Movers

The last step is to hire a packer and mover in Dubai to move all the stuff. Although you could do it alone, it’s always better to get it done by an expert.

To select the best company, shortlist a few office movers in Dubai. Get quotes from each company, read their online reviews, consult with the team members. Also, it helps to read through the terms and conditions and financial liabilities. Who gets to pay for the damages if something goes missing during transportation. Some moves offer guarantees while others don’t take any liability at all. Therefore, it’s better to be upfront on these topics.

With the business sector growing in Dubai and in UAE in general, more companies are moving to new locations and offices. Therefore, teams are required to be adept at handling the movement of office goods. A little help from reputed office movers in Dubai is all you need to successfully pull off this task.