Moving Your Employees

Corporate Moving 101: Moving your employees

You’re moving your company across the country, but your employees aren’t aware of it…yet. How do you break the news to them? And how do you move the ones who want to stay with you? This is the second part of our two-part series on moving both your company’s belongings and your employees. Let’s take a look at the best way to approach this situation and some suggestions on making it all run smoothly.

Announcement

You’ve outgrown your local city or your public space. It’s time to move, but you risk losing your employees if you do. If you run a highly specialized business, it’s time to put the offer out to your employees to come with you. That means that you’ll be making the announcement of the company’s departure very soon. We recommend doing this before rumors start to swirl, as they tend to do. Getting the information directly from you will be better for everyone involved, especially if you have all the documentation to back it up.

Parting Wishes

There will be employees who, for whatever reason, decide not to continue their employment after the move. They will seek other employment in the area in which you currently reside or otherwise search out a different job. Upon the announcement, paperwork should be ready for these employees and the ones who will continue on in their stead. Ideally, full separation policies and full moving terms policies should be ready to go as soon as the announcement is made. Speaking to your moving company about this multi-pickup shipment should be the first thing that you do.

Moving Preparation

If you are moving a large office, many moving companies will offer a lower rate per person than they typically would. Not only are they attempting to win your business, but they realize that this will be a costly move. If they can obtain the contract for the entire shipment, they will get word-of-mouth advertisement from you and others like you, as well as your employees. This is excellent marketing and exposure for them, and the sort of thing that most companies make their living on.

However, you can’t expect them to drop their rate too much. As a businessperson, you realize that there is a tight bottom line in every company. If they offer a discount or you ask for one and receive it, excellent. If not, explore bulk-rate moving companies for businesses that are moving long distances. They’re out there, they just aren’t as common outside of major metropolitans.

Preparing your employees for the big move is another tale entirely. Be compassionate, understanding, and willing to assist them. They are upending their lives for you and your company. This involves a great deal of stress. If employees require extra time off, attempt to cover it, if possible. Employees’ personal belongings should be moved prior to the office being packed up and moved. This allows employees to have their belongings in order before the office is moved into and work is scheduled to resume.

Arrival and Continuing Services

Contracts and other documentation outlining the exact expectations of moved employees should be signed and documented long before the moving trucks arrive. Employees should be ready to perform as outlined in the documents and ready to work within the time frame previously decided on. This, of course, depends on the office being ready to reopen. After a settling in period, the office should run as smoothly as it did prior to the move. Moving enormous amounts of electronic data? We have an article for that right here.