Most Vancouver office moving companies will agree that moving your company into a new space takes careful planning and the right resources. If you’re a leadership or office management member, you’ll likely be heavily involved in the process. But what about the rest of your team? It can sometimes be easy to overlook the impact an office relocation can have on employees while you have your head down working on the logistics of the move.
Here at DLO Move Support Services, every member of our office mover team cares about your company and employees. We understand how changing office spaces can induce stress if done incorrectly, and our movers always want to offer thorough knowledge and guidance to minimize these feelings.
Here are some tips from our Vancouver office mover experts on how to best manage employee stress during your office move:
Know how to recognize signs of stress
Before you can effectively help your business employees, it’s important to know how to recognize signs of stress. If you’re able to spot early signs of stress amongst your team, it will allow you to more efficiently address these feelings and provide the proper resources and support.
Once you’ve announced your upcoming office move, pay close attention to any changes in your employee’s behaviour. If you notice there are team members who seem unusually quiet or unable to focus on their work, it could be a sign they are feeling extra pressure around the move. Crossed arms, frequent rubbing of temples or eyes, or general closed-off body language might also indicate feelings of stress.
Communicate and plan effectively
Any lack of communication or transparency around an office move can create stress for employees. If they’re left in the dark about why the move is happening, they may jump to conclusions and feel panic. Our Vancouver office movers always recommend announcing the move office-wide well in advance to allow your employees to ask questions or air any concerns.
Effective communication also includes sharing a timeline and any other relevant details with your team. This means it’s incredibly important to make sure you’ve spent the time to create a detailed plan of action. In addition to our Vancouver office mover team, DLO also offers move consultant services to help you with this planning if need be. If you’re feeling well-prepared and organized about the upcoming move and can communicate this to your team, it will help ease their minds.
Keep your team involved
The employees of your business will appreciate open communication and thorough planning. However, they may also begin to feel stressed if they’re not involved in the office move process and would like to be. Maybe they work with expensive equipment in their role and are worried it will get damaged by movers without proper instructions. Or perhaps they have a significant deadline coming up that they’re concerned the move may interfere with. Each team within your company will have valuable knowledge about their department’s unique needs. If they are given the opportunity to make these needs known, it should significantly help manage any stress.
An easy way to make sure every team feels heard is to assign one employee from every team to be its designated point of contact. This system ensures any important instructions and information are accounted for. Vancouver office moving companies, like DLO, have years of experience in office environments and are experts at using these instructions to make your office move as seamless as possible. Our movers can also offer IT support to minimize disruption. This could give your employees some additional peace of mind.
Provide support if needed
Managing employee stress throughout an office move means providing them with the support they need. If one of your team members expresses feelings of stress, ask how you can help and never downplay their concerns. A change of office location could mean extra commute time or a change in parking availability. If employees express worries related to these things, consider offering flexible arrangements like remote work or company-paid parking passes.
Keep in mind the important work your employees are doing for your company. If they’re highly motivated, they may be feeling stressed about a potential disruption in their ability to get their work done. Planning the move during a slower season for the business or allowing staff to push any non-urgent projects could also help reduce their stress. If the stress is related to the actual packing and unpacking of their office items, the DLO team can help with that. Our Vancouver office movers offer zero downtime “packless move” services to take the pressure off your team members.
Celebrate your team’s success
Sometimes, the stress around moving offices just can’t be avoided. Enlisting the help of Vancouver office moving companies will certainly help, but your employees may still feel uneasy until they’re settled into their new space. If there’s nothing you can do to help them manage their stress during the move, be sure to place extra emphasis on the success of accomplishing this feat.
It’s always nice to celebrate your new office space by hosting a company-wide gathering for your team. Planning an event like this can help boost morale. It will also allow you to encourage everyone to give themselves a pat on the back for making it through a stressful time.
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If you need corporate relocation support or are looking for more information about our services, you can get in touch with the DLO Move Support Services team by giving us a call at 604-254-0135 or filling out our contact form. If you’re located outside of Vancouver, we can still help with all your office move needs. Our movers service all areas of Vancouver in addition to West Vancouver, North Vancouver, Burnaby, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, Surrey, Langley and the Fraser Valley.