Understanding the Value of Outsourcing Office Moves

25 Jun 2015

As a local Tampa Bay area office moving company, we talk to a lot of people about…well…moving.

Many of those people are the office managers, facility managers and business owners who are tasked with managing the internal office move or office relocation.

Most people have never really managed a large office move as most businesses don’t move very often.

They may move furniture around internally or add or subtract employees and office furniture, but managing a larger scale move can be difficult, frustrating and time consuming.

That’s where Office Movers of Florida comes in. We help organizations get moves done quickly and efficiently. And importantly, we handle the move so you don’t have to.

Where to Move?

Frankly, there are a lot of details involved. The first being the selection of a new office space.

While we’re not commercial real estate professionals, we work with many of them here in Tampa. When a business first thinks of moving office space, they’ll work with a commercial realtor (or do the search themselves).

The difficult part becomes finding the time to visit new locations, speak to realtors or building owners and then assess all of the pros and cons of the potential office spaces.

How to Move?

Once a new location is chosen, that’s when decision makers start considering ‘how they’re going to move.’

They may have been thinking about this all along, and in some cases, have already been in contact with corporate movers.

But what we find is that many organizations will wait until a few weeks prior to the move to begin calling office moving companies, setting up ‘in-office’ visits, getting quotes and choosing a company to work with.

Some companies also go through the thought process of, “can we manage this move ourselves?”

For larger companies with many employees, offices, furniture, files, etc., managing a move on their own is out of the question. They know they need help.

For smaller companies (with 10 or less employees), managing an office move on their own might be tempting. They think they can pack, break down furniture, move furniture out of the old office and back into the new office, reassemble furniture, place it….etc….etc. without much hassle.

Only when the process starts do they realize that, “hey, maybe we should have hired professional movers to do this.”

The Value of Outsourcing a Tampa Area Office Relocation

There are a number of benefits to calling an office moving company and letting them manage the move.

The main benefit is that you and your employees won’t have to do it. Asking your employees to move heavy office equipment and break down furniture is not good for a few reasons.

# 1 Safety:

You’ll want to consider whether you want your employees lifting heavy desks, getting up on ladders to take down wallboards or artwork, moving breakroom refrigerators or giving the office a final cleaning.

If someone wrenches their back or gets their fingers smashed in a desk drawer, you could be open to workers comp claims, missed time at work or worse.

# 2 Missed Work:

Is your employee’s time better spent moving furniture or doing actual work?

That’s a key question. Many office we move will send their employees home (to work from home) during the move. That way they can avoid as much “down time” as possible.

We all know what missing a day or two of work can do to an organization, especially a smaller company who is probably already stretched when it comes to “getting work done.”

# 3 No One Likes Moving:

If you asked your employees whether they wanted to move or outsource it, they’ll likely say, “outsource it please.” No one really wants to go through the effort of packing, moving and unpacking. It’s a lot of hard work best left to young, strong, experienced guys who get paid to do just that (like us).

# 4 Training and Experience Matter:

Corporate movers are both trained and experienced when it comes to office moves. It’s what they do every day, all day.

That means the process goes along quicker and more smoothly and with less risk to valuable assets or injury to employees.

Plus, trained installers know exactly how to break down and reassemble all brands of office furniture, workstations, wall panels, filing systems and more. No one wants to waste 3 hours figuring out how to put workstations together!

# 5 Reduced Chance of Damage and Loss:

Because of all of the training and experience, professional movers are able to highly reduce the chance of damage to expensive office furniture.

Scratches on the $10,000 conference room table? Yikes! No one wants that. A filing cabinet tips over in the moving van and breaks other pieces of furniture because your employees didn’t know how to secure it properly? Yikes! No one wants that either.

So…to Recap…

For most Tampa Bay area organizations, even smaller ones, it really does make sense to outsource the move. The move will go smoother and be less of a hassle.

For more info on office relocations in Tampa, please call us at 813-304-2273.