The Psychology of Color in Office Design: Boosting Mood and Creativity
All of us are affected by the environment around us. Factors such as the temperature or ambient noise level can have an outsized impact on our mood, our stress level, and our productivity. That’s what makes it so important to be intentional in all aspects of office design; every detail of your workspace that can potentially affect the creativity, focus, and morale of your team.
An especially critical detail is color. The combination of hues you employ on the walls and in the furniture of your office can have a real impact on employee mood and behavior, making it important to design your office space with the principles of color psychology in mind.
Color Psychology 101
Color psychology is exactly what the name suggests: The study of all the ways in which color can shape how people think and behave. Color psychologists contend that different colors can have subconscious meanings and associations, which can in turn be shaped by a person’s age and cultural background.
The bottom line: The field of color psychology maintains that the shades you choose for your office design can have a direct impact on mental health and emotional wellbeing. Colors can affect the way employees feel about coming to work, and the level of focus they can achieve once they are at their desk or in the conference room.
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Color and Productivity
So how do specific colors affect productivity? Again, color psychology accounts for the mitigating influence of age and culture, but here are some high-level principles to consider.
- Red: Red is a color associated with boldness and passion. Using it in the workplace can evoke energy, stimulate thinking, and even increase heart rate. Too much red, however, may lead to anger and aggression.
- Blue: The color of reliability, blue is good for coaxing deep, intellectual thought. It can also produce a calming effect and is good for meeting rooms and other areas where you want to encourage collaboration.
- White: Clean, fresh, and contemporary, white can be a good way to make your workspace feel like an inspiring space.
- Black: Associated with luxury and elegance, black can be a good choice for client lounges and waiting areas, but it can also provide an upscale accent to employee break rooms and conference areas.
- Green: Green is associated with the natural world, and with holistic health of the mind and body. You can maintain a refreshed, energizing office atmosphere by incorporating green, not just in terms of paint colors but also plant life.
- Yellow: This color is closely linked with happiness and positivity. Some splashes of yellow can be an excellent choice in any workspace but be aware that too much yellow can result in eyestrain and other frustrations.
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Strategic Ways to Use Color
Remember that splashing your entire office space with a monochromatic paint color can mute the intended effects of your color psychology. It’s usually better to provide a sense of balance and subtlety. For example, rather than painting all your walls green, consider bringing in a handful of plants. Furniture, columns, and curtains are additional areas where you can thoughtfully inject color into your work decor.
Keep color psychology front and center as you consider the design for your workspace. And with any additional questions about getting set up in a new office environment, don’t hesitate to contact Corovan directly.
Sustainable Moving Practices: Eco-Friendly Solutions for Businesses
During any office relocation, you’re bound to have multiple goals. Naturally, you want to ensure streamlined logistics, operational efficiency, cost savings, and minimal disruption to your day-to-day activities.
But you might also have some goals with regard to your environmental footprint. As more and more companies have adapted rigorous standards of ecological responsibility (often formalized in a set of ESG reporting tools, or in a broader commitment to a circular economy or triple bottom line accounting), the notion of a “green” business relocation has become quite appealing.
Best Practices for a Sustainable Office Relocation
As you consider options for a more sustainable corporate move, there are a few strategies to keep top-of-mind.
Planning is Everything
First and foremost, it’s important to choose a relocation partner who will commit to a rigorous, intensive planning process, ensuring that all the logistical kinks in your office relocation are ironed out before the big day comes.
Why does advanced planning matter? For one thing, a well-coordinated move often means fewer trucks are required, along with fewer trips back and forth between locations. But advanced planning can also provide you with a clearer insight into the kinds of furniture you’ll need to invest in for the new space, as well as the furniture pieces you can either re-use or refurbish.
Purge and Recycle
Before you load the trucks, it’s critical to go through all of your furniture, equipment, and supplies, taking inventory of what you need and purging anything you don’t. Simply put, taking less stuff with you to the new location can cut down on your transportation needs, and thus on the associated emissions.
Remember, purging doesn’t always mean throwing stuff away. Often, you’ll have equipment or supplies that can be donated and reused. Meanwhile, shredded documents and other papers and plastics should be recycled.
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Use the Right Materials
A commercial relocation requires plenty of supplies, including boxes, crates, protective wrapping, and more. Note that many of these supplies are available in recycled or recyclable form, helping you to cut down on the environmental impact of your move. Your commercial moving company should be able to provide you with sustainably sourced materials as needed.
Corovan is a leader in eco-friendly moving materials. Look no further than to our Corocrates, a reusable, green alternative to traditional cardboard boxes. With Corocrates, our company saves more than 900,000 cardboard boxes each year, while also providing clients with a more versatile, stackable transportation solution.
Think Beyond the Move
Sustainability isn’t just about the move itself, but also about your activity after the move. Specifically, it involves the process of decommissioning your old office. Here again, it’s critical to work with a commercial mover who can guide through a meticulous planning process.
Careful planning can help you minimize the number of trips required back to your old office. And it can give you a clear sense of the e-waste recycling needs you’ll have as your transition nears completion.
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Focus on Sustainability with Your Next Commercial Relocation
As you think about setting goals for your office move, you’ll likely want to emphasize the environment. Indeed, your relocation is an ideal time to live up to your green commitments and your broad allegiance to environmental sustainability.
As you seek a commercial moving partner that can help you uphold those environmental commitments, we invite you to reach out to Corovan. We’re proud to be one of California’s most trusted names in sustainable office moves. Contact us whenever you’re ready to get the planning process started.
Moving Your Medical Practice: Best Practices for Healthcare Facility Relocations
Whether you need additional space or simply wish to be closer to your patients, there are plenty of reasons why you might opt to relocate your medical practice. Naturally, the actual moving process can be a little complicated, particularly since it is likely to involve a great deal of sensitive and costly equipment. With the right planning and a strategic set of partners, though, you can ensure your healthcare facility move is smooth and successful.
Involve the Right Stakeholders
First and foremost, it’s important to remember that a medical practice relocation is truly an all-hands-on-deck situation. To streamline the logistics of your move, and to minimize the risk of undue surprise, you’ll want to involve all key stakeholders in the planning process.
Specifically, make sure you touch base with:
- Your IT team. You’ll need robust tech support to ensure your network, EHR system, and other key tech is properly established at your new location. In fact, we recommend getting IT’s input early, ensuring that the space you’re eyeing can actually accommodate your technological infrastructure.
- Your practice attorney. It’s generally a good idea to get the go-ahead from your practice’s legal team, who can let you know of any issues with the lease or with independent contracts you’re working with.
- The facility management team. The insight of your facility management team will be crucial for ensuring that the new space is functional for your medical team, but also comfortable and accessible to your patients.
- Providers. You’ll naturally want to ensure your providers are all part of the relocation discussion, as their buy-in will be critical for maintaining morale among the rest of your personnel.
After assembling these stakeholders, you may wish to form a relocation team, clearly defining the different roles that will be required to ensure the best possible moving experience.
Find the Right Relocation Partners
When it comes to moving a medical practice, you don’t want to enlist a standard team of residential movers. Instead, it’s important to seek the guidance of a commercial moving company that has actual experience with medical practice moves. Among other benefits, working with an experienced partner ensures that your movers will know how to carefully relocate your mission-critical clinical equipment and technology.
When interviewing potential vendors, make sure you ask about experience within the healthcare industry. Seek references and testimonials to validate your mover’s experience. And, be sure to ask about the mover’s approach to handling sensitive data, maintaining privacy requirements, and upholding the medical industry’s compliance guidelines.
Communicate Clearly and Consistently
Communication is essential for any successful relocation. In addition to regular communication with your commercial moving partner, you’ll also want to establish open lines with patients as well as payers/insurance companies.
Some guidelines for communicating with your patients:
- Place plenty of signage announcing the move. We recommend providing at least 30 days’ notice—more if possible.
- Add a notice to your phone greeting (whether that’s automated or just a script for your live receptionists).
- Spread the word via your website and social media accounts. You really can’t over-communicate on this point.
- Send an email to all of the patients on your rolls.
- Make sure you confirm the new practice location/address with each new appointment you set.
Clear communication is essential for ensuring your relocation goes off without a hitch.
Allow Time to Settle In
A final note: Even once you are fully moved into the new location, you’ll want to allow yourself a little bit of time before you start seeing patients.
For one thing, your providers and office managers will need to fine-tune patient flow. For another, you will likely need a few days to calibrate and test your equipment, ensuring its readiness for clinical use.
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Chat with Corovan About Medical Facility Relocations
As you seek the right partner for your medical facility move, consider Corovan. For more than 70 years, we have been a trusted name in commercial relocation, with special expertise helping healthcare facilities. Reach out to learn more about our unique set of skills.
Establishing an Office Move Project Team: Roles, Responsibilities, & Collaboration
Relocating an entire business is no small feat. It’s a potentially massive, sprawling project with big ramifications for all aspects of business operations. As such, it’s a project far too big for any one person to handle. You’ll need all hands-on deck to ensure a smooth and successful move.
To that end, one of the first steps in any successful office move is assembling the right team. While different companies will structure their office move project teams a bit differently, there are a few common roles that you should keep top of mind.
Assembling Your Office Relocation Project Team
Here are some of the primary stakeholders whose involvement may prove essential for your office move.
Project Leader
First and foremost, you’ll want to appoint an in-house team member whose role is to coordinate the relocation, working in close conjunction with your commercial mover and other vendors. The project leader needs to be someone who’s gifted in organization and communication. The ability to delegate is also essential.
Commercial Move Manager
Hopefully, your commercial relocation company will designate a single point of contact for you, a move manage who will keep you in the loop with regard to timeline, budget, and more. Having a hands-on manager is essential for ensuring that moving day goes smoothly.
Commercial Property Agent
In most cases, your commercial relocation will involve input from a real estate agent, whose expertise will help you find the ideal office space and negotiate the most favorable terms for lease or purchase. Your agent will also help to coordinate timelines with the property owner or seller.
Interior Designer
As you set up your new office space, it’s important to have an expert on hand to help you use the space as efficiently as possible. Additionally, your interior designer can promote an ergonomic work area for employees, and also advise on things like traffic flows and flexibility. Some commercial moving partners, like Corovan, may provide guidance here as part of their relocation services.
IT Specialist
One of the biggest challenges of an office relocation is having your technology disconnected at the old space, then reconnected at the old space. The big concerns here are efficiency as well as data security. You’ll want to have an in-house IT expert involved. It’s also important to find a commercial moving partner with experience handling telecoms and other advanced equipment.
Human Resources Manager
An office relocation can be exciting, but for many employees, it also feels disruptive and stressful. To ensure that employees feel well-supported throughout the move, it’s imperative to have the involvement of human resources. A representative from HR can coordinate communication with your employees, and also ensure the new space is set up to maximize morale, productivity, and workplace wellness.
Marketing Manager
A big move can sometimes present an opportunity to convey excitement about your company’s growth, or simply to reassure customers and clients that your normal business offerings won’t be interrupted. The involvement of your marketing department can be essential for getting the messaging just right.
Financial Officer
Needless to say, relocating your business will have an effect on your business budget. As such, it’s important to have someone from your finance team involved with the project from day one.
Collaborating Throughout Your Move
Getting the right team together is a critical step for a successful commercial move, but it’s equally important to ensure clear lines of communication between team members. That includes a direct line of contact between your team’s leader or liaison, and your point person with your moving company.
In addition to having clearly defined roles within your in-house team, collaboration can be enhanced through the use of technology. Seek a commercial moving company that can provide a single source of truth for your entire team, including a dashboard or hub where everyone can see the same information about moving dates, deadlines, sub-tasks that need to be completed, and so on.
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Convene Your Office Relocation Dream Team
The success of your relocation may depend on the cohesive, collaborative team you assemble. Be mindful of the roles and responsibilities needed for a smooth moving day. And to learn more about how Corovan can fill some of these roles, don’t hesitate to contact us directly.
Assessing the Capacity & Resources of Commercial Movers: Ensuring a Smooth Office Move
When you’re planning a large-scale relocation project, it’s important to choose vendors who can match the scope of your move. Smaller moving companies may simply lack the resources or capacity needed to handle all the complexities of your office relocation, which means it’s important to find movers who can.
The question is, how can you assess the ability of your moving company to meet the demands of your project? There are several steps you can take to ensure you choose a capable vendor.
Don’t Settle for Residential Movers
First and foremost, be careful to ensure that your commercial movers are actually commercial movers.
The vast majority of moving companies focus almost exclusively on residential projects, taking on commercial relocations sparingly or sporadically. A company that doesn’t regularly handle enterprise-level moves simply won’t have the equipment, the warehousing capacity, or the expertise needed to handle the complexities of your move, or to ensure the safety and security of your assets.
Ask About Process
The best movers understand that a smooth relocation begins long before moving day itself. There’s a lot of pre-planning that needs to happen to ensure your new office is set up as quickly as can be, with minimal disruption to your company’s day-to-day activity.
To that end, it’s always important to ask your relocation provider for a full run-down of their process, verifying that they’ll be positioning you for success long before they start loading the trucks. Asking about the process is an important way to ensure you’re working with a mover who can offer the right kind of resources.
Confirm Warehousing Space
Often, commercial relocations call for short-term warehousing, which means choosing a mover who can offer ample space to stow furniture, equipment, and other physical assets.
The last thing you want is a relocation company that can’t safely warehouse all your items, so it’s always wise to ask for specific spatial configurations well in advance. Do your due diligence, finding a mover who can provide you with the necessary square footage.
Take Stock of Moving Day Services
When choosing a relocation specialist, you should also ask for a complete inventory of the resources and personnel that will be made available to you come moving day itself. A few specific questions to ask include:
- How many movers and how many trucks will be sent for our move?
- What kinds of tools (such as dollies) will be used?
- What services do you offer in terms of disconnecting or reconnecting electronics and other IT assets?
- What kind of technology will you use to track the move and maintain progress?
- What’s the estimated timeline for the move? What percentage of your moves are completed within the estimated timeline?
These are the kinds of questions you can use to verify that your moving partner is able to provide the level of service you desire for your next commercial move.
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Find the Best Mover to Handle Your Large-Scale Move
The typical commercial relocation calls for a significant investment of resources, and a considerable level of capacity. Make sure you find a partner who can accommodate. At Corovan, we’ve been doing this for more than 70 years, and are proud to offer an unparalleled spectrum of tools, technologies, and expertise. Reach out to us to learn more about planning an office relocation.
Seeking Recommendations & Reviews: Leveraging Others’ Experiences in Choosing a Commercial Mover
Choosing the right moving company can make a world of difference in your commercial relocation. By selecting the right moving team, your organization can contain costs, stick to a reasonable timeline, and ensure that all physical assets are properly secured. Additionally, an experienced commercial moving company can minimize any disruption to your team’s daily activities.
Crucially, not all commercial movers are created equal. Rather than choosing the first name you find on Google, it pays to do some due diligence. Not only should representatives of your relocation team ask for a full written estimate and proposal, but they should also cultivate recommendations and reviews.
Why Seek Reviews?
When your relocation team assesses feedback from previous businesses with a similar project scope, it’s akin to getting a second opinion. After all, it goes without saying that the commercial moving company thinks highly of their own technologies, their services, and their professional expertise. Reviews provide a window into what others think, specifically those who can provide you with an objective yet well-informed opinion.
Reviews and recommendations can speak to some of the factors that are more difficult to assess on the basis of an estimate or proposal. These include things like:
- The quality of customer service and overall level of courtesy provided.
- The care shown to sensitive, delicate, or fragile office equipment.
- The smoothness and consistency of communication throughout the relocation process.
In short, reviews provide a way to gauge whether all the mover’s marketing and sales materials are telling the truth or leading you on.
Where to Find Reviews
As your relocation team begins to source reviews, there are a few options we’d recommend. We’d suggest that these options are both/and, not either/or.
First, a simple Google search is usually sufficient for uncovering a few reviews. While online reviews are not 100 percent trustworthy, a large batch of them can paint a picture. For instance, if a mover has 100 reviews and they seem evenly split between raves and pans, that may be reason enough for your team to look elsewhere. Delegate one or two members of your relocation team to go through Google reviews with a fine-toothed comb, and to offer a summary or report to the rest of the team.
In addition, when considering a particular commercial moving company, always ask them directly to provide your team with a list of testimonials, plus past clients you can call for a referral or recommendation. Again, you can delegate this work to one or two members of your relocation team. Be skeptical of any company that can’t furnish you with reviews or recommendations; after all, a really good moving company should have plenty of satisfied clients ready to sing their praises.
A final note: It never hurts to call and check on the company’s reputation with any relevant bureaus or professional organizations, even if it’s just the local BBB. Take the time to confirm that the mover doesn’t have any outstanding complaints or violations marring their record.
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Seeking Experienced Movers for Your Commercial Relocation
Over the past 70 years, Corovan has earned rave reviews from commercial clients throughout California. We have a track record that speaks for itself and are always happy to provide referrals or testimonials for your review. Learn more about how we can ensure a smooth, efficient move. Reach out to Corovan at your next convenience.
Ensuring Data Security & Privacy During a Large-Scale Office Move
One of the primary concerns during any office relocation is ensuring all business assets are kept safe and secure. This includes not just tangible assets, like workstations and machinery, but also less tangible ones, like digital files and data.
It’s important to recognize that a large-scale office move presents a number of risks to your company’s data, ranging from movers accidentally dropping and damaging a hard drive to lapses in network security. By recognizing these risks in advance, it’s possible to plan ahead and to safeguard sensitive documents and files.
Protect Physical Hardware
While cloud storage is increasingly ubiquitous, many companies still house important files on actual physical hard drives. Note that physical devices can be sensitive to bumps, scrapes, or even fluctuations in temperature, and that any of these issues can compromise the data contained.
It pays to choose a relocation partner with experience handling commercial moves, as these movers usually have the skill and expertise required to carefully handle computers and physical databases. It’s also important to run diagnostic tests on all devices before the move; computers that are already on their last legs may require a little extra care.
Maintain a Chain of Custody
During the moving process, it is not uncommon for physical storage devices to be handed off from one person to the next. This presents a prime opportunity for items to get lost, misplaced, or even stolen. One important safeguard is to create a clear chain of custody, making it known who is in charge of each item at each stage of the relocation.
To make your chain of custody most effective, consider sealing each item once it is packaged, and ensuring that it is checked for any signs of tampering at each stage of the relocation. If there are any signs of a breach, it should be relatively easy to identify the person who can provide answers.
Ensure Documentation
Sometimes files are lost, or are temporarily irretrievable, simply due to changing IT environments. An important way to avoid this is by carefully documenting everything in your IT infrastructure, including not just physical drives but even the wires and cables used for connection. Work with IT to ensure that your current tech setup can be replicated in the new space, ensuring access to all important files or documents.
Create an IT Continuity Plan
Hopefully your employees know the importance of working from a secure network at all times, and your IT team has created that secure network at your current office space.
It’s pivotal to work with your tech team to ensure a similarly safe network awaits employees at the new space, and that appropriate safeguards are put in place to prevent unsecured data access during the transition. Start an IT continuity conversation early in your relocation process.
Have a Data Recovery Process in Place
Even with careful planning, you may wind up with some files that you cannot locate. That’s what makes it so important to work with IT to create backups of everything, and to get everyone on the same page about data recovery methods.
Before the move begins, make sure your disaster recovery solutions are comprehensively tested to ensure they are up-to-date and fully functional.
Don’t Forget Physical Files
Some companies are fully cloud-based and paperless, but most still work with at least some sensitive information in tangible, paper files. Naturally, this involves a whole different set of privacy and security concerns. Some best practices for securing physical files include:
- Keep an up-to-date file inventory throughout your relocation process.
- Take the time to purge and shred any unneeded documents.
- Label every box or bin, clearly denoting the types of files contained.
- Package all sensitive files securely, sealing them and maintaining a proper chain of custody (as noted above).
- Partner with a moving vendor who has experience with secure transport.
Learn More About Keeping Data Secure During Your Relocation
Data safety and privacy are key concerns during any relocation. To talk with a moving partner that can boast significant enterprise-level experience, reach out to Corovan at your convenience.
The Art of Office Space Utilization: Maximizing Efficiency & Productivity
The concept of office space is nothing new— for generations, employees have gathered in cubicles and conference rooms to get their work done— but the expectations surrounding office space have evolved considerably. Between the pandemic and steady improvements in digital communication technologies, more and more employees are choosing to work from home, at least part of the time. When they do come into the office, it’s more important than ever for them to find a space that’s flexible, comfortable, and conducive to productivity.
For more than 75 years, Corovan has been a leading name in office relocation and design. We’ve mastered the art of office space utilization, and in this post we’re going to share a few tips for office managers looking to use their space most effectively.
The Impact of Office Space on Employee Productivity
Research shows that employee workspaces have a direct effect on productivity, efficiency, and morale. Everything from lighting to temperature to the physical organization of the space can impact employees’ ability to do their job well, and to enjoy clarity of mind as they do it.
By contrast, employees typically feel impeded in their work when they have to contend with too much noise from adjoining offices; when they feel like they lack the privacy needed to make calls or hold meetings; or when they don’t have the flexibility needed to work both individually and collaboratively. In a word, inefficient use of office space is detrimental to the functionality of the team.
Assessing Current Office Space Utilization
So, what can office managers do to make the best possible use of their current space? An important first step is to take stock of the current office space utilization, assessing both the pain points and areas of opportunity.
Gathering employee feedback on the current office space, via surveys or anonymous polls, is a good first step. Walkthroughs and surveys, conducted during actual work hours, can be helpful for identifying bottlenecks or areas of too much office congestion.
Strategic Office Layout Design
Beyond the initial assessment, there are a number of ways to maximize office space, making it a fruitful place for employees to get their work done.
- Create an open, flexible floor plan, with hybrid spaces that serve multiple purposes (include designated collaboration areas and meeting rooms).
- Incorporate ergonomic furniture and workspaces, demonstrating a commitment to employee comfort and physical wellbeing.
- Maximize natural light and bring in some greenery, both of which have been linked to improvements in employee mental health.
Embracing Technology for Optimal Office Space Management
Technology can be invaluable for optimizing the use of office space. For example, smart office solutions can enable space monitoring, while data analytics can be used to more clearly identify space usage patterns.
The proper incorporation of technology can assist with resource allocation, as well, ensuring easy-access solutions for employees who need printers, copiers, or digital office equipment.
Creating Zones for Different Activities
Another important aspect of office space utilization is creating different zones, set apart for different types of activity. For example, an effective office space typically includes:
- Focused work areas for individual tasks.
- Collaborative zones for team projects.
- Relaxation and break areas, essential for boosting employee morale.
Emphasizing Sustainability in Office Design
Something else to consider: Today’s employees increasingly want to work for a company that takes environmental sustainability seriously. Sustainable office design can be an important tool for employee recruitment and retention, particularly among younger generations of employees.
Be strategic in implementing eco-friendly practices within your office. This might mean choosing trusted vendors to provide eco-conscious office supplies, developing robust recycling programs, prioritizing energy efficiency, and more.
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Planning an Office Relocation with Corovan
As you consider the best ways to utilize a new or existing office space, choosing the right partner is key. Corovan has a proven track record helping major enterprises plot and execute their relocations, planning for the most effective use of their new office facilities.
We understand how important office space utilization is for productivity, efficiency, morale, even for employee retention. To learn more about optimizing your space, we invite you to contact Corovan today.
Budgeting for an Office Relocation: Strategies for Cost Control & Forecasting
Often, relocating your office space is one of the most advantageous things you can do for your company. An office relocation can provide you with room to expand, it can place you closer to where your target customers are located, and in some cases it may even help you curtail overhead expenses.
Even when an office relocation promises long-term financial benefits, however, there are always going to be some costs incurred on the front-end. In fact, moving your office can entail some significant expenses, but the right budgeting and forecasting can help you keep these expenses within a reasonable limit.
The Direct Costs of Office Relocation
First and foremost, there are direct costs associated with your office relocation. These costs will largely be determined by the moving vendor you choose, and it’s always important to get a comprehensive estimate before you sign a contract. At Corovan, we take the time to carefully audit each relocation project, providing a detailed accounting of our costs before the move begins.
Consider just some of the most significant direct moving costs:
- Packing office equipment. The labor and material costs needed for packaging your office supplies and equipment can vary quite a bit by company. Desks and workstations are usually fairly easy to pack up. High-end equipment, including scientific instruments, will require more specialized care; while this can inflate costs on the front-end, it’s better to invest in the right movers than to risk equipment damage and costly replacement needs.
- Moving office equipment. Moving costs will usually be determined according to the number of items being moved as well as the total distance traveled. Again, it’s important to be mindful of the potential for items to be lost or damaged in transit, making it worthwhile to invest in movers that take careful inventory, use advanced tracking technologies, and offer specialized handling of sensitive items.
- Buying office equipment. Setting up in a new space will almost always involve the purchase of new furniture that fits well in the chosen location. Moving partners who offer inventory and storage capabilities can help you ensure judicious purchasing decisions. Don’t forget about aesthetics, too. Your new office needs furniture to make it functional, but also decor to make it feel inviting and hospitable.
The Indirect Costs of Office Relocation
Beyond these direct costs, there are also some indirect costs associated with office relocation. These can be a little bit harder to pin down, but some categories to think about include:
- Moving during business hours. Relocating during normal business hours means lost productivity, which can hurt the bottom line. Ensure a moving vendor that can carefully plan out your move to minimize disruption.
- Organizing the new space. It can also cost time and productivity, and thus dollars, to fully configure the new office space, ensuring maximum productivity for your employees. Again, advanced planning and organization are key. Have a plan for how you’ll set up the new space before you actually get over there.
- Acclimating your employees. An office relocation can cause a lot of anxiety among your employees, who may struggle with the transition into a new environment. When thinking about costs, it’s important to consider the time it will take to familiarize employees with their new surroundings, and to help them feel more comfortable in the new work environment.
Budgeting for a Successful Office Relocation
Ultimately, there are always going to be a lot of cost variables to think about when transitioning from one workspace to the next. The best way to develop a robust budget is to find a commercial moving partner who will help you innumerate these different variables, while also providing safeguards against needless expenses such as equipment replacement.
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At Corovan, we boast decades of experience coordinating enterprise-level moves, helping our corporate clients complete their relocation projects without overextending their budgets. We’d love to tell you more about our approach to cost control. Reach out to us whenever you’re ready to set up a consultation.
Key Considerations for Fortune 500 Companies Undertaking Large-Scale Office Relocations
Relocating a corporate headquarters is always a massive undertaking, requiring careful management of cost, communications, and logistics. The complexity of an office relocation scales in accordance with the size of the company, meaning that Fortune 500 companies face acute difficulties. To properly plan for and manage these complexities, it’s first important to have a clear sense of the different variables in play.
Critical Considerations for a Seamless Relocation
1) Advanced planning and organization
Even a tiny mom and pop shop isn’t going to relocate on the fly, and the planning timeline for a Fortune 500 company can be especially long. It’s important to begin conversations about the relocation many months in advance. This allows ample time for decision makers to:
- Establish a basic timeline and define key milestones.
- Appoint a transition team with clearly delineated roles.
- Interview different relocation teams, ultimately hiring someone with experience overseeing enterprise-level transitions.
- Begin the process of inventorying office supplies and equipment.
2) Communication
There are a number of risks that Fortune 500 companies face when they relocate their headquarters, but one of the most significant is the loss of top talents. Keep in mind that employees spend a majority of their time at the office, and the thought of transitioning into an unknown environment can be stressful and disruptive. Without the involvement of HR to manage communications, some employees may look for opportunities to find employment elsewhere.
As a rule of thumb, it’s wise to communicate early and often, keeping employees apprised regarding the relocation timeline, the benefits of the new location, and measures being taken to ease the transition.
3) Daily operations
Even the most carefully planned business relocation will involve disruptions to day-to-day operations, including the potential of lost productivity or a temporary suspension of services.
Naturally, these disruptions can be costly, so before the relocation, it’s critical for larger companies to conduct a business impact analysis, assessing the likely extent of their operational friction. This analysis can also provide some insight into the functions that are most needed to be duplicated or to remain operational during the move, allowing the transition team to determine the planning, technology, and personnel required to maintain business continuity.
4) Cost variables
Often, Fortune 500 companies relocate for the express purpose of boosting their long-term profitability. Financial benefits can include more favorable tax environments, reduced overhead, or closer proximity to target consumers.
There are also potential financial liabilities, including not just the direct costs of moving but also the costs associated with employee stress and lost productivity. Advanced planning and analysis can help transition teams identify the most significant opportunities to save, and also to be aware of the most consequential financial vulnerabilities.
5) IT infrastructure
An office relocation will naturally affect all aspects of the company, including physical assets like furniture and equipment. Relocation will also have a major impact on IT systems.
It is often an afterthought during relocations, but it’s important to enlist your tech team in planning ahead, developing multiple contingencies for data backup and recovery, the protection of sensitive data, and necessary updates and optimization for all hardware and software.
6) Change management
Hopefully, an office relocation will make your team more efficient and your business more successful. There are bound to be some growing pains, however, as employees adjust their daily activities to the layout and ambiance of a new workspace.
Make sure to have change management experts who can support your team through this season of transition, making it as painless as possible for personnel to ease into their new rhythms.
Learn More About How We Can Develop A Moving Plan To Fit Your Needs
Our experienced team can help you design a plan that addresses every variable. Get your free consultation today!
Choose a Relocation Company with Fortune 500 Experience
To help you develop a moving plan that accounts for each of these variables, it’s critical to find the right moving company. Not every mover has experience with commercial relocation, and fewer still have the resources to serve Fortune 500 companies.
At Corovan, we boast decades of experience, plus a robust technology portfolio that helps us maximize our usefulness to enterprise-level clients. We’d love to tell you more. Contact Corovan to set up a consultation.
7 Tips for Designing an Office Space for Employee Health and Comfort
When you think of ergonomics, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Often, the term is associated with comfortable furniture, or workspace layouts that optimize posture. Those are certainly key concerns with ergonomics, but more broadly, the term encompasses any strategic initiative to design office environments with people in mind. The ergonomic workplace is one in which everything is made to support the efficiency and wellbeing of personnel.
At Corovan, we have a proven track record in office relocation and redesign, and we know a thing or two about helping our clients design physical spaces where employee health and comfort are paramount. Here’s a quick guide for any employer seeking to emphasize ergonomics.
Understanding the Impact of Workplace Ergonomics
Anyone who has ever worked in an uncomfortable, non-ergonomic workspace knows what the consequences can be: After a day spent hunched over a computer, you may experience devastating back pain, chronic eye strain, and a general lack of physical pep.
Ergonomic workplace designs emphasize proper posture in order to reduce the risk of workplace injury, and to mediate the effects of repetitive motions or simply sitting at a desk all day. For employees, this means greater comfort, and hopefully less distraction during the working day. For employers, this means fewer injury claims or worker’s comp issues, along with improved productivity, morale, and employee retention.
7 Tips for Improved Office Ergonomics
When it comes to designing an office space with ergonomics in mind, there are a few important considerations to keep top-of-mind.
1) Prioritize ergonomic furniture and equipment.
First and foremost, choose chairs that support proper posture and physical comfort. Select adjustable desks that can accommodate different heights and preferences. And be sure to equip employees with ergonomic accessories, including keyboard trays and monitor stands.
2) Design an employee-centric layout.
Workspace layout is just as important as the actual furniture you buy. Arrange work stations to minimize eye strain. Create workflows that encourage your employees to get up, move around, and take breaks. And ensure sufficient space for employees to stretch as needed.
3) Optimize monitor and lighting setups.
Ergonomics involves physical posture but also vision and eye strain. To that end, set up monitors at eye level and at the recommended distance. Resolve any issues of glare or screen reflection. Also keep in mind that proper lighting is essential for eliminating eye strain and fatigue.
4) Pay attention to air quality and comfort.
To optimize employee wellness, ensure that your office has proper air circulation and adequate ventilation. Regulate temperature and humidity to ensure employee comfort. And be mindful of noise and acoustics, seeking the most peaceful possible work environment.
5) Provide accessible and inclusive spaces.
Be sure to accommodate the needs of employees who have disabilities or other specific needs. Offer quiet spaces for those employees who require intense focus and concentration. And design multifunctional rooms for various work activities.
6) Educate employees.
Creating an ergonomic workplace involves more than just buying furniture and optimizing layout. It’s also important to educate employees about ergonomic best practices. This might involve:
- Conducting training sessions on proper desk ergonomics and posture.
- Distributing ergonomic guidelines and resources to all employees.
- Encouraging employees to take responsibility for their wellbeing at work.
7) Conduct regular ergonomic assessments.
Finally, be diligent about auditing your workspace ergonomics, implementing routine assessments of employee work stations. Actively solicit feedback from employees, seeking areas for improvement. And be ready to adapt your office space according to the feedback you receive.
Learn More About How We Can Improve Employee Comfort
Our experienced team can help you design a physical work space that promotes employee comfort and health. Get your free consultation today!
Leverage Corovan’s Expertise in Ergonomic Design
Ergonomic office design is critical for supporting the wellbeing, morale, and productivity of your employees. For more than 75 years, Corovan has been at the forefront of this field, helping countless enterprises transform their workspaces in order to facilitate a superior employee experience. To find out more about how we can help you relocate or set up a new office, reach out to the Corovan team today.