How Not to Handle Employees during Office Relocation

Your employees are not your loved ones. They will not love you in the morning if you verbally take their heads off for simple mistakes. They are not obligated to let you rest while they work nonstop to make an office relocation happen. If you are in charge of handling a corporate relocation and you have a group of people under your charge, you cannot make the mistake of treating those people as you would treat the people who love you outside of the office.

Taking Charge Does Not Require a Dictatorship

You will need to establish a clear plan, communicate that plan to the employees under your charge, and then delegate duties to the group so that everything is completed on time for your big office relocation. What you won’t need to do is bark orders at your employees expecting them to understand the plan that is in your head, especially if you have not clearly communicated that plan. You also will not need to lose your cool when someone makes a mistake or deviates from your plan slightly.

Your loved ones understand your temper and know how you like to work, but this may be the first time your employees have worked through a corporate relocation with you. This may be the first time they have communicated with you beyond their job responsibilities. They will expect clear communication and a calm, confident demeanor from the boss in charge of the moving process.

Do Your Research

You shouldn't throw together a plan with little to no research and then expect employees to follow that plan perfectly. You will end up hitting unexpected obstacles, and eventually you will be forced to rethink your plan with better research. Start out by determining what needs to be accomplished in order to successfully complete your office relocation on time. You can then determine a timeline for these activities and assign employees to leadership roles to ensure everything is completed on time.

Notice that this research, planning and delegation process requires far more organization and advance planning than a local move with your family would require. Corporate relocation requires management of more people, and those people do not know you as intimately as your family members. They also see you in a different light than your family members see you, and you have an image to uphold in the office once this relocation is completed.

Do Not Occupy All Control

If you are the head of your household, you may feel responsible to shoulder the weight of all control over the moving process. That is not the case when you are managing office relocation. You need to find employees whom you can trust and delegate some control of the moving process to them. This allows you to lighten your load so that you have time to oversee the process as a whole. You see the bigger picture while your lower-level leaders oversee the smaller details involved with corporate relocation.