Top 5 Relocation Tips:

Moving the business to new location or locations is a process best undertaken with a great deal of planning and forethought.  Commercial relocation is so much more than moving your house, its obvious isn’t it, but you would be surprised how many organisations approach this activity full of confidence due to someone having moved their own home last year, only to fail in spectacular fashion, costing the business dearly.

Here are my top 5 tips for your relocation project:

• Team:  Pull together your in house and professional team early on.  The fundamental requirement for the project team is to have delegated authority to make project decisions.  You will undoubtedly have a project Board with the overall Company authority, but the ability for the Project team to act within bounds is paramount. 

• Programme & Timing:  Your relocation project will almost certainly culminate in one or more moves over a series of weekends or a holiday period.  Planning for your project can start at either end of the scale.  Either working back from a mission critical end date, perhaps the expiration of the existing lease period, or working from the start, based on the longest lead time elements and the date you determine to launch the project.  Either way you cannot start the overall planning too soon.  Informal planning will have been taking place for some while but this needs to be pulled together at the earliest opportunity so that all aspects can be captured and detailed.

• Communication:  Early on in the project you will need to determine your communication strategy with staff and stakeholders.  As a source of rumour and misinformation, there are few better catalysts than a relocation project to stoke the fires!  Planning and implementing an integrated communication plan will greatly assist the project, both in terms of staff satisfaction and also in terms of buy in and co-operation.

• IT and Communications:  Make sure your IT and communications teams are fully engaged from the start.  We have seen projects that have started off in fine form, bringing the communications teams in at a later date, only to find there are practical technical matters that have been overlooked and the project suffers delays and cost overruns.

• Have a clear out!:  Develop time in the programme to encourage staff to have a good clear out of filing cabinets, old machinery, cupboards, loose boxes, equipment, records, files, obsolete bits and bobs and the many other things that will cost money to move, cost money to house and then cost money to move next time!  There will be opportunities to recycle, sell, donate, dispose and, in the process, contribute to the organisations corporate social responsibility agenda.

James Alexander Consultants can help you with your relocation project.

eMail us on innovation@jaltd.co.uk or see our contact page for our numbers.  We look forward to speaking with you.

Maidenhead site in British Land grab

Grenfell Island, a road locked office and leisure complex in the centre of Maidenhead, Berks. has been acquired by British Land in what can be seen as a pre-emptive strike in the great Crossrail dash.  Grenfell Island is ideally situated opposite the rail station in Maidenhead and comprises some 113,000ft² of high quality office space together with a cinema and health club.  British Land purchased the 9.5 year unexpired lease term from the private vendor for £75 million.  The building is let to Hutchison 3G UK Ltd, and is the UK headquarters of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd, a telecommunications and data services provider.

Maidenhead is at the western end of the new Crossrail line, which, when completed, will link the town with Heathrow, the West End, the City and Canary Wharf with high frequency fast rail services.  Having endured a period of slow decline on recent years it is hoped and anticipated that this will be the first of many such acquisitions and developments that look to cash in on the capital growth that the advent of the new line is hoped to bring.

The Crossrail project carries a £15.9 billion budget and the current programme sees services starting to run in the central section in London following the completion of the main infrastructure works at the end of 2018, with the outlying services following in the months after.  The project will see the implementation of many innovative engineering and technical solutions and programmes.  There are also many other Health & Safety initiatives, including specialised training for over 4,000 lorry drivers to highlight the skills required to navigate the capital’s roads.