Moving to new business premises is always a complicated process at the best of times, whether you’re managing it on your own or hiring professionals to help you. All that stress is made even worse if you need to move during the current pandemic crisis.
Proceed With Caution
It’s important to remember that even though things are getting much better, the pandemic is still ongoing so being careful is still essential. You can go ahead with your move, but you must proceed with caution, just like you do with everything else at the moment. This might mean booking antiviral cleaning services to deep clean your existing and new premises to keep everyone safe, or limiting the number of people in the building on moving day.
Manage Your Expectations
Before COVID-19, it would have been fine to welcome lots of movers, and employees into the office to help you with the big office move. However, now it’s a good idea to avoid doing this as much as you can. Social distancing means you ought to try to avoid crowds and stay at least six feet away from other people. That’s hard to do if the office is full of people.
Limit exposure. For example, if you hire a moving crew of three people, two can come in the house and one can stay with the truck the whole time. Limit the number of people from your business who are around. Send people home for the day so you can have as few people as possible present for the move to limit exposure. This is safer for you and your movers.
Keep your distance from the movers and don’t shake hands with them when they arrive. Make sure your movers have easy access to wash their hands if they want to. If they’re prepared, they should arrive with their own supply of face masks, gloves, and hand sanitisers, but you should have your own ready for them to use, just in case.
Ask if you can tip via a credit card instead of using cash, so neither of you need to handle cash.
Ask Questions
Before you even think about hiring a moving company, find out what changes to protocols they have made due to the pandemic. How often are they testing their employees? Are they using supplies like face masks, gloves, and hand sanitisers during a move? A responsible moving firm should be happy to answer these questions.
Most movers should be monitoring their workers very closely in order to keep them and their clients safe. If anyone is showing symptoms, such as a high temperature or coughing, don’t allow them into your premises. The moving firm should contact you a few days before your move to check whether anyone in your office has been exposed to the virus, is waiting for test results, or is showing symptoms. It’s important to communicate openly and honestly with your moving company, and expect them to communicate in the same way with you.
