Preparing your employees and helping them transition during a workplace relocation is crucial as the physical move into your shiny new offices needs to be as smooth as possible. Relocations are significant events for employees, on the same scale as mergers, acquisitions and management changes. How a relocation is managed has a considerable influence on what employers think about a company and its leaders. This is especially true in the current economic climate – it’s more important than ever to ensure that the bulk of your staff complement is motivated to contribute to the company’s success.
According to Mckinsey, 70% of corporate change initiatives fail due to factors such as:
- lack of participation,
- over the communication of a poor vision and
- under communication or a powerful vision.
Yet the corporate world is defined by change.
It’s essential to understand how employees are affected by the transition to a new workplace and help them cope with the change. Employees may experience a feeling of loss with the prospect of leaving the current office environment, which may harden their attitudes against the relocation’s organisational imperatives. This alienation may linger long after the relocation is complete but can be averted when employees’ feelings of loss are recognised, and they feel supported.
Workplace psychologists also recognise a second phase in change management theory when employees critically deal with the move’s personal effects, such as increased travel time that cut into time for individual activities, or possible wins.
Ultimately, a workplace move’s success hinges a great deal on whether everybody that is affected feels they are treated fairly and with respect—providing copious amounts of information will not be enough.
Relogistics have more than 25 years of experience in managing the logistics of corporate relocations. Our awareness of all the moving parts of a corporate relocation allows us to support your transition to your new location as hassle-free as possible.
