“They” say that moving house is the most stressful thing people go through in their lives. If this is true, and few who have bought and sold property doubt that it is, how much worse must it be to move an entire organisation to new premises?
During the process sales, finance, HR, marketing and other high profile departments might snatch the spotlight but other areas of the business are just as essential and need just as much support. Front of House (FoH) in particular is key to letting staff feel at home in a new headquarters. If people can walk through the doors on the first day and see familiar faces sat behind the reception desk, ready to welcome them and help with any issues, you’re already half way to fitting in.
This is something the team at Lexington Reception Services (LRS) has a lot of experience of, and has given a lot of thought to. LRS knows that the first thing you need to do is get your priorities straight.
Reni Dimova, Head of Front Of House, at LRS, says, “There are various things to consider, from the layout of the reception area, to the potential movement of the staff. But, as with the new workplace as a whole, the biggest issue to think about is: location, location, location.”
Reni stresses the importance of finding a suitable place for your reception service to be situated. On top of that you need to make sure the space is laid out and designed well. All the team members need to feel comfortable in their new environment. In a similar vein, you need to make sure that people are familiar with the area. Ideally this means a select few getting to know it before hand and communicating this information to their colleagues as clearly as possible.
You also need to work out just how involved the FoH team is going to be in the wider moving process. This depends on the team itself, and the organisation it serves. Some teams and companies may want the FoH team itself to design their own new workspace, for others this may be entirely the wrong approach.
What absolutely cannot be compromised on is that the reception team knows as much as possible about the new building and the surrounding area. They are going to be inundated with questions in the early days, by both staff and visitors.
Other areas the team might get involved in is picking out and/or designing the uniforms for the reception ream, researching relevant service providers such as potential onsite dry cleaners or magazine suppliers. FoH can also go above and beyond by researching local business and retailers and seeing if discount vouchers can be arranged for the new headquarters’ occupants.
There is also a lot of responsibility on FoH teams to minimise the overall disruption of the move on the team and visitors. One good way of doing this is to create a welcome pack with all the essential information about the building and local amenities. This can be distributed to everyone who will be moving premises prior to the relocation. This can both be helpful to colleagues and demonstrate the FoH team’s commitment to the move.
But perhaps the most important thing to remember during a move is that these projects never, ever go to plan. If you are going through a change or experience like this, be prepared for unexpected changes to everything, but especially the timeframe and general schedule. You must remain flexible and adaptable at every part of the process, and it helps to stay positive!
