3 Tips for Preventing Injuries During Your Office Move

by Stephanie Faris on Monday, November 21 6:00

An office move can be one of the most stressful events a business will experience in its lifetime. The more a company grows, the more challenging a relocation can be, with more equipment, shelving, and files to load into the moving truck. While many businesses hire professionals to load the bulk of their belongings, employees still load items into boxes and crawl under desks to unplug equipment. In the days leading up to and following a move, employees can easily suffer an injury.

If one of your employees gets hurt during the move process, it can lead to years of issues, possibly impacting your business s bottom line. A professional mover s injury can also affect your budget if you choose a company that doesn t have the recommended insurance. Even in those cases where insurance is in place, it s important to keep everyone safe during your move. Here are a few small things you can do.

Check Flooring

On the day of the move, movers will make numerous trips from various work areas to their trucks parked outside. During this time, they ll be pushing dollies filled with equipment and boxes, with limited visibility of the path ahead. Prior to the move, go through each walkway and look for damaged flooring that could cause someone to trip. Don t limit your inspection to the interior of your building. Check for uneven areas in sidewalks or pavement that could cause someone to trip. If you have options, have the moving trucks park in an area with the easiest access from the building.

Trust the Professionals

It can be tempting for employees to handle part of the move on their own. Some will even want to take their own computer equipment and boxes to the new location out of fear something will become damaged. Prohibit employees from doing this, instead offering them the packing materials and boxes they need to protect any items they re concerned about breaking. Professional movers know the proper way to lift, often only manually handling items to place them on their moving equipment. Employees tend to engage in riskier behaviors.

Stand By

On the day of the move, your employees play a crucial role. Assign people to direct the flow of traffic through your building, asking them to help the movers stay out of each other s way. Continue to check walkways both inside and outside the building to identify hazards like slick spots and dropped items. Make sure you have a first aid kit on site in case someone should suffer a small injury during the day. Before you choose a moving company, determine what protective measures they put in place while they re on site and ask what your team can do to make things easier and safer on move day.

With a team of professionals organizing and handling your office move, you ll be able to enjoy a seamless transition from one location to the next. Movers are trained to avoid risk, while also working as efficiently as possible. With the right team in place, your employees can show up at the new location with their items having arrived safely.