Office renovations are investments that bring your business a lot of dividends. Like any investment though, you have some tough decisions to make. A big one is what you will do with your business while the office renovations are ongoing. Will you have to shut things down until the renovations are completed?
It may come as a surprise that it is possible carry on business as usual during office renovations. Many contractors will do their best to accommodate their clients so that disruptions to day-to-day work are kept at a minimum. These are three creative solutions to help keep your business going while renovations are under way:
Business by day, renovation by night
The best case scenario is if you can keep your regular business hours and schedule renovation work when you’re closed. First, check with your contractor on how renovations can be carried out outside of your office business hours.
If it all works out, communicate clearly and regularly to employees on how the ongoing renovation will affect operations. Even when renovations are done after hours, there’s bound to be some changes they’ll have to get used to in the next little while.
Desk-hopping
Another option is asking your contractor if it’s possible to localize renovation work from one area to the next and shift employees around accordingly. No doubt, this requires lots of coordination between the contractor and your staff. Make sure your employees report any issues stemming from renovations only to you or someone assigned as the official point of contact. Everything will be a lot smoother if the contractor only has to deal with one person in charge throughout the whole project.
You’re asking a lot from your staff with this option so always kindly ask for your staff’s patience. It also helps to keep reminding everyone the positive reasons and end goals for the renovation.
Remote work
This is an excellent solution if your business doesn’t require a physical space for customers or client visits. There are a lot of web applications out there that allows businesses to easily manage remote employees, especially if most of your company documents are stored on the cloud anyway.
If you do have proprietary applications or documents hosted on company servers only, consider setting up virtual private networks (VPNs) for your staff to access company servers remotely.
Above all, keep calm and carry on!
