Even if you run a business that is long-established and thriving, there are various scenarios where you could need to seriously consider relocating it.
For example, as more people join your business, it could start outgrowing its current premises, or you might just want your office to be closer to clients.
Uprooting yourself, though, would be a major undertaking – not least because you would need to think carefully about what facilities your next office needs – both legally and practically – to have.
The UK government agency the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) outlines an array of “welfare facilities” – the term it uses – legally required in each UK workplace.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, though, these facilities it specifies can seem to go without saying – including “the right number of toilets and washbasins” and “drinking water”. Also mentioned – and perhaps not quite so obvious – is “somewhere to rest and eat meals”. You shouldn’t require your staff to simply leave the office when the time comes for them to take their lunch break.
The importance of health in the workplace certainly didn’t only emerge with the COVID-19 pandemic. The HSE indeed calls for “a healthy working environment”, clarifying that this workplace should be “clean” and have “a reasonable working temperature”.
Therefore, you should pay close attention to the office’s heating system and thermostat. You should also check that the space is suitably illuminated and – as is especially crucial in the COVID age – well-ventilated.
Safety is always vital in a workplace – which, consequently, should not be strewn with any obstructions on floors or traffic routes.
However, important to ensuring that the equipment your workforce uses stays safe to use is ensuring that this equipment is well-maintained. If you are concerned that you might lack sufficient time for this gear’s effective upkeep yourself, you could book your office from a company that can, on your behalf, look after the office and, with it, equipment contained within.
As this Bplans article reassures, some offices tend to cover internet access in the rental cost. Serviced offices are good examples; a serviced office from BE Offices, for example, would give a business occupying that space access to high-speed roaming Wi-Fi and 10GB internet pipes.
You shouldn’t hastily rule out other types of communication infrastructure, though – such as postal services, which can prove valuable for signed documents and other physical items. You might need telephone connections as well, if not necessarily urgently if you are happy to rely on mobile phones.
Well, where else would you hold meetings on the premises? Information Age advises: “Pick an office with a conference room if you have many employees or partners in your business.”
You could still find that, even when the particular kind of meeting room usage on which you are intent isn’t covered by the standard cost of booking the specific office you are considering, you could easily be permitted to that “particular kind of meeting room usage” for an additional fee.