Moving HQ? Why Change Management from the start is critical.

Moving HQ?? Downsizing your footprint?? Merging onto 1 site?? Growing and need more space? ?Your first instinct may be to appoint a project manager and real estate team, but have you thought about including a Change Lead at the table?

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I consider myself very lucky to have spent the last 7 years as a Change Manager in the Facilities space working on office moves, office closures, office consolidations, making offices Covid friendly and then attracting employees back to empty offices and finally optimising office space footprint onto a new site.? There could not have been a time of more disruptive physical and psychological change since the Second World War as far as the workplace is concerned.

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One thing that I have learned for certain – with any workplace project Change Management has an important voice and influence right from the start.? We are after all the champions of the people experience.? And what are workplaces if not the focal point of innovation, productivity, culture and community in an organisation?? A Change Manager will bring together the people workstream – HR, ER, Comms, Facilities Management and Business Leaders who must all influence the scope and aims of the project to deliver transformation and growth.? The bigger picture benefits of a workplace that fosters innovation, unleashes creativity, builds collaboration, and engineers unplanned connections can then be built in to the location, space and build of the new HQ.

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In my experience Change Management can be a delayed workstream that only comes into being when the goals and aims are set, the funding is approved, and the business is ready to engage with the workforce about a new location. This can mean critical early elements are missed or not optimised – the story for change and business case, stakeholder engagement, understanding business needs, deeply understanding the change impacts and thorough analysis and discussion. The ultimate goal is to have the imagination and design thinking to evolve ways of working and collaboration within the new workspace as well as recognising potential mitigations for undesired impacts.

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All the things above have a cost that needs to find its way into the financial proposal so the full opportunity and investment can be evaluated. Having your change lead at the table at the start and throughout keeps the focus on the people experience as well as the real estate and construction elements. They will ensure that business leaders have their say and that they also engage deeply to consider what the new HQ should offer to really deliver on innovation, productivity, culture, and community.?

We’d love to help if you are considering a HQ move, you can get in touch through our website jamesandcarmichael.com?

Mel Horton is a Managing Partner at James and Carmichael with over 30 years’ experience delivering change in large corporations. In this series of articles Mel shares her insights on Change Management in the Office Footprint Space, an area of much focus post pandemic as companies work to resize, reshape, and reinvigorate places of work for hybrid working and growth and innovation.