Essay: Relocation of a head office – planning considerations

The senior management team have made the strategic business decision to relocate their head office to a business park. I am basing the office move on my own workplace at RES Devon Ltd. However I will be structuring the project in order that the principles could be applied to larger businesses if desired.
For the office relocation run as smoothly as possible, communication will be essential. The best way to communicate the relocation to all affected employees would be via a meeting. Meetings are a good way of communicating important changes which will affect them personally and the team/company as a whole. The meeting will allow management to brief out the reasons why the move is necessary.
In order to organise an effective and productive meeting will need the detailed input of the SMT. They will need to clearly define the reasons for the move and the outcome required in advance to allow the preparation of meeting content notes and agenda. Also they need to make it clear to all meeting attendees that the meeting organiser is following their instructions and has their full support.
3.3 The meeting agenda will cover the details of the relocation and the desired outcome will be identified. Actions, time-scales, budgets and responsibilities will be defined and allocated to the relevant team members. Promoting discussion within the meeting will lead to ideas and problem solving, it will also allow employees to collaborate, feel included and have buy in to the eventual outcome.
Dependant of the size of the company there are several different types of meetings designed to achieve various outcomes or meet statutory requirements.
1. Statutory (legal) Meeting
These apply to Public/Ltd companies and are required by law. The Statutory Meeting is a once only meeting of a public company and needs to be held between 3 months and 6 months of the commencement of the business. Attendees at the meeting would include directors and members of the company and all shareholders who decide to attend.
2. Annual General Meeting (AGM)
Every public company must hold an AGM of its members every year. The meeting is organised by the directors of the company. The first AGM must be held within 18 months from the date of the company’s incorporation and thereafter once every calendar year within the closing of its financial year. The interval between 2 meetings cannot exceed 15 months.
3. Extra Ordinary General Meeting (EGM)
A general meeting unless the Statutory Meeting or an AGM are known as EGM’s these may be called on special occasions or emergency situations e.g. plans of merger, financial adversities etc.
4. General Business Meetings
There will also be regular general business meetings to discuss performance and future planning etc.
Task 2:
Administration Managers support to Human Resource Processes
1.4) Role Comparison
Administration Manager
Ensure there is an effective information flow and that resources are employed efficiently throughout the business. Challenge the effectiveness of established procedures as it is important in this role to identify outdated practices early and develop continual process improvement. An effective administration manager could be involved in business planning, finance, human resources, office and facilities management as well as day to day clerical duties. They would also be involved in arranging the training and development needs of staff and employee’s in-line with the company’s current requirements and future growth and development plans.
Human Resources Manager
Develop, advice and implement on policies relating to the effective use of personnel within a business or organisation. To ensure that the organisation employees the right balance of staff in terms of skills and experience. Also to ensure that training and development opportunity are available to employees to enhance there performance in order that they achieve their employers business aims. These could be responsible for such areas as working practices, recruitment, pay, conditions of employment, equality and diversity.
In any substantial change such as an office relocation there will need to be close co-operation between administration, human resources and operations. An administrative manager will provide support for both HR and operations team. The type of things they can assist with would be:
• organisation of meetings
• Development and production of briefings, information leaflets etc.
• development and management of change programme
• assistance in responding to employee questions and concerns
• document control to ensure clear records of entire change process are produced, organised and efficiently managed
4.1
Project Life-Cycle Overview
Stage 1: Initiation
Stage one of creating and carrying out the relocation is initiation, this is the stage that the project brief is delivered in this case a brief on the move would be delivered explain initial details. At this stage the aims of the relocation will be identified, and the aim of the move on a whole will be defined. A time-scale in which the relocation will take place must be planned, when it should take place will also be determined. Teams
will be created in order to complete the relocation successfully and ideas will be shared at this stage.
Stage 2: Specify (planning)
The second stage is where the planning for the move becomes more specific. At this stage ideas and plans will be finalised. The time-scale will be more specific with smaller time scales for each department and task, and department members will be assigned to individual tasks to complete within there specified area. Options will be tried out using a trial and error method to help the team to finalise the best options for the move. A detailed plan will then be produced for the project move before the next stage of the process.
Stage 3: Delivery
The delivery stage is the point of the process where the plan is put into action and the project is carried out. During this stage each part of the move will be monitored closely and managed by the team to ensure both aims and objectives of the move are met and the move is as successful as it possibly can be.
Stage 4: Evaluation
The final stage of the project life cycle is to evaluate the project once it has been carried out and is complete. The team will get together and evaluate how well the relocation went, and if their aims and objectives were met. This stage will also allow the team to feedback to each other and identify individual strengths and weaknesses as well as the team as a whole. This stage allows the team to see what worked and what needs to be improved in the future, it also provides and creates the end of the project.
4.3 Project Risks
During all four stages of the project life cycle there are many pitfalls a project manager and their team may have to deal with. In the initiation stage common pitfalls include;
• Poor quality and quantity of solutions for any pitfalls.
• Poor project managers to lead and direct the team on the tasks they need to complete and the aims and objectives they have to meet.
• Poor recruitment of motivated, qualified staff that lack the correct experience.
• Unrealistic estimations of cost and time schedules for the project to be completed.
• Failure to meet the client’s needs, and set out appropriate aims and objectives.
• Lack of understanding of the client’s wants and needs (common when there is more than one client or project manager)
• Failure to effectively evaluate and plan.
• Failure to effectively communicate plan, programme and desired outcome to all stakeholders
• Failure to include contingency proposals for both time & budget to allow for unforeseen project slip-page.
• Failure of key stakeholders to carry out key critical tasks to required time-scales.
When planning a project your project plan must identify and include all the necessary elements to ensure the achievement of the desired outcome. It is critical to evaluate all potential risks and formulate back up processes in the event of unforeseen changes/blockers. Allowing an agreed contingency factor for both time and budget will allow the project to bring back on to programme and achieve the required commercial outcome. Failure to take into account all the above factors could potentially result in a project which is delivered both late and over budget. This could mean that the company is unable to be operationally effective for a period of time which would damage both confidence and perception of clients, suppliers and lenders.
Stakeholders
Definition – a person or group which holds an interest in the business.
Stakeholder theory is about the management of interests and expectation of all the different stakeholder groups.
Primary stakeholders are the stakeholders of the business that are ultimately affected by the businesses actions; this may have a positive or negative effect.
Secondary stakeholders are the intermediates; these are indirectly affected by the actions of the business.
Key stakeholders (can belong to both primary and secondary group) have a significant influence or importance to the business.
Stakeholders at RES:
• Directors – ultimately want to generate as much profit as possible grow the business
• Employees – want to earn decent salaries, have job security, and promotion opportunities. Also receive relevant and regular training to increase their skills and qualifications.
• Customers – receive a quality product and service at reasonable price
• Lenders – are paid on time
• Suppliers – regular business, want to be primary supplier for business
• Local community – environmentally friendly practices
Primary stakeholders – Directors & employees
Secondary stakeholders – lenders, customers and suppliers
Key stakeholders – Directors, employees, lenders, customers and suppliers
5.1)
Diary Management
During the office relocation management and co-ordination of the key stakeholders’ diarys will be essential to ensure they are available to attend meetings and to carry out the actions allocated to them. To do this you will need full visibility to all individuals’ diaries. Two options of diary management would be manual and electronic.
Manual Diary Systems
Manual diaries are still used within businesses but are becoming less common as they are extremely time consuming to manage. Physically checking with each individual manager/employee on their movements and availability becomes more and more difficult as a company grows. It can be done by running a hard diary system for each employee and ringing each one to ask them to physically update daily as business requirements change. This can also be backed up by a whiteboard/wall chart system again this has to be physically updated each time something changes. It is very easy to loose track of exactly who is available at any one time and who is carrying out what actions/tasks. Although in a small business, managed well this can still be effective.
Electronic Diary Systems
There are many electronic diary systems some databased and some web based. There are many advantages to these types of systems due to there ability to allow multiple viewers and to allow multiple diary to be updated with changes simultaneously. By sending out a meeting request to all required attendees it allows electronic response on availability and highlights potential conflicts between appointments. It will also allow regular weekly/monthly meetings to be entered one time only and these will appear in the diary on the correct days. This reduces cost and wastage, telephone calls, paper, time. On screen reminders of all appointments accessible by computer, laptop, smart phone and tablet etc. Some systems such as Clik Database allows compatibility with Microsoft Outlook which is one of the most popular diary systems, this will update the Outlook diary as Clik appointments are managed/changed.
5.2) Similarities between Project Management & Diary Management
Project Management requires management of project programme to achieve a desired outcome. This will involve allocation of labour, materials and equipment to fit the programme. Key to this is the allocation of sufficient time for the labour to carry out the required task and is dependant on the required equipment and materials to be available at the time each task is programmed.
Diary management is very similar in that these systems can be used to closely manage time allocation of employees to ensure availability for pre arranged meetings appointments and tasks. Diary management can also be used to flag equipment and material requirements for each job/task.
Task 3:
1.1)
System Considerations Features
Manual Filing – a traditional filing system used by hand often using folders, files and plastic wallets in a cabinet. • Space
• Size
• Accessibility (not as easy to share docs)
• Safe keeping from damage/wear and tear
• Portable
Good for when it is essential to keep hard copies of documents (retention periods)
• Some documents need official signatures
• Large documents such as plans are easi-er to file in lateral filing cabinets
Electronic Filing – uses hard drive, network space, internet based or cloud based to save the information. • Memory space
• Efficiency (search facility)
• Backed up some-where in case system failure
• Security • Saves space
• Larger storage memory
• More efficient when people want to get information
• Saves time
• Saves resources (plastic wallets etc)
• Use ‘search’ if you can’t find something
• Keeps paper safe from damage (water, wear and tear, light exposure etc)
When setting up a filing system you need to consider the above points and decide which system is best fit for purpose. In my own experiences of creating filing system I prefer the electronic method in my work place as we are only a small office we don’t have much space for a lot of paper filing. We use a file on the server named \’projects\’ which contains all our customers’ documents, plans and drawings. This is organised by surname, name and address – e.g. Haville, Issie – Hillview. We also use a filing cabinet for hard copies of quotes and any other loose documents this is ordered by quote number.
1.2) 1.3) Stock Control
Stock – \’Goods in which the company are ordinary trading in\’
Stock control and management is important in any business as stock is always needed for sales and production without stock both of these will come to a standstill. Controlling stock involves planning to make sure all the sufficient stock is available when necessary. Stock can range from the item that the company sells (finished goods), raw components from suppliers, consumables and materials used by the engineers.
To meet orders a lot of companies would need the items to be in stock – although some firms like RES Devon where I work use the ‘Just in Time’ technique where we will order the items and arrange delivery for the day before install. We use this method as we buy kit to install specifically, although some pipe and plumbing fittings are kept in stock the main equipment is ordered to customer’s specification and delivered to the site on the day required usually just prior to planned installation date.
Good stock control systems allow the following:
• Reduction of storage space required
• Availability of parts and equipment at the time required by the programme
• Cost control management, only purchasing stock at the optimum time to minimise tied up capital
• Reduction in damage and deterioration of stock held for long periods of time
Computerized stock systems are the modern way to manage business stock. Using a computerized system makes inputting information and taking stock easier. Hand counting all the items in a warehouse could take days, but with a digital stock system could reduce the timescale to just hours. Documents can be produced directly from the system – purchase orders, credit notes, invoices and detailed reports. Reports can show instantly how much stock in the warehouse accurately whereas handcounting can be inaccurate and waste time. There are disadvantages of computerized systems which include: Powercuts, Loss of internet, Loss of network which could bring the systems to a hault. Risk of Fraud is also an issue.
In relation to a business move it would be essential to run down stock to minimum levels at the original location to reduce time and cost of transport. It would then be essential to place prior orders with suppliers to be delivered to the new location ready to hit the ground running as soon as the move is complete.
2.1) Office Layout
Designing the office layout is extremely important. It is important to have a professional and attractive reception to draw people in and make them feel welcome and comfortable. In the offices colleagues who work together need to be sat closely to encourage discussion on work and jobs. Office layout needs to be designed around efficiency – making sure objects and areas people use most are close to there desks. Filing areas are best kept out the way of the main working area hidden from public as they can tend to look untidy. The areas need to be designed in a professional way with departments working together seperately, tidy, modern and spacious are also important.
Events
Event management is the planning, development and organisation of all the aspects required to hold an event, festival, conference etc. Iit involves studying different areas of the event and the purpose of thee event including: learning the target audience, planning the logistics, co-ordinating technical details before the event goes ahead.
For the office relocation the best event for RES Devon would be an open day as it is a small business an Open day spread over 2 days would be enough for a mixture of suppliers & customers to come and see the new premises while also having a look out the products and services that we sell. It is important to hold events like this to get your organisation out into the public eye and draw people, as it is a new premises it will help refresh your image, get people talking, and hopefully draw people in.
To begin with I would discuss with the SMT the idea of an open day and give them a breif outline of ideas. If they are happy with the idea I would then come back with an event plan and explain in full details costs of the promotional event. To advertise the event I would use an ad in the local paper as its only a small business and then attractive informative flyers around the local area. To draw people and get their attention I would offer prizes to be won and offer refreshments.