Remote working is the norm in 2022. We're witnessing a significant change in our workplaces and working environments. A hybrid home-office combination is likely to continue well into the next year—and maybe even further.

The vast majority of organizations that forcibly adopted work-from-home policies are now rethinking their office space requirements for the immediate future. While larger organizations wait it out, SMEs, especially those facing acute revenue pressures, question the rationale of paying high rents in pricey business districts for under-used office spaces. Office rent is one of the main cost centers for most companies. It's hardly a surprise then that many businesses are using staff reductions and office downsizing to deal with these changing business scenarios. 

According to a survey by Dimensional Research, the hybrid workplace model is here to stay for a large number of organizations. The survey revealed that 99% of companies surveyed were planning sweeping changes to the workplace due to COVID-19, and about 53% of them said they would shrink their office sizes.

Even after the pandemic, a large percentage of employees from all levels of seniority will continue to work from home. 

Questions to ask if your organization adopts a hybrid work model

A Gartner survey found that employers planned to cut costs while minimizing the impact of paying for existing employees when possible. 70% of the organizations in the survey reported that they planned to do this with effective use of technology. 

Do employees in your organization have access to tools and software that enable seamless and stress-free interaction between office-based and home workers? Insufficient or inefficient technology results in a loss of productivity and a negative effect on the spirit and morale of the team.

Does your organization provide employees with technology for an improved collaborative experience so they can work together on projects and tasks remotely? The shift to digital workplaces requires organizations to engage high-quality collaboration technology and provide the right work experience to remote employees.

As Matt Cain, V.P. Analyst, Gartner commented: "The pandemic rapidly elevated many digital workplace technologies from nice-to-have to must-have status." 

If you use collaborative technology in place and a sizable percentage of employees working remotely, downsizing your office space may be the right option for you. For some businesses, merely moving to a less expensive location may suffice. The changing dynamics of the workplace triggered a debate about whether offices need to be in the central business districts at all—or if it makes more sense for offices to move closer to where their employees are!

Downsizing or relocating successfully without business disruption requires effective planning long before, during, and after the move. A downsizing plan and an office move checklist helps organizations better prepare to begin and structure their staff-reduction or relocation process.

Downsizing or moving office in 2022? Here's a high-level office move checklist:

How hybrid is your workplace? 

Decide the percentages of employees you will call back to the workplace and those who will continue to work from home. Have the numbers clear so you can plan the exact size of your new office space, the desk space you need. Think about whether you will need private cubicles for video calls. Consider if you will freeze new hiring or not—this will help you decide if you want to allocate desk space for new hires.

Technology for teams

Use technology to help remote teams in your organization collaborate digitally. Consider which technologies you may need, such as online conferencing, instant messaging platforms, file sharing tools, and cloud data storage. Allocate space and resources to enable these collaborative technologies.

Go paperless! 

Save on expensive office real estate by cutting down your document storage costs. Re-evaluate your records retention policies, plan out which documents you need to retain in paper format, digitize the remaining records, and decide which documents to discard entirely. Work with an experienced document scanning company for efficient and affordable document digitization. Next, deploy a robust document management system to centralize access to digital documents and maintain data security.

Ready for the move?  

Make a list of critical tasks and operational sequences that your staff must not miss during or just after the relocation. It is crucial to maintain business continuity and high service standards even in the middle of the office move! Your checklist can even specify who will take care of these essential tasks and how they will complete them even during a relocation. Remember, it's all about the details!

Communication is the key

Talk to your team and explain the strategic reasons for downsizing and how it will help the company. Help them accept and manage the change. Keep communication channels open at all times. It is essential to win the team over to your side! If you have several hierarchy levels, brief the managers to get this across to the rest of the employees. 

Scanning and document management software to eliminate paper and support a remote workforce

Once your office move checklist is ready, get to work immediately! Digitization is the way forward, and COVID-19 is acting as the accelerant for digital transformation. 

Revolution Data Systems has unrivaled experience in digitizing paper files and automating business processes. We scan millions of documents a month for clients in a multitude of industries and use cases. We provide technology that eliminates redundant tasks in high-touch processes like AP, HR, and mailrooms. 

Outsourcing the mailroom is low-hanging fruit for many organizations. Digital mailrooms are essential for hybrid workplaces to function seamlessly. Our digital mailroom service automates the capture of your incoming mail and delivers it electronically to your digital workplace. And less human interaction in the mailroom means higher efficiency and lower costs.

We arm you with business process automation (BPA) tools, artificial intelligence, and robotic process automation (RPA) to digitize your workflows and streamline your processes. Eliminating manual processes leaves less room for errors and helps hybrid teams work seamlessly.

Got any questions for us? We're here to answer your queries you may have:

Is a paperless office possible for my business? What exactly is document management software?  What is the average price for scanning documents? 

Find all the answers to these and many more questions about RDS in our FAQs section. Talk to us for a free document scanning services quote once you have your office move checklist in place!