How do I move staff out of a building during a refurbishment?

​

• Refurbishing a building?

• Renovating a floor?

• Need to move staff out, but not sure where they go or in what order?

 

Use this free Work Move – Decant Planning Tool to work out how to relocate your people out of impacted spaces during building works. It automatically generates a clear, phased move plan, showing swing (temporary) space, final destinations, sequencing and the number of moves involved.

​

Simply enter the spaces being impacted, the people in each, and where they can go. Work Move proposes the optimised route; you stay in full control to edit the solution.

​

What is office decant planning?

​

In the workplace industry, a decant is the temporary relocation of people out of a building, or part of one, so it can be refurbished. The intention is always to move them back afterwards, or on to a final home. The word comes from wine. Decanting means pouring it off slowly into another vessel so the good stuff transfers and the sediment stays behind. Most people just call it moving staff out during the refurbishment.

​

Office decant planning is the work of sequencing those moves. Which space closes first. Where its people go. When the next space can take them. How many times any one person ends up moving. Do it well and the moves barely register. Do it badly and you disrupt the same people again and again.

​

What is swing space?

​

Swing space is temporary space people occupy while their permanent space is unavailable. It is a staging post, not a destination. The same swing space is often reused across several phases of the same refurbishment, so it is worth setting up as a proper workplace rather than a stop gap, even though that is what it is.

​

Knowing how much swing space you need, and when, is one of the hardest parts of a decant. Too little and a group has nowhere to go. Too much and you are paying for space you barely use.

​

Why office move phasing goes wrong

​

Phasing is a puzzle of moving, co-dependent parts. The same things trip people up again and again:

​​

• The sequence is wrong. A space can only receive people once it is genuinely available. Plan to move a team into a refurbished floor before it reopens and the whole plan stalls. The closure and reopening order is the backbone everything else hangs off.

• People move too many times. The number of moves per person is the single biggest driver of how disruptive a decant feels. Lose track of the chain and you move the same team out, across, and back, three times over.

• Capacity does not add up. A destination looks fine until you check the desks and the desk sharing ratio. Then it turns out it cannot hold everyone you pointed at it.

• The plan leans too hard on working from home. Sometimes working from home can absorb a phase. Leaning on it heavily is a risk, especially if your culture is not already used to it.

• No one can see the whole thing at once. Trace one group and it works. Trace all of them, overlapping and feeding into each other, and the gaps appear. That end to end view is half the battle.

 

The fix for all of it is the same. Judge every move from the point of view of the person being moved, then sequence the closures so the fewest people move the fewest times.

 

Example: a three-phase refurbishment

 

Take a 312-person site refurbished in three phases.

• Phase 1: 78 people, in a wing that reopens later as a brand new space with 119 desks.

• Phase 2: 153 people.

• Phase 3: 81 people.

 

Feed that in and Work Move produces the least disruptive route it can find. In it, Phase 2’s people swing into the new space and settle there. Phase 1’s people move once into swing space, then into the refurbished Phase 2 building. Phase 3’s people move once, into that same building. Nobody moves more than twice, and only the 78 Phase 1 people move more than once.

​

That is the plan the tool recommends, because it triggers the fewest moves for staff. If the business has a reason to do it differently, say it wants a particular team to end up in the new space, you edit the plan by hand and the tool shows you the cost: more people moving more than once. The disruption becomes a visible, deliberate choice instead of an accident.

​

For the full walkthrough, including a side by side comparison of two routes, see the guide on phasing staff moves during an office refurbishment.

​

How Work Move builds your plan

​

Tell the tool three things: what is moving, what space is available, and what order things happen in.

1. Enter the spaces being affected. The buildings, floors or areas that have to close. Each one becomes a move group.

2. Enter the destination and swing space. Everywhere people could go, with the desks, the desk sharing ratio, when it becomes available, and whether it is swing space, a final home, or both.

3. Set the closure sequence. The order spaces close and reopen. This is the constraint that keeps the plan honest.

 

From that, Work Move automatically generates one optimised plan, the least disruptive route it can find for your staff. You can then edit it by hand to test alternatives. Every plan comes back as Workable, Workable With Actions, or Not Workable Yet, so you know exactly what still needs confirming before you rely on it.

​

It is a planning aid, not a move-day logistics tool. It will not book lifts or print crate labels. It gets you from “a building has to close and these people have to move” to a sequenced, sense-checked phasing plan, fast enough to test a few options in a single sitting and rigorous enough to take to a steering group.

​

Work Move sits alongside two other free tools. The Work Space Calculator works out how much space you need. Work Move works out how to get everyone out and back. Work Stack works out who sits where once the building reopens. Size it, move out and back, stack the teams in.

​

Frequently asked questions

 

What is an office decant?

A decant is the temporary relocation of people out of a building, or part of one, so it can be refurbished, with the intention of moving them back afterwards or on to a final home. Most people just call it moving staff out during the refurbishment.

 

What is swing space?

Swing space is temporary space staff use while their permanent space is unavailable. It is a staging post, not a final home, and it is often reused across several phases of the same refurbishment.

 

How many times should someone move during a refurbishment?

As few as possible, ideally no more than twice. The number of moves per person is the biggest driver of how disruptive a decant feels. Aim to move people straight into the new space. If you cannot, move them out and back, and stop there.

 

What is the difference between a decant and a restack?

A decant is about getting people out of a space, and back, while it is being worked on. A restack, or block and stack, is about who sits where in the finished space. A refurbishment often needs both: the decant during the works, the restack at the end.

 

Can we just use working from home instead of swing space?

Sometimes working from home can absorb a phase. Leaning on it heavily is a risk, especially if your culture is not already used to it. A plan that depends on heavy working from home is the plan most likely to come unstuck when reality hits.

 

Is Work Move free?

Yes. Work Move is a free, browser-based decant planning tool. Enter your spaces and it generates a proposed phasing plan you can review on screen or email to yourself.

 

When you need a person on it, not just a tool

 

Work Move gets you a sequenced phasing plan you can take to a steering group. When the decision is bigger than the tool, a refurbishment with real stakes, competing stakeholders, or a programme that has to be right first time, the Decant Sprint puts the Work Future team on it with you.

​

One workplace problem. One focused week. We frame the decant, test the phasing options, compare the move counts, and hand you a least disruption route with the swing space logic, risks and next steps set out. A clear decision pack, not a generic report.