Glossary · Moves & change

What are moves in workplace management?

Short answer

In workplace management, moves are planned relocations of an employee, team or department from one seat, neighborhood, floor or building to another. They are the first part of moves, adds and changes, and each one needs matching updates to seat assignments, floor plans, equipment, access and booking systems, coordinated by workplace, facilities and IT teams.

Also called employee moves, team relocation.

How it works

A move starts with a trigger: a reorganization, a restack, a consolidation, team growth or a person changing roles. The move team checks where the person or team sits today, finds space that fits, and agrees the date with the people involved.

Most moves have a physical part and a data part. The physical part is furniture, belongings, IT equipment, lockers and access badges. The data part is seat assignments, neighborhoods, floor plans, directory location and any booking rules tied to the old space.

Moves are usually grouped and sequenced. When one team must vacate a zone before another can arrive, the order matters, and some moves need temporary swing space. A move is finished only when the records match where people now sit.

Moves are one of the three kinds of MAC (moves, adds and changes) work. An add seats someone new and a change alters a space while its people stay put; a move takes people who already have a place and gives them a different one, so the old seat must be released as well as the new one assigned. Larger programs, such as a restack or an office relocation, are planned as projects, but they still break down into individual moves.

How to measure it

  1. Count people moved per period and divide by population to get churn rate.
  2. Track cost per move by type: box move, furniture move or construction move.
  3. Measure how long records take to catch up after a move.
  4. Track the share of moves completed on the planned date, and how many are reversed or redone within a few weeks.

Examples

  • One person changes teams and moves from the finance neighborhood to the product neighborhood on another floor.
  • A department moves from the third floor to the fifth as part of a restack, in one weekend.
  • A restack moves three teams in sequence over two weekends: legal moves into swing space so sales can take its floor, then legal moves into its final area.

Common mistakes

  • Moving people without updating their assigned seat, so colleagues cannot find them and reports are wrong.
  • Moving a team before the receiving area is cleared.
  • Telling people where they are going the day before.
  • Assigning the new seat but leaving the old one marked as taken, so the space looks full when it is not.

How Kadence helps

Kadence Move Manager (WorkOps Pro) plans individual and team relocations, recommends seats, and can auto-assign in bulk or take a move list from a spreadsheet. Employees get a move email and a personal move sheet with their new location, and wayfinding on the floor plan helps colleagues find where people now sit. For a restack planned in SpaceOps, the approved plan can be published into live neighborhoods and assignments.

WorkOps · SpaceOps · Space management

Frequently asked questions

What is an employee move in facilities management?

It is the planned relocation of an employee from one workspace to another, with everything that goes with them: belongings, equipment, access and records. Facilities or workplace teams schedule it, coordinate IT and security, and update the seat assignment and floor plan.

What is the difference between a move and a relocation?

In workplace management, a move usually means relocating people within the existing portfolio, such as a new desk, floor or building the organization already occupies. A relocation more often means moving an office or organization to new premises, which adds leasing, fit-out and larger IT work.

What is a box move?

A box move relocates only a person's belongings and equipment to an existing workstation, with no change to furniture or walls. It is the simplest and cheapest type of move. Furniture moves reconfigure workstations, and construction moves need building work.

Who is responsible for employee moves?

Workplace operations or facilities usually owns the move, working with IT for devices and network, security for badge access, HR for team changes, and managers who agree the date with their people.

How do moves fit into MAC (moves, adds and changes)?

Moves are one of the three types of MAC work. A move relocates someone who already has a place; an add prepares space for someone new; a change updates a space or its rules while people stay where they are. Many requests mix them, so teams log each part by type to see where the effort goes.

  • MAC (moves, adds and changes) The routine work of relocating people, seating new occupants and updating workspaces as an organization changes.
  • Move management Planning, sequencing and carrying out workplace moves, from one desk change to a whole-team relocation.
  • Churn rate (move churn) The number of people moved in a year as a percentage of the population, a measure of how much physical change a workplace absorbs.
  • Cost per move The average cost of relocating one person inside the workplace: total move costs divided by people moved.
  • Swing space Temporary workspace people use while their permanent space is refurbished, reconfigured or not yet ready.
  • Restack Reassigning teams across the floors of a building to free space, absorb growth or improve adjacency, done as a sequence of moves.

Kadence editorial team · Last reviewed

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