Office life includes its own set of benefits and disadvantages. The benefits include:

• Visiting your favourite employees.
• Socialising with team members and learning from each other.
• Simply having a spot to focus on your professional duties.

The difficulties are dealing with oversharing coworkers, crusty coffee mugs in the sink that no one wants to clean, and that individual who insists on microwaving salmon every other day. That’s just how things continue at the office.

A few people adjusted well to the transformation when it was taken away last year, while others struggled. However, as the pandemic progressed, one thing became clear: our houses were the only location where we felt safe despite the chaos that surrounded us.

If you have a return to work date approaching, you may be feeling anxious about having to leave the comfort of your home to work in an environment where there are so many unknowns.

1. Make the most of your home office space by repurposing it.

Reclaim the space you’ve been using for work if you’re completely back in the office and don’t require a desk or specific area to work from home. Create a workstation for a new pastime or add photographs, flowers, and decorations. Create a setting that provides you joy and allows you to unwind after a long day at work.

2.Consider getting up earlier in the mornings.

Working from home allows you to sleep in a bit longer in the morning because you are not commuting. Once you’re back in the workplace, you’ll need to schedule time for your commute into your morning routine, which means getting up earlier. You can gradually compensate for this by waking up 15 minutes earlier every day for a week so that it has less of an impact on your sleep routine when you return to work.

3. Become reacquainted with your surroundings.

If you have favourite spots to eat or drink while at work and feel comfortable doing so, go back to them. Going to restaurants or places where you have fond (pre-pandemic) experiences will help you feel more enthusiastic about returning to work. You will also be supporting local businesses, which is a bonus.

4. Take pleasure in your journey.

Even though your morning travel will be lengthier than the one from your bed to your kitchen or home office, it can still be pleasurable! If you’re driving, make a playlist or download podcasts; if you’re on public transportation, use that time to relax and recharge.

5. Put your best foot forward.

Try on your work clothing before returning to the workplace. If you’ve been working from home in sweatpants and a t-shirt, plan out matching ensembles in your closet to make getting dressed easier and faster. It will make you feel good to return to work appearing professional.

6. Talk to a few trusted co workers ahead of time.

Some of your coworkers and friends may have the same reservations and anxieties as you. They may also have suggestions that could benefit you, such as how they’ll get to work and keep themselves healthy and happy while they’re there.

Speaking openly with individuals who understand your situation will also make you feel less alone. When you come back to work, make plans to meet for coffee, sit at each other’s desks, or otherwise catch up so you may engage in “soft” social interaction like a small conversation, which is uplifting, generates happy emotions, and reduces feelings of burnout by researchers. Spending your first days back at work with someone you know will be less stressful than conversing with a stranger or a coworker you don’t know well. You might even plan your schedules so that you’re both at the office simultaneously if it makes sense.

Conclusion

Maybe you’ve developed a strategy to take on the office, but you’re still worried about how you’ll react when the time comes. If an in-person meeting doesn’t go well, or you feel like you didn’t advocate for yourself as effectively as you could have, or you “messed up” a talk with a coworker, understand that mistakes and failures are inevitable.

After all, you’re just human, and this has been a trying period for you. The folks around you are very likely to share your feelings. When you’re ready, talk openly with individuals you trust about your stress. Recognize that you’re doing your best and that what you’re doing is sufficient.

When a new employee joins, they must be appropriately welcomed. Because they are unfamiliar with the environment, this is a necessary step. On their first day at work, new workers find it daunting.

They may be perplexed because they are unfamiliar with their new working environment. The new hires have no idea where to begin or who to approach. To avoid a situation like this, an HR manager must make people feel at ease in the workplace.

But how do you put such a system in place at a company? This is when the onboarding and orientation processes kick in. These two are crucial components of the talent management process.

What is the definition of orientation?

During orientation, recruits are presented to their jobs, workplace, coworkers, and responsibilities. Effective employee orientation: 

• Addresses any worries or queries that a new colleague may have.
• Informs them about the company’s policies and expectations.
• Introduces them to their new tasks and places.

Orientation’s goals:

An orientation program is a one-time event that can span anywhere from one to seven days. It concentrates on the new employee’s role in the organization.

It’s a conference-style gathering that brings together new hires and explains the company’s primary goals. Presentations and Q&A sessions are used to provide information.

Orientation’s Benefits:

• Giving new employees a physical tour and assisting them in acclimating to their new job. It aids students in having a basic understanding of where the relevant instruments are located.
• Introduce business policies and procedures to ensure that new employees follow the rules and preserve the organization’s decorum.
• Orientation assists a business in determining what a new employee requires. When an HR professional is aware of a recruit’s issues, they may swiftly address and resolve them.
• When you concentrate on assisting new employees in settling into their new workplace, they will feel more valued and have greater faith in the corporate culture.

What is the definition of onboarding?

Onboarding is a comprehensive process that introduces new employees to their departments. They gain knowledge of their jobs by attending meetings and working on little projects with coworkers.

Managers might meet with their new staff on a regular or offsite basis to check upon them. It enables you to assure their work-related comfortability within the firm.

Onboarding’s goals:

Onboarding is a long-term process that involves a sequence of actions that can continue for up to three months or more. Individuals are assigned to their departments throughout the onboarding process.

One thing to remember is that orientation is part of the onboarding process.

Onboarding’s Benefits:

• It’s usually a good idea to assist new hires with their assignments and inform them of their career options. You can also demonstrate how they can accomplish it. It encourages new employees to get involved.
• It aids in the retention of employees. Miscommunications and misunderstandings are less likely with good onboarding processes. It also aids them in swiftly acclimating to their new surroundings.
• Thanks to a good onboarding program, new workers understand their responsibilities and tasks at work. It provides them with a clear image of what they must do. It eventually contributes to the company’s profitability.
• Onboarding initiatives assist recruits in reducing workplace stress. This is accomplished by outlining daily duties and providing them with tools to help them enhance their abilities. As a result, things become more apparent for them, allowing them to reach their goals.

What is the distinction?

There is no substantial difference between these when defining and evaluating the essential elements.

Both are nearly identical and critical for a company’s recruitment of new personnel.

Orientation is one of the stages of onboarding, and it is when new employees learn about the organization and their job responsibilities.

Both share the same goal, but the only difference is in the timing and method of implementation. Orientation is a process that occurs shortly after a new employee enters the organization to familiarise them with the company culture and the tasks they will be assigned. It can linger for a week or perhaps a month.

On the other hand, onboarding is a lengthy procedure that can span anywhere from three months to a year.

Conclusion

We can see that onboarding and orientation complement one other and help a recruit settle in smoothly, based on the abovementioned points. They both assist new employees in understanding their jobs and the culture they will operate.

When used simultaneously, orientation and onboarding can assist set more defined goals and role objectives, as well as job satisfaction and organizational commitment, reducing employee stress and turnover.

A well-organized onboarding and orientation process can help you boost employee engagement and get the most out of your new hires.

We’ve all met those people who can juggle six different jobs at once and accomplish them beautifully. Multitaskers are those who can do multiple things at once. And it’s been assumed for a long time that they’re doing something right. That they’ve figured it out. But what if we told you that the single-taskers were ahead of the metaphorical pack?

Working on one, and only one, a task at a time, giving 100 percent of your focus to that activity, is what single-tasking entails. Single-tasking may be applied to jobs both inside and outside the workplace, and it boils down to a straightforward premise: completing one item at a time increases productivity. This may sound contradictory, given that we’ve long been told that multitaskers are more mature, intelligent, and effective.

How does that function in practice? Let’s look at some of the many advantages of single-tasking.

Single-tasking boosts productivity.

Concentrating on a single activity reduces context switching and time spent switching from one task to the next. Multitasking has been found to make things take longer to finish — focusing on one action at a time will enhance overall efficiency because you’ll be able to get more done in a shorter amount of time.

Single-tasking can also help you avoid stress and exhaustion caused by squeezing a lot of minor activities into one sitting. Technological burnout has been increasingly challenging to manage, as we’ve been expected to monitor several gadgets, applications, and email accounts 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Single-tasking is an excellent strategy to avoid getting into the anxious always-on trap. One email at a time should be checked. Without responding to an SMS in the middle of your message, respond to one Slack at a time.

This frees up crucial mental space.

Did you know that our brain tries to handle 11 million pieces of information every second but can only do so with 40? That means that most of what you see isn’t processed at all. This suggests that multitaskers aren’t multitasking but are attempting to do so.

People who claim to be multitasking are going back and forth between tasks at a rate that reduces overall efficiency and production. By single-tasking, you reduce the number of stimuli your brain has to process and concentrate all of your attention on one item. This improves your chances of comprehending or completing that one assignment.

It’s easy to keep track of single chores.

How often have you attempted to multitask to forget about one of the tasks completely? When we’re multitasking, it’s considerably more challenging to keep track of our progress on each task since our brain has to constantly switch and reconcile progress on task A with progress on job B.

When you single-task, your brain has only one task to track and respond to, which improves your capacity to see a job through to completion. That’s not to say you can’t split down a task into sub-tasks; in fact, it’s something we advocate. Hive can help you stay organised by breaking down chores into smaller, bite-sized pieces.

Multitasking has been shown to have long-term harmful effects on the brain.

Consider your brain to be a supercomputer. You’ll notice that your computer is slow when you have 123 tabs open, three Adobe programmes active, and you’re trying to stream a Netflix show.

MRI scans of multitaskers’ brains have shown that completing more than one task at a time reduces brain density in the anterior cingulate cortex. This isn’t ideal because this brain area is responsible for impulse control and empathy. Try concentrating on one tab at a time to slow down the process. In the long run, your brain will reward you.

Conclusion

Overall, it’s evident that single-tasking has significant advantages that are difficult to dismiss, and it may be the way of the future. However, during the COVID-19 crisis, some of us may not be able to focus on just one duty at a time — perhaps we’re watching our children, assisting them with schoolwork, or simply handling a slew of other uncontrollable factors. But don’t worry: even limiting your multitasking to 2-3 projects at a time can boost productivity.