Business Trip And Home Tips

Work-life balance in the home office

The advantages are obvious: You save a lot of time because there are no longer any commutes. You also spend less money on fuel costs, which is better for the environment at the same time. One problem, however, is switching off after work. A healthy work-life balance is often difficult to achieve when the workplace is omnipresent.

The problem with the home office

In addition to all the advantages, switching off after work in the home office is a real problem. Most of the time, people who work from home work longer hours and accumulate overtime. The working day lasts on average 48.5 minutes longer than in the office. But even after the work is done, telecommuting can still have negative effects. It’s harder to separate private life and work. The result can be stress, which usually affects health.

This can often lead to burnout, one of the most common reasons for disability. It is therefore better to take precautions and to keep a clear separation between work and private life after work. In addition, short breaks should be taken from time to time to clear your head and at the same time become even more productive and concentrated.

Separate the end of the day from the working day

It is often difficult to separate work from private life. Especially if the office is a niche in the living room or bedroom and not a separate room. So you are still confronted with it after work. However, you can do something about it. On the one hand, the workplace should under no circumstances be set up in the bedroom. Sleep disorders are otherwise inevitable. If you work in the living room, you should provide privacy after work, for example in the form of a screen or another room divider.

A clear cut through housework

In this case, work is not just work. Whether it’s during the lunch break or after work, you can distract yourself from the job perfectly if you devote yourself to household chores. When cleaning the apartment, you can switch off your head in peace and in this way create a transition to office work. At the same time, a tidy and well-organized workplace also creates a better atmosphere and can promote productivity.

So what’s the best way to start? Clearing out old, unused things is particularly helpful. Whether on the bookshelf, in the wardrobe or in the storage room – there are things hidden all over the apartment that have not been used for a long time. It is best to sort these things out straight away and separate them into two piles: in good condition and broken. If the used books, films or CDs are still usable, they can quickly be sold online at a fixed price. The broken things, on the other hand, should be properly sorted out and recycled.

Schedule active breaks

When working from home, you can usually organize your working hours more freely than in the office. This can often become a problem if you don’t plan to take a break every now and then. Because if you don’t take a break from time to time, sooner or later you will make mistakes, work more slowly and suffer from a higher stress level. Small, intensive breaks throughout the working day can help. After 60 to 90 minutes you should rest for five minutes in order to be able to continue with concentration.

After 6 hours you should take a longer break of at least 30 minutes. Those who find it difficult to observe rest periods can plan them directly into their daily calendar or into their smartphone as a reminder. That’s how you think about it for sure. Basically, you should pay attention to the warning signals that your body gives you when it calls for a break. This can be tiredness, irritability or lack of concentration.

exercise and stretching

The time-out shouldn’t just consist of staying seated. Ideally, you walk a few steps, maybe even in the fresh air. It ensures that the brain is properly supplied with oxygen again. At the same time, the sun’s rays stimulate the production of vitamin D in the body, which strengthens our immune system and makes us less susceptible to diseases. You listen to a little music and you get completely different thoughts. If you don’t feel like going out, you can simply open the window for 5 minutes and stretch at the table or sofa instead. The neck and shoulders in particular are strongly influenced by working on the PC. For this reason, a few light exercises should be done at least every two hours to relax the muscles and increase blood flow.

Sport as a balance to work

If you want to relax even more during the lunch break or after work and at the same time reduce stress, you should do sports. It doesn’t matter what sport you do. Nevertheless, endurance sports are probably best suited. The stress is converted into kinetic energy and reduced. At the same time, the body releases happiness hormones that make you forget the stress of the working day. Sport also offers a whole range of health benefits.

Healthy snacks for more concentration

The break can be used for a small snack. It can replenish the energy reserves and bring new strength. However, it is important that this snack is not too unhealthy. Nuts, avocados, vegetable sticks, yoghurt with fruit or whole grain products are particularly popular. You should avoid too much sugar and saturated fats. They are heavy on the stomach and provide a short energy boost. Light fare is also recommended for lunch. A salad with strips of turkey breast or a baked potato with low-fat quark is particularly digestible and has lots of vitamins.

The digital change in the company – stay on the ball through further training

Experts now assume that the acceleration of digital change due to the corona pandemic has been shortened by a good five years. Surprisingly, however, many companies coped with the inevitable process better than one would expect. However, it turns out that not every employee can handle this pace.

However, those who are well trained and prepared for digital change now have the better cards in their hands. With targeted further training support for employees, many possible sources of error could be cushioned in advance. Even during the lockdown, those employees who were better able to cope with the relatively short-term switch to working from home gained self-confidence and competence. Due to the decentralized cooperation, many were forced to make decisions more independently and thus gained valuable insights into their individual worth as employees.

Further training: The key to success in Corona times

How important it is to be well positioned digitally was also shown on the other side of the entrepreneurs, that broad front of services that were suddenly offered and requested via the Internet. Those who could, made an online shop available within a very short time. Months beforehand, many companies considered whether such a shop would even be worthwhile for their target group.

As a result of Corona, there was suddenly a need that well-trained employees can optimally cover. In addition, regular training courses, whether online seminars or face-to-face events, also give employees more security. Flexible action and good communication with already overwhelmed customers, who in turn had less to do with online purchases, were in demand like never before.

Sector weighting shifted

The lockdown has shown something else. Sectors that previously seemed unassailable, such as aviation or gastronomy, experienced turbulence. Global trade has come to a standstill due to the supply chains being overwhelmed and air traffic being restricted. Regional entrepreneurs find opportunities here to train their employees accordingly in order to be better prepared for crises like this one and to really be of support to their customers. Instead of shopping online, personal contact – with a mask and distance – had now become more important.

Buying regional products instead of ordering elsewhere, factoring in longer waiting times, supporting the bookstore on the corner with an extensive book order – all of these are also positive aspects of the corona crisis. And again it shows that those who have employees who understand their job and who have optimal customer service in their blood draw their trumps here.

Rediscovered channels and new platforms

How can customers make contact, how are they best advised? These core questions were and are indispensable for entrepreneurs. If you are tech-savvy and know what the actual requirements are behind the term SEO, search engine optimization, you will win new customers. However, the company must also be easy to find on social media and online in general. Digital jobs are currently gaining attention, as are employees who can work well from home.

Online shops that are installed too quickly could lead to legal problems, because here, too, data protection and compliance have priority. The customer needs to know how their data is being used and protected. Everything is also aimed at ensuring that online customers have a positive experience when shopping. However, this also requires the right know-how in order to optimize decentralized data storage and enable transparent communication.

Optimal preparation for the employees

Digitization was a nightmare for many employees, because not everyone can handle the speed. However, working at a distance and a certain flexibility in where you can work offers many advantages, as has just been shown in the corona crisis. However, some employees may experience some form of stress. The so-called technostress has long been an issue, because many feel the constant accessibility via smartphone as a curse.

However, those who can tame the flood of these influences and know which tools they can use to create a relaxed working atmosphere score points here. A good balance between workflow and processing e-mails or appointments creates time windows in which concentrated work is possible. However, the prerequisite is that as an employee you know how best to work as a digital nomad.

Digital change in times of further education

Of course, digital change also shapes the corporate culture. Many companies are noticing that there is a need to catch up. The competition never sleeps and those who are fit in this topic related to digitization also have good job opportunities. Appropriate further training for digitization is therefore a sensible, good investment in your own career, even in the long term.

However, problems related to digital change must also be overcome. Big data and broadband are considered to be the challenges for companies. The organizational structure must also become flatter in order to be able to make faster decisions and enable agile working. Managers are important role models here. They increasingly use further training for themselves, but also for their employees.

There is a particular demand for further training in online marketing, technical know-how and project management. Whoever leads wins. However, you do not necessarily have to hold a job as a manager yourself, but rather distinguish yourself through soft skills and individual competencies.

Smart, smarter, digitization

The digital change also aims at the efficiency of work. The smarter you use the new tools and offers, the more purposefully you can work. Even if the machine is still faster, one should bear in mind that, despite advancing technology and digitization, not everything can be done by machine. Control by the person at the desk, but also communication between customers and employees is a broad area in which real-time contact will continue to be of the utmost importance.

Where the monologue used to be in the foreground, and employees demanded a feeling of security and order, today the focus is on dialogue. Therefore, it is now much more important for an employee to find out which values ​​the future employee considers important. The meaning of one’s own work also needs to be clearly understood, why and wherefore has become more important in times like these, when further training is becoming an indispensable stepping stone to a career.

Further training in the home office: what advantages and opportunities it offers companies and employees

Why further training in the home office is so important

Employees appreciate the flexible working hours and the newly gained freedom in the home office. Many of them – representative studies assume around 10 million employees – even work exclusively within their own four walls. Nevertheless, a number of employees complain that they are working from home receiving no or insufficient support from the supervisor.

This includes in-house training courses for which there is often either no financial means or the technical know-how. But especially in times of digital change, industry-specific training is the key to success. Digital knowledge and foreign language skills are becoming increasingly important, which is why employers are already using relevant training opportunities counteract the internal shortage of skilled workers. For companies, this means actively supporting their employees so that they learn independently and effectively in the home office. Even small changes such as learning tandems are a first step in motivating employees who work from home to undertake further training.

Diverse offers for home office training

Generally it is Wide range of digital training opportunities. For example, the database of the central office for distance learning (ZFU) lists more than 3,700 study and training courses. Inexpensive digital courses that employees can access without much effort are of particular interest to employers. In this regard, they stand the test location- and time-independent online courses as well as video-based online seminarsthat take place at fixed times. E-books, learning videos, podcasts and expert talks on innovative topics are increasingly establishing themselves as supporting options. Furthermore, free e-learning courses for employees and applicants are becoming increasingly important. In addition to industry-specific knowledge, these also impart relevant soft skills. Topics that are in high demand are, for example, stress management or the correct use of digital online tools.

Benefits for employers and employees

Regardless of the industry, companies benefit when they invest in further training for their employees. The educational offers, which impart new knowledge independently, bring the following advantages:

• Despite the physical distance, further training is offered in the home office the opportunity for social exchange. During the courses, employees are in contact with colleagues, trainers and supervisors. On the one hand, this increases the learning effect, on the other hand, the social contacts increase the motivation of the individual.
• A major advantage of the online courses in the home office is the flexibility in terms of time and location. In principle, employees can learn anywhere to acquire new skills.
• Webinars enable sustainable learning in which a lot of content can be conveyed within a very short time. There are also recordings of many courses that can be viewed again in the company if required.
• Uniform training opportunities ensure that all employees are on the same level despite physical separation. If the team learns in a motivated and disciplined manner, success measurements are comprehensible.
• Another important benefit is reduced cost. While the classic frontal teaching requires organizational effort, are Further training in the home office can be planned and carried out decentrally. This reduces the planning time for companies.

In order for further training to be successful, companies should also take the wishes of their employees into account. For example, surveys help to find out in which areas the individual specialists need or want to expand their skills.

Find suitable offers for further training in the home office

Companies should be on the lookout for serious offers in order to enable their own employees to undertake lifelong learning on the job. Consequently, employers should carefully review offers from external providers. If the information about the course schedule is not sufficient, supervisors should actively ask about their structure beforehand. Of course, it is also important not to ignore the teachers. In order to guarantee operational success, external teachers should be appropriately qualified. Further training with verifiable learning success and certificates of completion are often the most promising option for companies.

However, before employers accept a training offer, they should read the fine print. Because every contract contains different conditions relevant to companies and their employees are. An important point here are the cancellation and withdrawal conditions as well as the payment modalities. For supervisors, in addition to the usual course costs, other ancillary costs such as registration or examination fees must be taken into account.

How employees achieve their personal learning goals in the home office

For employees, too, further training in the home office is anything but a sure-fire success. With a lot of distractions waiting between the workplace and the couch, it’s important not to lose your focus. In order to achieve personal learning goals within your own four walls, it is important to keep your own goals in mind:

• Professional training in the home office only progresses with appropriate learning goals. To that end, it is important that to record the resolutions that you have set yourself in writing and in a clearly visible manner.
• “Established routines” from the office should definitely be maintained at home. If employees use a time slot for further training before the lunch break or before the end of the day, for example, they should continue to plan for this.
• In the case of further training in the home office, short-term agreements, changes or updates are inevitable. Nevertheless, employees should, especially with flexible online courses enough time to study undisturbed. It is advisable to set fixed times within the team when everyone can be easily reached. Outside of these time windows, it should be allowed to complete the training in a calm and concentrated manner without distraction.
• A nice working environment with a “feel good factor” contributes significantly to learning success. It also makes sense to spatially separate the workplace for learning from the “leisure area”.
• Learning together with teammates motivates and helps to stay on the ball. Common learning goals are an enormous incentive, as is the shared joy about the successes that have already been achieved.
• In order to stay up to date, employees should also use mobile courses. As far as possible, online communities or short videos help with interactive training.

Companies should document how successful the training in the home office is. In this way, the workflow can be improved. As soon as it is clear which content the employees can put into practice in a meaningful way, it can be assessed whether the qualification measure was effective.

Career aspiration detective: What distinguishes a good detective?

This is what a budding detective needs as a tool

Every job profile requires its very special aptitude. Manual dexterity, creativity and the ability to deal with people characterize a hairdresser. A kindergarten teacher has to know how to deal with the little ones and needs a lot of patience. But what are the basic personal requirements that a detective needs to be able to do well in his job?

The answer might surprise many, because a detective does not need a dominant, conspicuous appearance, but rather should be inconspicuous. He must be able to observe very closely and have an eye for detail. A great deal of mental flexibility is required to be able to combine – sometimes also to be able to interpret what is observed correctly. If character traits are added, such as patience, combination skills and accuracy, there is a good chance of becoming a good detective. Good knowledge of German, mathematics and economics must be brought along to school. In addition, physical fitness is absolutely necessary in order to be successful at work.

A certificate of good conduct, a tax clearance declaration and proof of expertise must also be submitted for the start of training and the practice of the profession. You must also be of legal age and have a class B driver’s license.

Important quality features of professional detectives

The professional title of detective is not legally protected. This also means that it can sometimes be difficult to distinguish a well-trained professional from a layman – at least as a client. If you are looking for a well-trained detective, you should make sure that the detective agency works with TÜV-certified detectives and, in the best case, is a member of the Federal Association of International Detectives, such as the detectives of the Lentz Group, which has numerous branches in Düsseldorf and throughout Germany converse.

This training is possible for a prospective detective

Even without a highly official, legally protected job title, there is training to become a “ZAD-certified private investigator”, which ends with an IHK exam. The training, which lasts a total of two years, is reminiscent of the well-known dual training with theory and practice units. The final exam is written, practical and oral. In addition, an extensive thesis must be prepared.

Ideally, prospective detectives learn the content of the exam directly in practice, while following a so-called mentor, as well as by attending special seminars and training courses. Regular further training is just as important in the detective trade as in other areas. The basis of the vocational training plan for prospective detectives is what has been developed by the industry-relevant professional associations. The ZAD, the central office for training in the detective trade, is a leader in training.

The ZAD shows three training options online:

1. the intensive course, which prepares you for the exam within ten months
2. the combined course, which lasts 22 months
3. the special course, which teaches the skills required for a security guard in retail within six months

This learning load is behind the ZAD-certified courses

The intensive course has a total of 60 topics on the curriculum, which are bundled on around 2,800 informative pages. The intensive course is designed as a distance learning course, for which at least nine hours of study are to be spent per week. There is also a face-to-face seminar. The same content must also be learned in the combination training. However, more time is available for the learning content. The course module was designed to enable internships in a detective agency at the same time. This ensures the timely, direct implementation of what has been learned in practice.

Well equipped – for these practical assignments

Although the training measures are not state-recognized, they are precisely tailored to enable you to work successfully as a detective. For example, these knowledge and skills are imparted:

• surveillance There are different types of observation, such as the observation cauldron, the ABC system, the observation bell and line observation, the theoretical basics of which are taught and practiced. This involves setting up and conducting an observation as well as legally impeccable behavior during an observation.
• investigations. In order to obtain valid information, research and determination must be carried out. Which contact points there are for detectives and how the information is obtained legally (!) so that it can also be used in court, if necessary, falls within the scope of the investigations.

Right. A large part of the training is concerned with imparting knowledge about various rights to prospective detectives. The list of rights that must be learned in the course of detective training is somewhat reminiscent of a law degree, and yet it forms the necessary basis for acting and researching in accordance with the law. Protecting the personal rights of third parties is particularly important for detectives on the job. In addition, the pitfalls are usually in the details, as can be seen in the difference between iA and iV.

• Practice. The use of what has been learned in practice and practical knowledge are particularly important in the detective trade. This means, among other things, that it is conveyed how a detective behaves as inconspicuously and safely as possible on the road when he is observing. However, this also means that a detective knows how to use technical aids, such as a radio or a camera, safely and correctly.