Business Administration Report: Work From Home Solution for AKC Firm

This report addresses the issue of employee absenteeism at the architectural firm AKC, a medium-sized organization in Melbourne. The report investigates the problem, which is primarily due to the firm's office staff being married with children. The solution proposed is a work from home facility, which would allow employees to balance work and personal duties. The report discusses the implementation of telecommunicating software, the need for additional resources, cost savings for the firm, employee education, standard working hours, methods to prevent misuse of the system, techniques to monitor employee presence, benefits, and limitations of the flexible working system. The conclusion recommends the work from home facility to improve employee job satisfaction and maintain productivity, and also contains references to related literature.

Running head: BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
Financial Report
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
The purpose of the following discussion is to provide an effective solution to the problem of
employee absenteeism. The work from home facility can be used as a technique to avoid loss in
productivity of the organization and the workers can easily balance their work life duties along
with the personal duties. The employees are the assets of a company. In order to motivate them
and provide then with job satisfaction work from home facility is trending.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
Existence of various software that would facilitate Work from Home of employees.................3
Need for purchasing additional resources for facilitating Work from Home..............................4
Cost saving of the firm................................................................................................................4
Need for educating the employees...............................................................................................4
Standard working hours...............................................................................................................4
Processes to prevent the workers from taking advantage of the flexible working system..........5
The technique to ensure whether the employees are on site or not.............................................5
Benefits o the Work from home process.....................................................................................5
Limitations of the flexible working system.................................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
Recommendation.............................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
The discussion deals with the architectural firm AKC, which is a medium sized
organization in the inner suburbs of Melbourne. Although the members has a good performance
in terms of productivity and possess a good staff morale, work environment is facing too much
of absenteeism of the employees of the firm. According to the Human Resource review, the
majorities of the office staffs are married and have children. Therefore, they have to stay back at
home frequently to look after their children and family when they are sick or to attend their
children’s school related activities. The purpose of the report is to analyze the issue and find a
suitable solution to this.
Discussion
In order to resolve the pointed out issue, an urgent investigation is necessary. The
Accountant of the firm has to arrange a solution efficiently so that the productivity of the
company is not hampered. The company should develop the strategy in such a way that the staff
motivation is intact and the loss in productivity minimized (Leung and Zhang 2017). The
various points that are to be covered during investigation is shown in the below headings:
Existence of various software that would facilitate Work from Home of employees
Telecommunicating software is needed to carry on with the process. The workers sitting
at home can communicate with their supervisor, make the architectural structures, and do their
official work. Software like team viewer can be installed where the progress of the work can be
supervised and managed by many at the same time (Davies and Frink 2014).

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Need for purchasing additional resources for facilitating Work from Home
The firm needs to provide their employees, in order to facilitate flexile working
individual laptops so that they can carry it home and work from there (Barber and Jenkins 2016).
The team viewer software must be installed in the laptops so that the work is smooth and there is
no confusion.
Cost saving of the firm
The analysis made in terms of cost saving if the work from home. If the employees are
working from the office overhead is much reduced. Moreover, there is no cost of transportation
and office refreshment (Adkins and Premeaux 2014). Fixed costs like the electricity,
accommodation cost and administration cost is reduced. Thus, the flexible working system along
with the employee, economically benefits the employer.
Need for educating the employees
A special training program must be conducted to efficiently educate the employees so
that they can effectively engage in office work without any confusion. The staffs should also
know how to use the team viewer software and the telecommunication process so that they are
continuously in touch with the supervisor at office and at the same time balance work with
family (Bloom Liang, Roberts and Ying 2014).
Standard working hours
The standard working hours should be more than that of the regular employees as the
time for travelling from home to office is saved and thus, the worker can devote more time in
work. The standard working hours for employees is 38 hours per week; staffs working from
home can easily devote more two hours per day that is 52 hours pr working week.

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Processes to prevent the workers from taking advantage of the flexible working system
The worker working a may be reluctant for and take attention of this flexible working
system there is lack of continuous supervision by the supervisor. Therefore, the an online portal
must be set for each of the staff so that whether they are on site or not can be seen when the
employee logs in the their attendance is recorded (Bodhani et al. 2016). Web cam can also be
installed so that they can be supervised face to face through camera.
The technique to ensure whether the employees are on site or not
Web cam can be installed so that they can be supervised face to face through camera.
Online portal log in can also show whether they are online or not.
Benefits of the Work from home process
From both the employee employers point of view the different hidden like the cost of
commuting, regular wear and tear of recourses, taxes and other indirect costs are reduced and
there the work life becomes flexible. The office staff can effectively balance family life with
work and can enjoy a great job satisfaction. Moreover, there is no distraction like conflicts with
co-worker and supervisor (Albouy 2016). The conduct is systematic and is of less stress leading
to more productivity. The procedures can also positively effect on the health of the office staffs.
Limitations of the flexible working system
The various problems faced from work from home are as follows:
 Isolation: The absence of co-workers and supervisor may make the employee suffer from
isolation. In case of confusion or need of help, the employee may suffer. Moreover, the
work environment is missing at home.

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 Distraction: The temptation to engage one-self in household chores and maters may
distract the staff. Moreover, constant intervention of family and other personal issues
affect the quality of work. It is essential to draw line between home and work.
 More work: the working hours is much more in case of work from home facility. There
is lack of supervision and it consists of strict hours, therefore the pressure is much more
 Need for high self-discipline: The environment of home is different from that of an
office, while a staff is working in office should posses a high self-discipline quality so
that their productivity is not hampered. They are getting an extra benefit from office, to
help them regulate their personal matter they should not misuse that (Mihm and Ozbek
2016).
Conclusion
The workers are the assets of an organization. In order to motivate them and provide then
with job satisfaction work from home facility is trending. This helps the staffs to balance the
work life along with their personal life effectively. The workers have home, family and duties
that are necessary for them to perform. Work from home enables them to easily provide the
company with output and mange household during emergency.
Recommendation
In order to find out an effective solution to the problem of absenteeism of the workers,
Work from Home facility is highly recommended for the organizations. This can make the work
environment more flexible and the company can enjoy production along with employee job
satisfaction.

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References
Adkins, C.L. and Premeaux, S.A., 2014. The use of communication technology to manage work-
home boundaries. Journal of Behavioral and Applied Management, 15(2), p.82.
Albouy, D., 2016. What are cities worth? Land rents, local productivity, and the total value of
amenities. Review of Economics and Statistics, 98(3), pp.477-487.
Barber LK, Jenkins JS.,2016. Creating technological boundaries to protect bedtime: Examining
work–home boundary management, psychological detachment and sleep. Stress and Health.
2014 Aug 1;30(3):259-64.
Bloom, N., Liang, J., Roberts, J. and Ying, Z.J., 2014. Does working from home work? Evidence
from a Chinese experiment. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 130(1), pp.165-218.
Bodhani, A.R., Suryavanshi, M., Medema, J. and Fuldeore, M., 2016. Impact of erosive hand
osteoarthritis on work productivity among patients in The United States. Osteoarthritis and
Cartilage, 24, p.S234.
Davies, A.R. and Frink, B.D., 2014. The origins of the ideal worker: The separation of work and
home in the United States from the market revolution to 1950. Work and Occupations, 41(1),
pp.18-39.
Leung, L. and Zhang, R., 2017. Mapping ICT use at home and telecommuting practices: A
perspective from work/family border theory. Telematics and Informatics, 34(1), pp.385-396.
Mihm, M. and Ozbek, K., 2016. A Model of Self-Discipline.

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