Business Report: Analyzing Work From Home Feasibility for AKC Sydney

This business report assesses the feasibility of implementing a work-from-home (WFH) program at AKC, an architectural firm in Sydney, to address high staff absenteeism. The report analyzes the problem, identifying that the primary reason for absenteeism is the need for employees, many of whom are parents, to care for sick children or attend school-related activities. The report explores the benefits of WFH, which include increased flexibility for employees and potential improvements in work processes. The report also identifies potential challenges, such as the need for tracking software and training, and the risk of misuse of the WFH facility. The report recommends that AKC invest in new laptops, tracking software, and training programs to ensure the success of the WFH program. The report recommends that the company establish clear guidelines for WFH employees, including specifying work hours, mandating the use of office laptops with tracking software, and limiting WFH days per week. The report emphasizes the importance of regular status updates and onsite presence to maintain productivity and accountability. The report concludes that while WFH offers significant benefits, careful planning and implementation are crucial to mitigate potential risks and ensure that the program benefits both the employees and the company.

Running head: ACCOUNTING
Accounting: Work from Home
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
Work from Home is a facility that is given to the employees for balancing the work life and the
personal life. The report aims in discussing the various implications of starting a work from
home facility in AKC. The problems that this facility is going to solve, are discussed in the
report. The work from home concept is proposed in AKC to help the young parent with the
responsibilities towards their children. Therefore, effective processes are needed to be in force to
ascertain that work from home facility is not exploited. The report provides a structured
recommendation to the management to ensure that the proposed work from home facility in
AKC is a success.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction......................................................................................................................3
2. Analysis of the Problem...................................................................................................3
3. Conclusion.......................................................................................................................5
4. Recommendation to Management...................................................................................5
References............................................................................................................................7

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1. Introduction
Work from home (WFH) can be well explained as a concept whether an employee is
allowed to do his/her job from the convenience of their home (Carlson et al. 2015). This is
beneficial for an employee as the employee is getting the flexibility of working from home while
the work of the employers is being done with ease (Berinato 2014). Therefore, this concept
proves to be beneficial both for the employee and the employer.
AKC is an architectural firm in Sydney, which is facing a problem of high rate of staff
absenteeism. On analysis of the problem, it is found out that the absent rate is high mainly
because the staffs are needed to stay at home to look after their sick children or for participating
in school related activities (Araujo et al. 2015). Since the existing staffs of the company are quite
efficient, the organization is planning to incorporate the flexibility of work from home in such
emergency situation. This, will reduce the staff absenteeism rate and will further reduce the
disruption in the normal work processes.
The report will be analyzing if the idea of incorporation of WFH feature, feasible for
AKC. In the following paragraphs, the needed architectural and the administration works are
discussed to provide a well-structured recommendation to the management regarding the WFH
option in AKC.
2. Analysis of the Problem
AKC have an excellent team of staffs and therefore replacement of the staffs due to their
high absenteeism rate is not a solution. The problem of high absenteeism is a major issue
particularly because most of the staff employed in AKS are married and/or has young children.
The report of the human resource review has identified that the staffs are spending most of the

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time at their home to look after the sick children or to discuss the school related activities.
Therefore, the organization is in need on looking an alternative solution to reduce the high rate of
staff absenteeism.
The concept of WFH is not new and this factors benefits both the employee and the
employer. Therefore, AKC has though of introducing the benefits of work from home for their
staffs. However, incorporation of this new work process and work culture require a detailed
planning process and only then the entire idea of providing a flexible working option to the staffs
and employees will be successful (Dockery and Bawa 2014.).
The incorporation of this flexibility work culture requires analysis of several problems
that can arise with the incorporation of WFH in AKC. It is needed to investigate whether the firm
has the appropriate software access to track whether an employee is actually working from home
or just wasting the time at home (Stewart 2016). Also, the staffs who will be allowed to work
from home should be given laptops from the office installed with a software to track their day
long activities, which will help in determining whether the employee has actually worked from
home. Therefore, the key problem is that the organization will need to buy additional resources
such as new laptops, OS, Antivirus and tracking software to facilitate the concept of WFH
Another problem that can arise with the concept is lack of proper training of the workers
to understand the concept of working from home (Long 2018). An additional investment is to be
made to train the staffs about the concept of work from home and the do’s and don’ts of working
from home. Also, even while working from home, an employee needs to work for at least 7
hours. Also the firm needs to track whether an adequate number of employee are working on
sight and for that, the concept of regular status updates are needed to be promoted (Blumen

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2015). Thus, a lot of changes are to be brought in the organization to ensure that the concept of
WFH are working in favor of both the employee and the company.
3. Conclusion
The concept of working from home although is beneficial for the employees and the
employer, there are certain constrains attached to the success of this concept. The key issue
associated with introducing WFH in AKC is that the risk of staffs, exploiting the opportunity that
is provided to them. Therefore, a concrete solution is to be identified to effectively track whether
an employee is actually working from home. The report discusses the problems that AKC can
face if they introduce the concept of working from home. On analysis of the problem, several
solution are recommended to AKC. One key need is to invest in buying new laptops and tracking
software which the employees need to use while working from home. The use of tracking
software can help in tracking the work processes or the daily work processes of the employees
who are working from home. However, the idea of incorporation of work from home feature can
address the key issues that AKC is facing. This can help in increasing the staffs’ motivation to
serve the organiztaion.
4. Recommendation to Management
The incorporation of the concept of work from home in the existing business process of
AKC requires several changes with the organization. Offering flexibility to the staffs of the
organization is subjected to properly training the staffs regarding the implications of work from
home (Stone et al. 2016). Therefore, it is necessary to develop a set of guidelines that are needed
to be followed by the staffs who are availing the facility of working from home (Mabaso and
Dlamini 2017). The staffs should be made to accept the clauses attached with working from

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home and any discrepancy from the same will indicate that the employee will not be able to avail
the facility of working from home from then.
The clauses that the employees will need to sign, should include their consent stating that
they will be dedicating at least seven hours while working from home. The employees who will
be working from home should not use their personal devices for the official works and will need
to carry the office laptops installed with the tracking software to work from their home (Church
2015). Also, the employees are needed to ascertain that no damage is caused to the laptop that is
brought home from office while working from home.
Before rolling out the feature of work from home, the employees are needed to be trained
about the same. The employees need to have a clear idea of the do and don’ts of working from
home so that no situation of chaos arise after-words (Hagler et al. 2016). The staffs are needed
to be trained about the making a maximum use of work from home facility without abusing the
flexible work system. If any discrepancy arises, the work from home facility that is provided to
the employee should be terminated on spot and he/she will not get the facility of working from
home any further.
To ensure that there are adequate number of staff onsite, the form needs to make use of
the tracking software. Also, the regular status updates can also help the business administrator to
track the work processes of the employees who are working from home (Creed, French and
Hood 2015). Also, the employees should not be given more than two work from home per week.
The work from home facilities is to be given only to those employees who are actually in need.
Also, the use of office laptops installed with tracking software should be one of the key condition
for working from home.

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References
Araujo, B.F.V.B.D., Tureta, C.A. and Araujo, D.A.V.B.D., 2015. How do working mothers
negotiate the work-home interface?. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 30(5), pp.565-581.
Berinato, S., 2014. To raise productivity, let more employees work from home. Harvard
business review, 92(1), p.12.
Blumen, O., 2015. Employee benefits and high-tech fatherhood. Journal of Managerial
Psychology, 30(5), pp.535-549.
Carlson, D.S., Kacmar, K.M., Zivnuska, S. and Ferguson, M., 2015. Do the benefits of family-to-
work transitions come at too great a cost?. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 20(2),
p.161.
Church, N.F., 2015. Gauging perceived benefits from'working from home'as a job
benefit. International Journal of Business and Economic Development (IJBED), 3(3).
Creed, P.A., French, J. and Hood, M., 2015. Working while studying at university: The
relationship between work benefits and demands and engagement and well-being. Journal of
Vocational Behavior, 86, pp.48-57.
Dockery, A.M. and Bawa, S., 2014. Is working from home good work or bad work? Evidence
from Australian employees. Australian Journal of Labour Economics, 17(2), p.163.
Hagler, M., Hamby, S., Grych, J. and Banyard, V., 2016. Working for well-being: Uncovering
the protective benefits of work through mixed methods analysis. Journal of Happiness
Studies, 17(4), pp.1493-1510.

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Long, R.J., 2018. New office information technology: Human and managerial implications.
Routledge.
Mabaso, C.M. and Dlamini, B.I., 2017. Impact of compensation and benefits on job
satisfaction. Research Journal of Business Management, 11(2), pp.80-90.
Stewart, F., 2016. Technology and underdevelopment. Springer.
Stone, D.L., Deadrick, D.L., Lukaszewski, K.M. and Johnson, R., 2015. The influence of
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