Working from home (WFH) involves employees performing work remotely from their homes instead of a company office. The COVID-19 pandemic increased the need for social distancing and WFH. While initially seen as a temporary solution, WFH provides many benefits for both employers and employees such as increased productivity, lower costs, work-life balance, and morale. Key aspects of setting up successful WFH include designating a workspace, ensuring adequate technology and internet access, and using collaboration tools. WFH can be effectively implemented in industries like architecture, engineering, and construction where work is done digitally.

1. WORK FROM HOME (WFH)
This is the new age and social distancing is the new normal. With the urgency of social distancing comes
the idea “Work From Home” or WFH in short. Some may say that this was forced upon us by the spread
of Corona Virus but that doesn’t mean the necessity was never there. The need for WFH has always
been there and was supposed to be a major change maker in our working policies. The question wasn’t
IF, rather it was WHEN. And the answer is RIGHT NOW.
What is WFH?
Working from home (WFH) is a situation where employees perform work tasks remotely (from their
home) instead of being physically present in a company office building. WFH is also called
telecommuting or remote working. Employees that work from home are often referred to as a virtual
workforce. In a WFH setup, the employee typically has a dedicated home office workspace equipped
with a computer and other necessary equipment. There are many reasons why companies may be
having their employees work from home, ranging from participating in after-hours meetings with global
clients/team members to accessing a distributed workforce to supporting company operations during a
crisis. Employees that work from home often report higher company loyalty, job satisfaction, and
morale because they are better positioned to maintain a healthy work/life balance.
Key takeaways
o For employers, working from home can boost productivity, reduce turnover, and lower
organizational costs, while employees enjoy perks like flexibility and the lack of a commute.
o To work effectively from home, you'll need to make sure you have the technology you require, a
separate workspace, Internet service that meets your need, a workable schedule you can stick
to, and ways to connect with others.
o Top fields for remote work include computers and IT, education and training, engineering and
healthcare; positions include customer service reps, virtual assistants, data entry and
transcription, teachers, managers and more.
o A variety of top firms, including Amazon, Dell, Humana, Kaplan, and Salesforce, offer remote
work opportunities, but it's also important to be aware of scams.

2. Key benefits
1. In case of pandemics, employers get to keep their workforce functioning.
2. Employers won’t have to pay for office space. Working from home means either no office or at
the very least, a lot less office space. If you don’t want to make the switch to a completely
remote environment, try staggering your employees’ work-from-home days to save on office
space and also utility bills.
3. Employers won’t have to pay for office supplies. No one likes doing bulk orders for office
supplies. By having employees work from home, you can cut out a lot of these useless
expenditures.
4. Employees waste less time commuting. Cutting out a commute can be both a huge morale
booster and a huge time saver. Employees will also waste less money on gas or public
transportation. In Dhaka, people spend average 3 hours per day commuting.
5. Employees will be more productive. One Stanford study found that employees who work from
home are 13 percent more productive compared with their in-office counterparts.
6. Employees will be happier. Everyone seems to be talking about work-life balance these days,
and there’s no better way to improve the work-life balance of your employees than to let them
work from home.
7. It’s easier than ever. You can be connected to the office every minute of every day if you want
to, thanks to the Internet. The concept of working from home might have seemed outlandish 20
years ago, but this is the 21st century. You can find access to Wi-Fi almost anywhere, and tools
like GoToMeeting, Zoom, Google Meet and Skype make remote communication a breeze.
8. Employers won’t have to pay for office snacks. Same goes for office snacks as office supplies.
IBM has saved about $100 million annually since beginning its remote-work program.
9. No more wasting time on useless meetings. Remember the productivity thing? Well, a lot of that
comes from cutting all the useless meetings and other time wasters that are ubiquitous in an
office environment.
10. Employers can hire the best and also globally, no matter where they are. No physical office
limitation means the ability to work with anyone in the world.
11. Employees will be less likely to quit. Working from home makes employees happier and loyal.
Loyal and happy employees don’t quit. Simple logic.
12. There are tons of product-management services for remote teams. Tools like Basecamp and
Asana make managing your remote team extremely easy. Employers will be just as up-to-date
on your employees’ activities as you would be if they were in an office, maybe even better.
13. Employer can get increased insight into other markets. When you have employees working all
over the country, or even all over the globe, you can get amazing insight into local markets.
14. Employers don’t have to go all or nothing. If a 100 percent work-from-home environment isn’t
in the cards for your business, try giving employees that opportunity to work from home once a
week or a few days out of the month. Most of the benefits listed here will still apply.
15. Employees will take fewer sick days. Colds and food poisoning make going into the office
miserable, but working from home? Not so bad. Employees who are mildly sick can still get work
done most of the time if it means not having to go into the office. Another bonus? No sharing
illnesses.

3. 16. Employees won’t constantly feel the need for a vacation. Working from home can feel like a
break from the office, even though your employees are still working. Employees will get to
recharge and spend more time with their families, so they might not be as inclined to take a
two-week vacation to the Bahamas. Bangladeshis work more than 60 hours a week, but offering
a work-from-home option might keep your employees from getting too burned out.
17. Employers don’t need to furlough employees in case of forced emergency situations, such as
COVID19, rather the savings from establishment costs can cover the cost for that employee.

4. How to setup
1. Setup/ learn the rules. Whether your office time is from 9to5 or flexible etc.
2. Setup a functional workspace. It's critical to have a private, quiet space for your work. If you can,
separate your work area from your personal spaces and use it just for work, not for other
activities. A table, chair in an area of about 5’ x 5’ should be adequate for most works.
Immediate investment per employee should be within BDT. 6000.
3. Get the internet speed and setup you need. A monthly broadband package with Wi-Fi setup for
regular usage and a backup 4G connection should be the minimum. Monthly packages are best
for Dhaka and are around BDT. 1000 per month.
4. Get the apps for your laptop/ desktop and phone/ tablet your office needs/ uses. Register an
account, login, test with others. Good examples are: Zoom, Google Meet, Skype. Some apps will
only allow to present your screen while some will allow simultaneous sharing of multiple
screens. This is important when you need to draw something and show to the other parties.
Also, there are limitations to how many people can participate. Google Meet allows upto 100
people for free.
5. Workplaces are hybrid now because you may need a physical office as well as a virtual one.
Therefore, in the physical office there should be a central computer(s) dedicated for staying
online through the office hour so that that can act as a window of communication with the
employees. A virtual office/ meeting place should also be enabled. Google Meet is a great
example for this.
How does WFH affect AEC and EPC?
AEC (Architecture Engineering Construction) is comprised of several parts and 2 big parts are Design and
Procurement. Your design team as well as the managers can work from home/ remotely because their
books, resources, files and all the documents are in their laptops. Procurement people can easily
communicate with the vendors and manufacturers remotely and view their products, presentations and
even live walk throughs.
In an EPC (Engineering Procurement Construction) Engineering and Procurement can be easily covered
remotely making 2/3rd
of the project done online.

5. Real Experience
I work for an EPC in AEC where we’re making a township for a power plant. When COVID19 lockdown
was enabled in the country all the workers had to leave and offices related to the project had to close
down. Our design teams and procurement teams were still working fulltime. At the time of writing this
report, my MEPFC design team as well as related Structural and Architectural design teams covered 90%
of the planned goals for this duration which is 22% of the overall plan. This is not only doable; this is very
easy and the move towards this was necessary. Engineers and Architects from all over Bangladesh
worked to make this happen. If this was possible with the limited resources available, then further
knowledge and resources will only improve the production.
Produced by:
28.05.2020 v1
Sabbir Ahmad
Head of MEP, CFMCC
Maitree STPP EPC Township,
Rampal, Khulna,
Bangladesh.
linkedin.com/in/ahmadsabbir
www.cfmcc.com
References and Excerpts:
i. https://itchronicles.com/what-is-wfh/
ii. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/253896
iii. https://www.investopedia.com/personal-finance/work-from-home-guide/