Working from home is here to stay, but how does it affect workplace learning?

Abstract

This paper analyses how working from home affects workplace learning in terms of theoretical and practical knowledge during COVID19. We employ panel data gathered in monthly surveys of respondents in training companies between October 2020 and March 2022 to investigate this question. Apprentices in Switzerland are our case study. We address potential endogeneity concerns in two ways. First, we exploit variation across survey respondents and time in two-way fixed effects models. Second, we pursue an instrumental variable “shift-share”-type approach that leverages how occupations react to exogenous changes in working from home regulations. The results suggest that working from home has a significantly negative impact on practical knowledge but not theoretical knowledge, relative to frequenting the workplace. We do not find significant heterogeneity across company size. Similarly, our results do not vary significantly between occupations in which working from home is relatively more or less prevalent. Our findings remain robust to a wide range of robustness checks. Our evidence-based recommendations aim to preserve the acquisition of knowledge through workplace training.