Working from home for good? Lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and what this means for the future of work

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, more firms than ever before have enabled their employees to work from home. Based on a representative firm survey in Germany, surveying 2.000 firms per month throughout the course of the pandemic (October 2020 until June 2022), this paper provides suggestive evidence concerning the effects of working from home (WFH) at different points in time during the pandemic and discusses implications for the future of work. We assess the potential of WFH in Germany to be 25–30% of private-sector employees. On the firm side, we find that higher WFH use is positively related to business success during the crisis, with increased employee productivity and employees working more hours when remote being possible mechanisms. Larger firms in particular are open towards expanding their WFH offerings in the future. During the pandemic, firms have experienced that WFH has worked well in many respects (e.g., productivity of employees, quality of work performed) and, for the future, they are willing to facilitate WFH in order to give their employees more flexibility, and to be considered an attractive employer. However, working on site brings advantages (e.g., communication, cooperation and onboarding of new employees) firms will not want to sacrifice, pointing towards a hybrid model of work.

Gestörte Lieferketten — wie reagieren die Betriebe in Deutschland?

Der Ausbruch der Coronapandemie 2020 hat die Abhängigkeit der deutschen Wirtschaft von globalen Lieferketten offengelegt. Verzögerungen bei der Zulieferung oder der Ausfall von Vorprodukten infolge eingeschränkter Logistikkapazitäten, geschlossener Grenzen oder einer gestörten Produktion bei Zulieferern hat seitdem bei vielen Betrieben in Deutschland zu Problemen geführt. Mit dem Angriff Russlands auf die Ukraine im Februar 2022 wurde deutlich, dass Lieferketten auch erheblichen geopolitischen Risiken ausgesetzt sind. Die Unternehmen stehen vor der Aufgabe, ihre Zulieferketten resilienter gegen solche Risiken zu machen.Alternate :The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and the war in Ukraine since 2022 have exposed Germany's dependence on global supply chains. Based on "Establishments in the Covid-19 Crisis”, a survey conducted by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), this paper examines the extent and causes of supply chain disruptions and the responses of establishments in Germany. Our results show that nearly three-quarters of all establishments that report using intermediate inputs have experienced problems with their supply chains in 2022 up until the time of the survey in June. The hospitality, manufacturing, and construction sectors are particularly affected. In response to these problems, establishments are diversifying their supply chains by adding new suppliers or replacing existing ones. New suppliers tend to come from geographically closer regions than their predecesors.

Later one knows better: the over-reporting of short-time work in firm surveys.

Short-time work (STW) in Germany allows for a lot of flexibility in actual usage. Ex ante, firms notify the Employment Agency about the total number of employees eligible, and, up to the total granted, firms can flexibly choose how many employees actually use STW. In firm-level surveys, which provide timely information on STW in Germany, over-reporting of the number of employees on STW is prevalent. This study explores reasons for STW over-reporting based on a high-frequency and low-cost survey initiated during the Covid-19-pandemic (BeCovid) and a low-frequency and high-cost long-running survey (BP). Merging administrative records on actual use of STW, firms that use STW prove more likely to participate in the BeCovid survey. Multi-establishment firms over-report STW because they tend to report STW for all subfirms. The BP uses more interview time and confirms the over-reporting of STW use in the survey month, while-crucially-the over-reporting drops sharply with a few months of retrospection.

Establishments in the Covid-19-Crisis (BeCovid): A High-Frequency Establishment Survey to Monitor the Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic

The high-frequency establishment survey “Establishments in the Covid-19-Crisis” (BeCovid) started in 2020 and continued until June 2022 to collect monthly data on how businesses in Germany adjusted to the challenges of the pandemic. This article describes the survey design and provides an overview over the topics covered. We further outline the survey’s research potentials, particularly when linked to administrative records.

[Digitalisation in Companies: The COVID-19 Pandemic as a Push Factor]. / Digitalisierungsschub in Firmen während der Corona-Pandemie.

This article shows the extent to which companies' investments in digital technologies have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on a large German company survey conducted by the Institute for Employment Research, the authors examine whether and which companies have invested in different types of digital technologies, how these investments are connected to working from home, and how investments are influenced by the economic situation of companies during the pandemic. The authors also discuss further training activities provided and planned by employers and how those are related to their investments in digital technologies.

[Minimum Wage Companies in the Second Wave of the Corona Crisis]. / Mindestlohnbetriebe in der zweiten Corona-Welle.

For a number of reasons, businesses affected by minimum wage may have a particularly hard time during the coronavirus pandemic. We have found that minimum wage establishments were more frequently affected by the Corona pandemic than the rest of the economy at the beginning of 2021 due to the industry composition of these establishments rather than to minimum wage itself. The findings also indicate that minimum-wage establishments use short-time work more often and that the volume of work is reduced more frequently than in other establishments by cutting back on overtime. Finally, salary increases and special payments are also reduced or suspended more frequently.