Discover our other sites:

You might be looking for...

Annonse

Young employees and working from home: Can be just as good as being in the office, researcher says

"The discussion jumps a little too quickly to the conclusion that working from home is the problem," says researcher.

Portrait of researcher Anniken Grønstad wearing a blue blouse against a dark blue-green background.

“People should not assume that learning happens simply because a young employee and an experienced employee are in the same office,” says researcher Anniken Grønstad.

(Photo: Oslo New University College)

Anders Moen Kaste Anders Moen Kaste Journalist

Published 7 September 2026 - 00:01

What is it like to be young and new to a job and arrive at a half-empty office? And what happens when much of your training takes place online?

Anniken Grønstad is an associate professor of organisational psychology and management at Oslo New University College. She believes it is reasonable to question whether working from home is compatible with properly looking after people who are new to the workplace.

"For learning and job shadowing to work, experienced colleagues need to be available to the younger employees. But that doesn't necessarily mean everyone has to be in the office five days a week," says Grønstad.

She believes that not everything depends on newer and more experienced employees being in the office together every day.

"If an experienced employee sits behind a closed door or spends large parts of the day in meetings, the main thing the younger employees have gained is a shorter physical distance to a potential mentor," Grønstad says. "They don't necessarily have better access to the mentor's expertise."

Annonse

Simply being present is not enough

Grønstad believes it is easy to confuse working in the same place with sharing knowledge.

"If young employees are to receive the help they need, an important point is that it is not enough simply to be present in the office. You also have to be available in the office. The discussion jumps a little too quickly to the conclusion that working from home is the problem," she says.

Grønstad has some advice on how to combine working partly from home with good training for young employees.

The researcher’s advice for welcoming new employees

Good training is a question of management and organisation, according to Grønstad. And the office can be one of the tools used.

"But the office itself is not the training model," she says.

The number of days spent in the office together with an experienced employee is not the most important thing, Grønstad believes. She says that what happens on the days when the new and the experienced employee are there at the same time probably matters more for the training.

"Five days in the office filled with meetings may transfer less knowledge than two well-planned days where new employees have genuine access to experienced colleagues," says Grønstad.

She thinks a mentoring programme is a good example of how this can work well.

Follow-up can take place digitally

"When an experienced employee is given explicit responsibility for following up with a new employee, this can involve everything from answering professional questions to taking the person along to lunch and helping them understand the social norms of the workplace," the researcher says.

This is entirely possible in a hybrid model as well, according to Grønstad.

And although some things require or work best with physical attendance, other forms of follow-up can easily take place digitally, the researcher notes.

Annonse

"The point is that training should be organised deliberately and with clear objectives. We should not assume that learning happens simply because a young employee and an experienced employee are in the same office," she says.

Portrait of researcher Loreva Trevino with dark hair and a black sweater against a light background. — Researcher Loreva Trevino believes we need to recognise that employees have different needs.

Different needs for young and experienced employees

Lorena Trevino is a PhD research fellow in occupational psychology and physiology at the research institute STAMI.

She says research shows that physical presence can be important for training and collaboration.

"Especially for younger and new employees," says Trevino.

She points out that it may be useful to consider the benefits of working from home separately for different workplaces and different employees.

"For an employee who is very familiar with their tasks and needs several hours of uninterrupted concentration, working from home can work well. For a completely new employee who needs learning, mentoring, and quick answers from colleagues, physical presence can have a very different value," she says.

Source:

Trevino Garcia, L. E. and Christensen, J. O. (2025). Hybrid work and mental distress: A cross-sectional study of 24,763 office workers in the Norwegian public sector. International archives of occupational and environmental health.