Do not assume that it does. Identify the actual case record and use the applicable official process for changes or access problems.
Keep private convenience separate from official records
An email forward can help you see a message without changing the government’s information. Follow USCIS account instructions and confirm the real case status rather than treating a personal inbox setting as an application update. Ask what a forward actually does and what it does not.
It causes a copy of a message to arrive somewhere you can read it, which solves visibility. It leaves the address on the official record exactly as it was, which means the file still points at an inbox you may not control, and anything depending on that record, including notices whose arrival starts a response period, continues to behave as before. Visibility and record are different problems needing different fixes.
There is a second reason not to rely on a forwarding rule: it can be switched off by whoever administers that mailbox, often without notice, and an employer mailbox is administered by the employer. If the address on the official record is one the applicant does not personally control, that is worth changing through the applicable official process whether or not messages are currently arriving. A forward is a convenience, and treating it as an update is how an instruction gets missed.