Returning to the workplace after COVID-19: determinants of employee preferences for working onsite versus working from home in generation Y

During COVID-19, a large proportion of employees have been able to work from home (WFH) in order to prevent from contagion. With a downturn of the pandemic, firms have recently announced a return to the onsite offices for their employees, at least for some days of the week. In order for firms to smoothen the transition from full-time remote work to (part-time) onsite work, the determinants of employee preferences for working at the onsite office versus WFH are of crucial importance. This study investigates six work-related factors and their relation to employees' preferences of working at the onsite office versus WFH: job involvement, planning autonomy, team psychological safety, team direction, social contact and workload. In doing so, data from 182 employees of generation Y in Germany are analyzed using multiple regression analyses. Results revealed that social contact and a clear direction of a team's collective action are significant positively related to preferences of working at the onsite office. Implications for future research and limitations of the research are discussed alongside the results of the study.