The purpose is to investigate the current status and future evolution of the workplace within the COVID-19 pandemic context. Documents, publications and surveys from numerous sources have been analyzed to find out more about the employees’ and organizations’ experience with remote working and the advantages and disadvantages of accessing the workplace during the pandemic. The analysis of the data made possible the identification of patterns within the available literature regarding what has happened and, especially, its influence on the workplace. The revolution initiated by COVID-19 has changed the way companies and employees work and will continue doing so, requiring a constant reinvention of how they operate and causing actions never seen before, generating deep changes in the workplace. Therefore, the idea of the workplace will never be what was expected before COVID-19, where reinvention of work, technology and safety are key points in its transformation process.

This paper aims to investigate the current status of the workplace, its evolution during COVID-19, and the impact of the pandemic on the new (next) normal. This follows previous research about changes in the workplace influenced by the pandemic. Documents, publications, and surveys from numerous sources have been analysed to discover more about the experience of employees and organizations with remote working and the advantages and disadvantages of accessing the workplace during the pandemic and in the new (next) normal. The paper has two objectives, the first of which is to explore some indicators based on available data sources that can help to understand and, in some way, measure the workplace changes in the context of COVID-19. The second is to extend the previous analysis, using the same timeline framework, by studying the workplace during and after COVID-19. First, the introduction explains the main basis of the research and the principal data sources, outlining what is known, what is new, and the aim of the paper. Then the research methodology is explained, along with the criteria by which the datasets were selected, and the results for the indicators outcomes. Finally, the concluding section highlights the findings obtained, their implications, the limitations of the study, and suggested future lines of research. The analysis provides insight into to employees' and organizations' experience with remote working and the advantages and disadvantages of accessing the workplace during the pandemic. The indicators identified can allow a better understanding of the environment and, especially, a deeper knowledge of the new normal situation under COVID-19. In previous studies, certain strategic categories were identified in the process of reimagining the workplace after COVID-19. Those strategic categories supported the conclusion that there were several common company policies which, translated into practical action, could help in people's engagement with their work. These policies can be summarized as redesigning the physical space of the workplace, work flexibility, family reconciliation, and health security. The study of these policies, based on data analysis, may open up different research paths and allow us to establish models directly related to employee satisfaction. The paper continues a previous line of research on the situation in the workplace by incorporating certain indicators that allow its measurement and, above all, its evolution over time, especially during the time of the new (next) normal, and by investigating the current status and future evolution of the workplace in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis of the data made possible the identification of patterns within the available literature regarding recent events and, especially, their influence on the workplace. This has led to the development of indicators in a range of categories. The revolution initiated by COVID-19 has changed the way companies and employees work, which has involved a constant reinvention of the way they operate and provoked previously unseen actions and profound changes in the workplace. Therefore, the idea of the workplace will never again be what it was expected to be was before COVID-19, and it will be very different from that in the new (next) normal. The strategic categories and their indicators developed here are considered important for people's engagement with their workplaces and organizations. The processes adopted by firms must facilitate the redesign of the workplace in accordance with the new forms of work and not act as a mere copy or transfer of the usual approaches to remote work. Providing answers to the questions involved, and deepening the classifications of the categories we develop, can help us understand how people can be connected with the newest forms of workplaces. Some categories and their associated indicators are relevant in remote work and home office environments created by COVID-19. Given that the research started within a pandemic that has not yet ended, while we now know a lot more, the near-term future is uncertain.

(1) Background: this paper analyzes the relationship between entrepreneurship and sustainability following the worldwide reference of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework set by the United Nations. Nowadays, these SDGs are the inspiration for many types of entrepreneurship that combine value creation with conservation and social protection. (2) Methods: using the indicators provided by Eurostat in its section called “Sustainable development indicators”, we have developed a dataset of 21 variables applied to the European Union (EU27) for the period 2013–2017. (3) Results: the results hold that these SDGs have favored a climate of change in the European economies towards more responsible behavior on the part of society, institutions, and their business fabric, creating new sustainable entrepreneurship. (4) Conclusions: the promotion of the SDGs has contributed to increasing the rate of entrepreneurial activity in the period 2013–2017.

Companies are immersed in a process of digitalization that transforms business models and creates value due to the increase in technology. The adoption of new technologies has a great impact on organizations, not only at an economic level but also on their products, processes, and human resources. This process will result in a series of necessary changes to align with their internal competencies and optimize the investment made. This digitalization generates a digital transformation that affects both large companies and SMEs, with the result that new technologies are subject to continuous change, requiring the development and training of workers with the necessary skills to cope with it. Within this transformation, the automation of processes is a constantly growing topic in the business world, as it generates a series of benefits for organizations that they would not otherwise be able to acquire. Process automation reduces the workload in repetitive processes and provides more time for employees to attend to end-customer requests. The adoption of this technology will provide the company to be adapted to a changing world experiencing an increase in productivity, effectiveness, and efficiency. This research focuses on how the process automation provides the organization with a wide range of benefits such as workload reduction and increased productivity for most of the company. Although process automation can bring many benefits to the workplace, it is important to recognize that its use does not always automatically lead to a systematic improvement of workers’ skills. In this context, it is also important to note how employee training is necessary to face this new reality. Employee training and adaptation is critical to the organization’s sustainability. Training will need to be aimed at equipping the employee with technical skills to enable them to effectively use and implement technology and to assimilate it as a complement and not as a threat. To analyse the individual’s awareness of the digitization of the workplace, the automation of tasks and the advantages or disadvantages that may result from the introduction of technology, a questionnaire was developed, and 103 valid responses were obtained and analysed. This has resulted in a series of hypotheses that have been tried to be validate throughout the research work. These results have important implications for organizations seeking to implement automation and provide a basis for future research in this constantly evolving field.