COVID-19 and social distancing have crashed into the structural shifts brought about by the fourth industrial revolution. And while meeting skill needs has been on employers' and policy-makers' agendas for long, investing in people in a more comprehensive way is becoming more urgent: as European economies are picking up speed, the hunt for talent is open. As the world looks for a transition to a post-pandemic reality, changes are underway in many European companies. This briefing note looks at how these changes will shape work organisation, the relationship between employers and workers, and companies' working and learning arrangements.