Economic Sustainability and Workplace Excellence in Spain: An Empirical Analysis

The most attractive companies to work for play a crucial role in the sustainability environment. Previous studies have examined the relationship between excellent human resource management and social and environmental sustainability. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between workplace excellence and economic sustainability. To this end, data from the annual ranking of the Revista de Actualidad Económica of the best places to work in Spain during the period 2013–2023 have been used, where Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is considered a key factor. This study uses observational secondary firm-level data covering the period 2013–2023 and applies comparative descriptive and inferential statistical analysis to examine differences between firms included and not included in the ranking. The findings indicate that the most attractive companies to work for are internationalized, large in size, and predominantly operate in the financial and insurance, professional and scientific, information, and energy supply sectors. These companies show better ratios in productivity, results and value added per employee, as well as equity. However, their profitability and solvency do not show significant results over time, so it cannot be clearly concluded that there is a relationship between the best companies to work for and economic sustainability. The practical implications of this study include recommendations for the government to promote complementary policies towards sustainability in general, such as both environmental (environmental certification) and inclusive social measures, among companies demonstrating higher CSR.