Which CEOs have performed the best during COVID-19?

As the spread of COVID-19 has placed greater pressure on businesses, employees have looked to their CEOs for reassurance, communication and direction, and so a list has been formed which ranks the top 10 business leaders during the pandemic.

The list was put together by Glassdoor:

1. 1. Sages Steve Hare (95 per cent Leadership Score)
   2. Abcam’s Alan Hirzel (94 per cent Leadership score)
   3. Rendall and Rittner’s Duncan Rendall (94 per cent Leadership Score)
   4. HomeServe UK’s Greg Reed (93 per cent Leadership Score)
   5. Kingsley Healthcare’s Daya Thayan (91 per cent Leadership Score)
   6. Taylor Wimpey’s Pete Redfern (91 per cent Leadership Score)
   7. ICP Nurseries’ Tracey Storey (88 per cent Leadership Score)
   8. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg (88 per cent Leadership Score)
   9. Salesforce’s Marc Benioff (87 per cent Leadership Score)
   10. TeacherActive’s Rob Browett (85 per cent Leadership Score)

Amanda Stansell, senior economic research analyst at Glassdoor said:

It’s during difficult times that a leader really shows their true colours. During the COVID-19 crisis these UK CEOs stand out for prioritising the physical and mental health of their workforce, offering excellent communication and flexible working, plus initiatives to keep staff motivated, engaged and connected. A company’s response to the pandemic is driven by its leadership, and these CEOs have gone above and beyond to look after their people.

According to previous Glassdoor research, highly-rated CEOs are statistically linked to companies with great cultures and financial performance. 

In order to obtain these results, Glassdoor analysed employee reviews to identify CEOs who have earned high praise from their employees in the UK in terms of their leadership during the COVID-19 crisis. In addition leveraging CEO approval rating and the senior leadership workplace factor rating during the last five months, text analysis was also used to see what employees were specifically saying about COVID-19 and their CEO in reviews on Glassdoor.

The ranking takes into account both positive and negative anonymous employee comments specifically on COVID-19 and the resulting lockdown, as well as CEO and senior leadership ratings on Glassdoor from March to July 2020.

Darius McQuaid

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Darius is the editor of HRreview. He has previously worked as a finance reporter for the Daily Express. He studied his journalism masters at Press Association Training and graduated from the University of York with a degree in History.

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