# Article: How Companies Are Winning on Culture During COVID-19 [[Post-Covid and Organisational Culture in EPIP]] [[24-03-2021]] #post-covid [[organisational culture]] https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/how-companies-are-winning-on-culture-during-covid-19/ ## communication ^01f700 - For most topics, there was little difference in sentiment before and during the coronavirus pandemic.[3](https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/how-companies-are-winning-on-culture-during-covid-19/#ref3 "A reflink") But one important theme that does stand out in the months of the pandemic is the quality of communication by leaders. Employees of Culture 500 companies gave their corporate leaders much higher marks in terms of honest communication and transparency during the first six months of the coronavirus pandemic compared with the preceding year. - Employees were twice as likely to discuss the quality of communication by top leaders in positive terms during the months of the pandemic than they were a year earlier. In fact, they were 88% more likely to write positively about leaders’ honesty and transparency (46%). Employees also expressed more positive sentiment about transparency (42%) and communication (35%) in general. (See “Employees Gave Companies High Marks for Communication and Integrity During COVID-19.”) Companies on our [Culture Champions list](https://sloanreview.mit.edu/projects/culture-500-introducing-the-2020-culture-champions/ "A "), including HubSpot, Hilton, Ultimate Software, Nordstrom, and HP Inc., scored particularly well on transparent communication during COVID-19. - The theme of transparent communication is relatively rare among official corporate values. In an earlier [study of the corporate value statements](https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/when-it-comes-to-culture-does-your-company-walk-the-talk/ "A ") of more than 500 larger companies, we found that only 12% listed transparency or communication among their official corporate values. Because it is relatively rare in corporate culture statements, transparent communication is not included among our Big 9 values measured in the Culture 500.[4](https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/how-companies-are-winning-on-culture-during-covid-19/#ref4 "A reflink") During times of crisis, however, the quality of communication is central to how employees evaluate corporate culture. This is related to the idea shared in ![[Article Keeping Company Culture Strong During The Next Post-Covid-19 Phase#^ada6aa]] and ![[Article Keeping Company Culture Strong During The Next Post-Covid-19 Phase#^169a76]] ## Agility to adapt The top 50 companies distinguished themselves in three main areas: clear and effective communication, increased attention to employee welfare, and ability to deal with environmental changes in a flexible manner without losing sight of their strategic priorities.