There’s never been a better time when companies needed their culture to come alive than now when the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is raging. Dan Arriola knows everything about it as his company, Inktel, has had to pivot from working in an office to working from home. Inktel was not only able to avoid the downturn caused by the pandemic but turned it has also turned the situation into something positive and it has in fact increased their business.

According to Dan, the secret is being deliberate about your company’s culture and making the necessary small investments to make it come alive. But many companies focus on the features of their office rather than developing a valued culture, which is the exact opposite of what needs to be done in times of crisis. Sometimes, they do the complete opposite of what they claim to be their culture which is why, for Dan, the company culture must be memorable and actionable through their core values because this is what keeps their essence going even when things change abruptly.

So what do you do to make your core values stick and come alive? For Dan, they have an acronym for their six core values that everybody at the company knows and owns. It’s STRIVE. And so far, Dan says their investment in building a valued culture has paid off. Now that your culture is identified and embedded into every member, how then can you measure the ROI from investing in your organization’s culture?

Dan Arriola is the President of Inktel, a contact center solutions company that provides call center, email, chat, and social media support for fortune 1000 brands. They’ve been in business for over 20 years and they have seven locations throughout the U.S.

If you’re someone who wants to build a strong culture in your organization that does not take the fun away from work and generates returns at a low cost but is not sure how to move forward, be sure to tune in to this episode of Culture Czars. In this episode, you’ll glean insights on how to develop a valued organizational culture, maintain it, generate ROI, and have fun along the way.

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Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

Dan Arriola talks about how they started the culture journey at Inktel
What Inktel’s core values, STRIVE, stands for and how it drives their culture
How to make your core values stick and come alive
Dan talks about how the nomination and reward system plays a pivotal role in developing a valued culture
Dan talks about the role of recruitment in making culture come alive
The influence of culture in allowing Inktel to pivot through the COVID-19 pandemic
Dan shares some of the work they had to do and the challenges they’ve had to deal with
The big takeaways from Inktels’ work-from-home approach to the pandemic
How to maintain culture while telecommuting
Dan talks about changes to expect post-COVID-19
How to measure the ROI from culture investment