We are an impact organization that sells chocolate and is trying to change the chocolate industry from the inside. If you wake us up in the middle of the night we’ll yell “together we make 100% slave free the norm in chocolate!” Pretty ambitious but we believe an achievable goal. And, of course, an ambitious goal needs an ambitious team. Team Tony’s!

Culture club
Last year we launched the Culture Club, a rotating group of Tony’s who gets together once a month to describe, monitor and build on why we do things the way we do. After all, every activity and tradition has a thought behind it and we don’t want this to get lost. From office bingo to breakfast sessions to happy new fiscal year celebrations to the Monday Morning Meeting, they all have a clear goal.

The Quest-cheer-nair & new remuneration system
We conduct a job happiness survey in which we ask Team Tony’s what’s going great and where there’s room for improvement. Last year we did two: one in December and one in July. The average ratings were solid: 8.0 out of 10 in December and 8.2 in July. Tony’s are really, really, REALLY committed to the mission, trust each other and are super happy with our culture and with the new office and extra space. So, everything is fine and dandy? Well, not entirely. Despite adding lots of new Tony’s to the team, the perceived work pressure still hasn’t gone down. And working efficiently is a bit of a challenge. Ouch..

Only Tony’s Culture
Last year we dedicated a lot of attention to strengthening our culture. Our culture is about our four core values, our eagerness to always raise the bar and the fact that in addition to being crazy about chocolate, we’re always serious when it comes to people. Tony’s Chocolonely is outspoken, wilful, entrepreneurial and.. makes you smile! To us, these core values aren’t just pretty words you hang on the wall; they are our compass for making choices and decisions, like hiring new Tony’s, determining our approach and responding to successes and failures. We discuss our core values with the entire team on a regular basis. This past year the US team had its first Q-Meeting (quarterly meeting) and had a whole session dedicated to core values.

Formal Friday
Since we like to do things a little different, we had our first ever Formal Friday this year. It was fun to dress up in our very serious business suits but man oh man.. we’re so glad that we don’t have to do that every day. We like being comfortable in what we wear, so a dress code isn’t really our style.