I’ve never shouted at my staff — no matter how irritating I find them
He spent £3m turning a castle into a very trendy office - so is this internet guru Britain’s best boss?
PERHAPS it’s no surprise that Chris Morling has been awarded the unofficial title of ‘Britain’s best boss.’
The 46-year-old founder of comparison website Money.co.uk lavishes free holidays, beer and bonuses on his staff.
But maybe the most astounding claim is that he’s never shouted at an employee, no matter how irritating they are.
No expense has been spared on indulging his staff’s every whim: he’s just spent £3m renovating a castle in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, as his company HQ.
There’s an in-house gym, a Star Wars cinema, a meeting room designed to look like an ice cave – and a ghost that haunts the boardroom.
Every September, Chris takes his 50 staff on an all-expenses paid holiday – long weekends to places such as New York, Copenhagen and Florida.
One worker even postponed his honeymoon to go. It’s been fashionable for a while for tech firms such as Google to create a quirky environment but cynics would say these aim to encourage staff to stay longer at their desks, or are a way of wriggling out of pay rises.
Morling, though, has taken the craze for idiosyncratic offices and employee perks to a whole new level.
He hired Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen – the two men at one point shared a personal trainer – for the interior design.
One meeting room has yellow, orange and red wallpaper, Roy Lichtenstein-style cartoons on one wall and on another, a portrait of Llewelyn-Bowen dressed as a cavalier.
A suit of armour, daubed with paint a la Jackson Pollock, looms in one corner. The sixties-style chairs are purple.
The castle, which was built in 1867 but looks a lot older, is on a 13-year lease from the aristocratic Bathurst family. It was previously occupied by a college.
‘There were drab magnolia walls, dirty carpets that haven’t been changed in 20 years. I wanted the décor to reflect who we are as a business, to be uplifting and fun,’ Morling says.
URINALS in the gents are in the shape of the lips logo from the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers album and the walls feature cover art from AC/ DC and Fleetwood Mac. Music by the bands is piped in.
It all seems like the sort of fantasy world a 1970s teenager – as Morling was – might have dreamed of creating himself, if he were ever rich enough: and now he is.
So is he using his millions to indulge in a bit of wish-fulfilment? ‘Maybe subconsciously,’ he concedes, though he insists it is all good for business.
Take the in-house cinema, modelled on the Star Wars Death Star. ‘People use it at lunchtime to play Xbox and there is a cinema club, but it is a really good presentation room,’ he says. The previous cleaners wouldn’t clean the boardroom at night because they were afraid of the ghost they believed lurked there.
As well as the holidays, there are free breakfasts and ‘Beer Fridays’ – where everyone finishes early, has a few drinks and plays pool. Every year 10pc of profits goes into a bonus pot, and staff receive around 40pc of their salary. The cost of kitting out the castle, he reckons, is worth it because it helps retain people in Cirencester, when many would rather work in London.
Money.co.uk is making serious cash, with a turnover of £23m-plus and profits of around £8m. If profits fell, he might have to cut back on freebies but says he would never compromise on his Mr Nice Guy philosophy.
Has he really never shouted at an employee? ‘No. Hand on heart, not once,’ he says. Not even when they have been really stupid? ‘No,’ he says, giving me a look. He has asked people to leave, ‘but it has all been very friendly’.
The site trails rivals such as Moneysupermarket.com and comparethemarket.com. ‘We have between 2.5 and 3m customers a month: in terms of traffic we are sixth,’ he says.
But he has come a long way – he left computer firm Oracle almost two decades ago to start his own website business in a bedroom, on a Dell computer bought by his wife, Gael. ‘In the early years I was working 16-plus hours, I didn’t have a holiday for five years.’
He set up Money.co.uk in 2008 in the thick of the financial crisis. ‘There was a hunger for people to make more of their money,’ he says. ‘The future is all about personalisation – the more we can make information specific to you, the better. ’
Despite being a multi-millionaire, Morling is an ‘avid user’ of his site. ‘I have saved thousands over the years. I have a spreadsheet with all my finances on it. Until a few years ago I was a bit scatty, then I thought “I’ve got to practise what we preach.”
‘It is definitely worth going on a comparison website. If you asked most people, please may I have an hour of your time and I’ll give you £50, they would say yes. But they won’t spend an hour on a comparison site to save £50 over a year.’