Contented - that probably best describes Karl Gregory right now. "I've just received a letter from a couple I know," he says, beaming from ear to ear. "They have just celebrated the birth of their first child. I am so pleased for them."
For the ex head of marketing at Yahoo UK, now UK managing director of Match.com, the UK's largest dating website, letters such as these are an almost daily occurrence. In the past five years, more than 6.5 million people in the UK have joined Match.com, 2.5 million of whom search the site each month. The result of all this activity has meant the company has witnessed 450,000 relationships form (defined as longer than three months), been responsible for 92,000 marriages, and is behind, so to speak, a steadily rising baby count. At its head office in London's starstruck Leicester Square, every spare space of plaster is filled with photos of newly-weds who met on the site, or snaps of newborns in the Match-linked arms of their happy parents.
The mainstreaming of Match.com (market leader in 40 countries) is a far cry from its launch by Gary Kremen in Silicon Valley in 1995, when internet dating was still a taboo. In this Valentines' month, though, one in three will log on to the internet to find love. Last month alone, 5.6 million members browsed Match.com (up 4%). However pleased this MD is to receive more good-news letters, he is acutely aware that one good explanation for his business's growth is that the work/life balance cultivated by HRDs in other UK businesses can only be getting worse.
"We know there has to be a link between Britain's long-hours culture and registration with us," Gregory says. "With job security as it is, people are telling us they have been forced to prioritise their careers; to work harder, longer and more often, with no time left for love."
In fact, according to research released this month on behalf of Match.com by the Future Foundation, 54% of 70,000 respondents say they don't devote enough attention to their work and love lives equally, while 42% of women admit to prioritising their career over their personal life. Such pressure is leading to disenchantment. "What I am sensing," Gregory adds, "is a break in trust in corporate life. Employees are saying, 'why should we work all hours?' They are re-evaluating what's important."
With Britain in a 'jobless recovery', Gregory believes employers' lack of sympathy for personal lives of over-stretched staff is an HR problem waiting to be exposed, either in sickness absence or stress. And given Match.com has no HRD (Gregory shares HR with his FD), he is adamant that time for love - yes, love - must be allowed among his 50-strong staff. "As long as our deliverables are met, staff should have the flexibility to conduct their lives as they see fit. I don't know why more companies don't do the same."
Gregory's liberal approach is seen in the 'Match Manifesto' given to every new joiner to Match (opening line: 'We believe love is the most important thing in the world'). And, according to Gregory, the one thing he definitely does learn about his staff is their personal lives. "I know everyone's relationship status," he proclaims. "Why not? We're one big family here. I call my staff 'cupids'; they make love happen for other people, so why shouldn't we be open about our own love lives?"
When asked why other companies separate staff who form intimate relationships within teams, Gregory is visibly aghast. "Really? I have no problem with my staff going out with each other," he says eventually. "Those who do move people about don't trust their staff. I just can't see the fuss. We live in the 21st century. Match.com is about relationship-forming, so why would I want to control it internally?"
At last count, all of Gregory's staff were in couples and, he adds, they perform better at work for it. His own head of customer service met his girlfriend on Dating Direct, the sister site that integrated with Match.com last year - although Gregory adds staff don't get first dibs on contacting new members who join up.
Gregory also follows an enlightened employment policy: "I always hire someone I think could be better than me," he says boldly. "I'm much happier growing people who have a potential to grow, rather than hiring ready-made people.
Our product head came out of our customer service team; our head of marketing from the press team. My view is that everyone can affect the way we work here."
The inspiration for this philosophy comes from one of his great business heroes, David Ogilvy, founder of the Ogilvy & Mather advertising agency. "Ogilvy famously said, 'if you hire someone that is better than you, you will then be in a company of giants'," says Gregory. "I have always tried to copy this. I want to push people to move up to the next step. It's a difficult-sounding principle, but it works."
Those who suspect Gregory is more HR/people-focused than most MDs will not be surprised to hear he has previously worked in the HR community. Immediately before joining Match.com in 2009, Gregory was marketing director at online CV-matching company, iProfile.
Unsurprisingly, since Gregory has been at Match.com, it has been using the same sort of profiling technology that Gregory deployed to match candidates to jobs at iProfile. He calls it 'Match Insights' - a tool used by more than 135,000 to help them find a potential partner.
Match.com also runs 'Match Affinity' - a personality/psychometric questionnaire, taking many elements from the recruitment space to match people according to deeper levels of compatibility. But while Gregory is amused by the similarity, he attempts to downplay it: "Matching people to jobs was mechanical," he dismisses, "it was not emotive. The link starts and finishes with a match, sure, but matching people to people is far more emotional."
This view might disappoint HRDs who believe that staying with a firm during both good times and bad is just as emotive a decision as picking a life partner. It is simply, one suspects, that Gregory feels a much greater sense of emotion through people relationships.
But this doesn't mean he wants to iron out feelings of emotional belonging at work, once people are there. "Match.com has just started working with a social and talent development company called Arrival Education, which aims to help disruptive children find a sense of purpose for themselves through employment," he says. "I got the whole company to sit through a presentation by the founder, Daniel Snell. In 2003, his friend's 17-year-old brother was stabbed to death and Snell was moved to do something about it. Our staff are mentoring three youngsters through the scheme and we'll be running sessions for other teenagers about how they can start internet businesses."
It's a lofty, long-term aim for a company that still sees massive growth potential in online dating (it predicts 6%-8% this year across Europe) - and which will always have an element of its growth associated with the lack of progress by UK plc in allowing workers the time to have both a professional life and a personal one.
"My vision is that more people will find love through our site than any other avenues," he says, even loftier still. That doesn't mean he wants to see stressed-out workers in the office all day long, with no time for anything else but to search online. It is more that he feels the web will just become the normal way to find love. Arguably, the more successful he and his 'cupids' are, the more other businesses could find themselves with happier, more contented staff. By 2020, the Office of National Statistics estimates there could be more single people in Britain than married people. That's one hell of a job still to be getting on with.
